Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta sahara. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta sahara. Mostrar todas las entradas

miércoles, 26 de octubre de 2011

The saharan biome

The Sahara desert presents a variety of different elements within its biome:


Ergs (the erg of  Tenere)


Gueltas (guelta Archei in Ennedi)


Valleys (a valley in Air mountains)


Rock formations (a basaltic rock tower in Ahaggar)


Plateaus and mesas (surroundings of Fada oasis, in Ennedi)


Oueds (an oued covered with vegetation in Tassili-n-Ajjer)


Canyons (a canyon in Tassili-n-Ajjer)


Volcanic calderas (Trou au Natron in Tibesti)


lunes, 11 de julio de 2011

Sahara Women Portraits

The main ethnicity living in the Sahara desert are the berber people, sub-saharian black people and arabians. These races are frequently mixed, being an important reason for this the slavery commerce in the past times, which brought many sub-saharian black skinned people to the northern lands, to serve the white skinned berbers and arabs. In the touareg culture, which did use in the past of slaves for their commerce and for their own use, white skinned people ruled over the dark skinned ones. Slaves were sold to magrebi arabs, and enslaved by touareg themselves to do the agricultural tasks, labor that touareg culture despised in favor of commercial tasks. Also it is said that ancestral hostility between touareg and toubou people come from the touareg raids upon toubou women, to sell them to magreb harems.

Berber people is originary from the north western african coast; they were displaced to southern - and desertic - lands when the arabian people invaded northern Africa. Berbers occupy now the western part of the Sahara; they live in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Lybia, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Touareg is one of many berber groups, the most known one. They live mainly in Niger, and also in south Algeria, southwest Lybia, and Mali.

In the eastern Sahara, berbers are replaced by arabian people; bedouins are the most known arab group in the Sahara. They are nomads like the rest of saharian inhabitants, and they expanded from their original lands in Arabia to Africa. In the Sahara they live in Egypt and Sinai, and some probably move in Lybia and Chad.

Toubou people is of unknown origin; Yemen and northern Sudan are hypothetical sources for this people. They live now mainly in northern Chad, and also in easthern Niger - western Niger is touareg territory -. Toubou are mainly a race of black people, but having caucasian traits; some of them are quite white skinned.


Bedouin
Bedouin
Bedouin
Berber from Ghadames (Lybia)
Touareg
Touareg from Niger
Touareg from Tamanrasset (Algeria)
Touareg
Touareg from Agadez (Niger)
Toubou
Toubou from Chirfa (Niger)
Toubou from Bardai (Chad)

lunes, 27 de junio de 2011

Life In The Sahara 1953

A brief documentary showing how it was life in the Sahara desert in the fifties decade. Even there, times have changed a lot since then...
As a note, I can say that the United States overlay that is shown at the beginnig of the film as a comparison with the Sahara desert size, is too small. However, it is still true that the Sahara is closely so large as the United States territory.



domingo, 19 de junio de 2011

The Ennedi Plateau

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.






viernes, 17 de junio de 2011

Sahara stamps

Egyptian Bedouin
Touareg woman from the Hoggar (Algeria)
Ghadames (Lybia)
Ksar de Kenadsa (Algeria)
Tombouctou (Mali)
Tombouctou (Mali)
The Sahara desert (stamp from Kyrgyzstan)
Western Sahara (Former spanish colony)
Western Sahara (Former spanish colony)
Fight against desertification (Morocco)
Tenere Tree (Niger)
Dromadaire (Algeria)
Dromadaire (Western Sahara)
Gazelle (Tunisia)
Iharen peak at Ahaggar National Park (Algeria)
Exanassay / Tassili - Tadrart (Algeria)
Monumental rock at Tassili National Park
In Tehaq / Tassili - Tadrart (Algeria)
Rock arch at Tassili National Park
Rock formation at Tassili National Park (Algeria)
Dunes at Air - Tenere National Park (Niger)
Oasis lake (Lybia)
Volcanic formations (Lybia)


jueves, 16 de junio de 2011

Assekrem

The Assekrem peak, located in the Ahaggar mountains, is a key point in the Sahara travel routes. This peak is the second tallest elevation in the algerian territory.

This painting was made with oils on a wooden table, whith a four colors palette (black, white, natural siena and sky blue). I wanted to include in the composition a touaregue woman that I found in a photo, and therefore I had to create a fictional ground and stone wall to allocate her in the scene.