Ennedi Massif

Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 as a mixed natural and cultural property, the Ennedi Massif holds thousands of rock paintings and engravings up to 7,000 years old, recording a time when the Sahara — today one of the most arid deserts on the planet — was a green, wet savannah inhabited by hippos, elephants and giraffes, as the artwork left by the peoples who then lived here makes plain. Remarkably, some deep gorges in the massif still hold small relict populations of Nile crocodile, isolated survivors from that wetter age.