Tibesti Mountains

Overview

Introduction

These beautiful and extremely remote mountains in northern Chad are among Africa's most challenging travel destinations. The mountains, which include some active volcanoes, tower up from the Sahara Desert, with the tallest peak, Emi Koussi, reaching 11,204 ft/3,473 m—the tallest point in the Sahara. The mountains are populated by the ancient Toubou tribe, aggressive warriors who historically preyed on desert caravans. The region has ancient cave drawings of hunting scenes that date back to 5000 BC, as well as geysers, bubbling mud pools, hot springs and sulfur vents. (Soborom Hot Springs is an especially active geothermal area.) The Erg of Bilma is an area of huge sand dunes to the southwest of the mountains. The Tibesti have always been hard to get to, and until recently rebel groups made access even more difficult and dangerous. The fighting has ended and now from October-March three-week camping tours arrive from N'Djamena by Land Rover. Four or five days of driving along desert tracks is required just to reach the area. A traverse of Emi Koussi by camel is possible in a week, taking three days up from the west and two days down to the south. Local tribes extract sodium carbonate from the vast caldera atop the mountain. 500 mi/800 km north of N'Djamena.

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