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.

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)

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.

Toubou blade weapons

These daggers and swords are made by the teda racial group of the southern Sahara, also known as toubou. This people lives in the Tibesti mountains in northern Chad, and also in eastern Niger, southern Lybia and the southwest part of Egypt. 

They are said to be a very agressive people, behaviour which would include their women too. Also they are known to be ancestral enemies of the touareg people. These weapons were used in the past times by both men and women.

 Daggers for men and women have similar design, but women use smaller ones. The design of these daggers reminds somewhat of ancient roman daggers.

Swords have a straight blade with two edges, like the european swords. Similarly to daggers, the design of their handle reminds somewhat of the handle from roman swords. Below are shown an usual sword to hang on the waist, and a more inusual one, designed to be carried on the arm.

A weapon is not dangerous in itself; the danger lies in the mind of the possessor.
Do not let a weapon to reach the heart to kill.
Admire it only as an art object and let its history and culture to magnify and open your heart and mind.

A peak near Tamanrasset

This painting is made after a peak located in an oued which leads to the city of Tamanrasset. This huge rock tower is just one more in the Ahaggar mountains. These mountains are of volcanic origin; they form a wide area of rocky landscape in the central Sahara, an elevated area where sand is replaced by rocks and heat becomes more tolerable than outside the Ahaggar massif.

The painting was made with oils on a wooden table, using four colours (black, white, natural siena and sky blue).

Imzad player

Portrait of a touareg girl playing the instrument known as imzad. This instrument, played by women, is one of the ancestral traditions of this people from the Sahara desert.

The painting was made with oils in a wooden table, and painted with a six colors palette (black, white, natural siena, red, blue and green).

Woman of the Tenere

Portrait of a toubou woman from the village of Chirfa, near the abandoned town of Djado, in the north of Niger. These villages are located in the Tenere desert, a very desolated area, which shows a crude landscape of endless dunes of sand, scorched by the terrible heat that sun irradiates...

The painting was made with oils in a wooden table, from an original photo taken around 1960. I only used black, white and natural siena colors to paint it.