Sabha, Meeting and departure point for current expeditions by the desert, It is blurred in our rearview mirror but we soon reach the nearby, Light and unknown Murzuk. In the past it was the capital of Fezzan and its compact strong Ottoman, Raised in the distant fourteenth century, It was another enclave of vital importance in the history of Sahara and the key to open the door of a mutant world of sands and rocks. It was erected in this oasis as an essential settlement to strengthen the control of the area and as a starting point of the British explorations in the nineteenth century that started in search of Lake Chad and the legendary Tumbuktú. Explorers like Denham, Clapperton or Oudney reached Murzuq with the intention of obtaining the protection of the Sultan and provisioning of food to continue their expeditions to the south.
South, far south, reach Ghat. His lavish oasis city houses a crouching on the threshold of the desert magnanimous. Its labyrinthine medina retains the flavor of ancient times, When it was an important stage of the Transaharan Caravaneras Routes that crossed the desert from the West African kingdoms to the Mediterranean coasts.
His faces are covered by the characteristic veil, through which it is only possible to distinguish your disturbing and penetrating look.
When we approach the market it is not difficult to recognize Ghat's emblematic figure: The Tuareg. This population in the middle of Arenas Arenas opens the door to the domains of the desert lords. His faces are covered by the characteristic veil, el «tagelmoust», through which it is only possible to distinguish your disturbing and penetrating look. Sudoration fades your habits and gives your skin a bluish tone.
We look up and a strong Italian is found in the highest hill, It still seems to ensure the capital of Libya. When we position ourselves at the top of their towers we see the imposing walls of the Akkakus mountains and the great dunes stalking around them. Nature, Beautiful and wild, Challenge the traveler, Clearly indicating the difficulties we will meet when we start tracking the treasures that house their stone domains.
The Akkakus are rocky rocky rugged ones that rise above dunes that modify their colors. As we move between them we are going from a golden gold. Treasures sculpted by nature that shelter other transcendent treasures created by man from prehistory.
In the shelter of the rock walls, the images of life that happened throughout the last ones are preserved… 10,000 years!
In the shelter of the rock walls, the images of life that happened throughout the last ones are preserved… 10,000 years! The Akkakus frescoes are a rich book of images attesting a way of life several times ancient and recreating the environment of a region that the evolution of the climate has transformed into a mineral world. Thanks to these past artists we have been able to move to the origins of our humanity and we can observe the shepherds to live again, Hunters moving in a frame reproduced with an amazing naturalism, Like the spontaneity with which women are represented by washing their hair or preparing the food. Strangely personified beings, Round -headed men and stylized bodies, that the most daring theories relate to extraterrestrial beings. The inhabitants of the garamante empire also appear moving in horses, those Romans who reached these remote but traveled lands. We can see how the Tuaregs began to use a type of primitive writing allowing them to leave messages on the rocks when they crossed with their caravans the vast desert.
It is discovered through the numerous paintings that cover the Rocks of the Akkakus the transmutation that occurred in these places with the evolution of the climate changing the fauna, The flora, the customs and people who inhabited her. As hippos, Rhinos, Elephants were giving way to the most typical animals of a place that began to desert: ostriches, wisdom, cattle… Until finally the camel representations, When the desert had already devoured any vestige of vegetation ... an inexhaustible extension of rock art.
We are attending a universe of shapes and colors composed of columns that seem designed by Gaudí
We are attending a universe of shapes and colors composed of spectacular arches, Dinosaur -shaped rocks, sharp needles, columns that seem designed by Gaudí, Slee fingers linked to a valuable iconography that beautifies its rocky walls and that make Akkakus an outdoor art gallery.
Our only human contacts are produced with isolated Tuaregs settlements, of itinerant nomadic life, who disperse by this unique Saharan atmosphere. In small zeribas and shelter of the rocks place their simple and limited belongings, Whole families with numerous offspring receive us shy and surprised at our arrival. As always, The head of the family is the one that establishes the most contact with us while the rest of the family does not stop watching us… like us. It is the meeting of two very different nomadic worlds and that wandering through the desert are surprisingly.
The camping nights are happening next to a good firewood fire. These relaxing moments allow us to forget the punctures, The laborious effort to get out of sand traps, The fatigueous eventualities that emerged along the way and enjoy under an intense starry sky of a warm glass of tea next to the burning embers of our comforting nightfire.
