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FEATURES
For westerners, the Sahara is a
forbidding place where explorers and adventurers
test their mettle. But the desert is full of surprises. George
Tombs travels from Nouakchott to Timbuktu, visiting
Moors and their former slaves, Berbers, Dogon, Arabs and Tuaregs.
He encounters scientists, nomads, holy men, and a team restoring
the ancient manuscripts of Timbuktu.
George Tombs:
"The Sahara is as large as Canada - about
10 million square kilometres. About one fifth
of the Sahara consists of sand - dunes large and
small, edging along the surface, filling valleys,
burying trees and villages, creeping up hillsides.
The other four-fifths of the Sahara is a jumble
of mountain ranges, buttes and canyons, volcanic
plugs, sharp-edged gravel and rounded pebbles
of every imaginable colour, from straw-blond to
egg blue to mauve to jet-black. Water fashioned
all these rocks into their current forms, but
most water has long since vanished deep underground.
There is something seductive about the Sahara
- a forbidding, unknown, dangerous place, the
ultimate test of endurance and courage. For me,
the most interesting feature of the desert is
its people. The Moors of Mauritania
and their former slaves, the Harattin;
and further east, in northern Mali, the Berbers,
Dogon, Songhai and Tuaregs.
The Sahara, stretching from Mauritania
northwards to Morocco, and eastwards across Algeria
all the way to Egypt, is a world of stark contrasts:
the desert presents extremes of hot and cold;
this harsh environment brings you down to the
barest essentials of life and survival. In my
tent one evening, I spend an hour watching a black
beetle scuttle around a candle I have driven into
the sand floor. It wanders off, comes back again,
thinks things over, criss-crosses the sand of
my tent, which has formed miniature dunes. I can't
help feeling how small we are, lost in the expanse
of the desert. The feeling of smallness is something
many Saharan travellers would recognize." |
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IMAGE GALLERIES
To view photographs from George Tombs' trip
to the Sahara click on the image galleries above.
RESOURCES
Bibliography
Barth, Henry. Various editions
of Barth's 5-volume description of his north and central African
travels can be found in a good library or via the Internet,
where they range in price from the hundreds to the thousands
of dollars. A "cheap" 2-volume edition was published
in 1890; the second volume (the rarer of the two) recounting
his adventures in Sokoto and Timbuktu is hard to find.
Bovill, E. W. & Robin Hallet. The
Golden Trade of the Moors. Princeton, 1958.
Farias, Paulo Fernando de Moraes. Arabic Medieval
Inscriptions from the Republic of Mali. Oxford, 2004.
The "last word" on medieval manuscripts of Timbuktu
written in Arabic - the universal language of Islam.
Hare, John. Lost Camels of Tartary: a
Quest into Forbidden China. London, 1998. Explains how
he helped set up the world's largest nature preserve - in
a remote desert of China.
-----. Shadows across the Sahara. London, 2003. A
fascinating travel book of a trans-Saharan trek, out of space
and time.
Hugon, Anne. Vers Tombouctou. Paris,
1994. Second of two volumes devoted to African exploration;
the first has been published in English by Abrams.
Huguot, Henri J & Maximilien. Sahara:
art rupestre. Lovely black and white picture book devoted
to cave and rock overhang paintings, some of them in Mauritania.
Paris, 1999. Currently remaindered in Quebec.
Hunwick, J.O. (ed. and trans). Timbuktu
and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's "Tarikh al-Sudan"
Down to 1613, and Other Contemporary Documents. Boston,
2003.
ibn Arabi. Perfect Harmony: Sufi Poetry.
Various editions.
Keenan, Jeremy. Sahara Man. London,
2001. A personal account of his return to the Algerian Sahara
after a long absence.
-----. The Tuareg: People of Ahaggar. London, 1977.
A classic.
Norwich, John Julius. Sahara.
London and New York, 1968. A well-written account of Saharan
travels by a fine raconteur and popular historian.
Novaresio, Paolo & Gianni Guadelupi. Sahara:
An Immense Ocean of Sand. San Diego, 2003. Don't let
the coffee-table look of this book fool you. It is beautifully
written, and accurate. Particularly strong on francophone
Saharan countries.
Ould El Moctar, Ahmed. Formation
et migration de dunes. Nouakchott, 2001. Technical book
on the physics of sand.
Pardo, Anne W. "The Songhay Empire Under
Sonni Ali and Askia Muhammad: A Study in Comparisons and Contrasts."
In Aspects of West African Islam, edited by Daniel
F. McCall. Boston, 1971.
du Puigaudeau, Odette. Barefoot through Mauretania.
London, 1937. An enchanting book by an adventurous - and fearless
- woman explorer of the 1930s.
Qur'an. Many translations are available.
A new translation by M.A.S. Abdel has been
published by Oxford University Press.
Saad, Elias. A Social History of Timbuktu:
The Role of Muslim Scholars and Notables, 1400-1900.
New York, 1983.
Swift, Jeremy. The Sahara. Alexandria, Virginia,
1975. Somewhat dated and easy to find general introduction
to the Sahara.
Related Websites
Foreign
Affairs Canada - Travel advisories for Canadian citizens
(important if you are preparing a visit to the Sahara).
Mauritanian
Embassy in Ottawa
Malian
Embassy in Ottawa
GEsource
World Guide - Desertification in Mauritania.
Ann
McDougall's home page at University of Alberta
Helen
Thayer's explorations
John
Hare's expeditions
Wild
Camel Protection Foundation
Jeremy
Keenan's Saharan studies programme in the United Kingdom
Ahmed Baba Institute of Timbuktu, IHERI-AB,
Box 14 Tombouctou
République du Mali, Tel: (223) 292 1081 - where thousands
of medieval and early modern manuscripts are being conserved;
also see the Le
Monde Diplomatique web site for information.
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does not endorse the content of external web sites. Links
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