The Ennedi plateau, a sandstone bulwark in the middle of the Sahara, is located in the north-east area of Chad. It is assailed by the sands on all sides, that encroach the deep valleys of the Ennedi. Only the caravans manage to cross it and this makes the region an area subject to multiple influences. Travel to this area is difficult due to the country's poverty, lack of tourist facilities, political unrest, and highway banditry. The Ennedi contains many hundreds of natural arches, very few of which are documented. Also examples of petroglyphs or rock paintings have been found in the area.
At the present, nilotic crocodiles still can be found there, living in a few pools in river canyons in the area, for example the guelta d'Archei, and are threatened with extinction. They suffer dwarfism because of their isolation.
The nilotic crocodile, that lived throughout the Sahara at a time of more abundant rainfall, in the neolitic times, was also found in Algeria and Mauritania. The last lions in the Sahara also survived here, until they became extinct; the last lion was seen in 1940. Also, any surviving scimitar-horned oryx antelopes that might still live in the wild are likely to be found in the remote regions of the Ennedi plateau. It is also possible that the cryptid Ennedi tiger may still survive there.
