Click on image for list of participants

Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria 6th - 25th October, 2024 There is no published catalogue and accepted nomenclature of the Tassili sites, the provided site numbers are for convenience only, developed by myself utilising the topographical names used by the Lhote missions and others to be able to reference individual shelters. False colour images processed with DStretch, a freely available software developed by Jon Harman

The biggest concentraton of rock art on the Tassili n'Ajjer plateau is around the Tamrit - Sefar - Jabbaren region. This year we made a 15 day trek along the classical circuit, adding several previously unvisited remoter localities, and re-locating a number of Lhote's recorded sites which were "lost" in the elapsed years. After the trek we made a quick visit to the site of Ti Le'-Le' which we have finally managed to re-locate with Magdi in March 2024.

Day 0. – Algiers - Djanet

Our party arrived with various flights during the day or the day before, meeting at the domestic terminal to take the late evening flight to Djanet, arriving shortly after midnight. We spent the rest of the night at the Essendilene Voyages premises.

Day 1. – Djanet - Akba Tafilalet

While I made the shopping for supplies at the local market, the rest of our party made a quick visit to the engravings and paintings reported by Reygasse and Lhote near Azelouaz. We had a leisurely lunch at the Essendilene house, then mid-afternoon drove to the campsite at the foot of the Tafilalet pass to be able to start the climb early the following morning.

Day 2. – Akba Tafilalet

After a quick breakfast at first light, we started out on the zigzaging path ascending the first stap of the pass. There were heavy rains a few weeks earlier, this showed on the trail which was rather washed out and difficult in places. Fortunately it was mostly overcast the whloe mornng, by midday we reached the long level stretch between the second and third steps, as we stopped for lunch we got sprinkled by a rather vigorous but short rain shower.

Our aim was the area immediately adjacent to the donkey trail at the top of the pass, where Lt. Brenans copied a number of interesting paintings (published in Breuil & Lhote 1952), all of which were re-located by Bernard Fouilleux and Annie Mouchet over the course of several journeys in the 2000s. On most previous trips we took the more difficult but faster northern trail (unsuitable for donkeys) bypassing this area. In October 2023 we did come down by way of the donkey pass, but aside visiting two sites right by the trail we had no time to make any further exploration.

To be continued...