🇩🇿TASSILI N'AJJER

 25°48'49.06"N 8°08'02.05"E

(from UNESCO)

    Tassili N'Ajjer is a 72000 square kilometers big natural palace made completely out of sandstone. It's geologically stunning, yet the biggest highlight are the multiple well-preserved cave rock carvings with at least 12000 years of antiquity.  This site proofs that there were human populations in the Sahara already in the beginnings, even illustrating the form of life they kept.

   Tassili N'Ajjer's literal translation is "plateau of rivers", even though it is actually a zone in the middle of the desert where the nearest equivalent to a river are a couple of wadis. The reason why it is called that way is that, in Prehistorical times, it was a flourishing oasis with approximately hundreds of people living there during a span time of many thousand years. The only remains are the characteristic sandstone rocks, pillars, archways and other resistant structures made of that material. And likewise do remain the cave rock paintings, the star of today's episode.

Sandstone pillars at Tassili N'Ajjer (from The Ancient Collection)

   15000 is the approximate number of drawings that the walls of Tassili N'Ajjer exhibit, which, as you could figure out, is a lot for the years that have passed. The most usual topics are dances, rituals and hunt and sex scenes. All at a same, it shows examples of  different Prehistoric art periods such as the Round Head Period or the Pastoral Period.

The "Martian God" (from The Ancient Collection)

   The caves work also as a big seek-and-find game, as you can notice some bizarre details. One of them is the "Martian God", a figure called so because of its big size, horns and many odd-looking features. Other curious figures are the so-called aliens (silhouettes who seem to wear sophisticated helmets and have alien heads) which could proof past human contact with extraterrestrials, according to ufologists, but that most probably represent something fictitious.

   Leaving history apart, the caves are nowadays a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site in southeastern Algeria, that impresses both geologists and archaeologists (and ufologists). The usual visitors are regular groups of tourist camel caravans or local hikers, and it is actually a pretty safe and relatively uncrowded destination.

Sources: UNESCO, GANP, The Ancient Connection