Terra Senzo Tempo
This is the journal of an expedition that, starting from the oasis town of Djanet, embarked on a 12-day journey guided by a member of the Algerian Tourism Club to discover the rock paintings of Tassili n'Ajjer in southeastern Algeria. These paintings date back to prehistoric times (10,000 to 5,000 years ago) and are located on an uninhabited rocky plateau whose highest point reaches 2,158 meters. Considered one of the largest and oldest "open-air rock art museums" in the world, the Tassili n'Ajjer boasts a particularly rugged landscape: the vast rocky plains, which sometimes give way to "forests" of monoliths, are riddled with akbas (holes in the escarpments accessible only on foot or by camel) and numerous faults and canyons. The Tassili n’Ajjer National Park was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982 and classified as a biosphere reserve in 1986.
Algeria - Spirit of the Desert
In March 2002, the Italian climbers of the Ragni di Lecco group embarked on an expedition across the Algerian Sahara. Mario Conti, Simone Pedeferri, Marco Vago and Massimo Bosetti, during a long journey, completed numerous ascents: Ihaghen, Adaouda, Tizouyag Sud, Dôme de l'Éléphant (Tesnou mountain range) and around thirty new boulders, including La Gazelle (7b) and Le Guépard (7c). But the main objective was the opening of a new climbing route on the face of Garet El Djenoun, in the Tefedest mountain range. The 400-meter route, named "Mariolino Fotonico", has 13 pitches (8 new, plus 3 spans with "Mosquitoes" and 2 with a "Voie des Espagnoles" from 1985), with a maximum difficulty of 8a/A1. This film has a special significance, as it is the first film of the rebirth of the Ragni group, after the 90s marked by tragedy, and at the same time the end of the tragic black decade in Algeria which raged between 1992 and 2002.
Along the Smugglers' Trail
Pierluca Rossi's Lungo La Pista Dei Contrabbandieri (1990) is an adventure documentary about a mountain bike crossing of the 700 km between the towns of Tamarasset and Djanet in the southern Algerian Sahara, from the Hoggar mountain range to the Tassili n'Ajjer. This crossing, supported by a 4x4 truck and a motorcycle, and never before undertaken by bicycle, emphasizes the rediscovered dimension of slowness, similar to the caravans of the Tuareg, in contrast to the unnatural speed of mechanized desert travel in the 1990s, which was considered the norm at the time due to the distorted image provided by the Paris-Dakar Rally and other similar events.
Desideri Di Sabbia
This documentary film by Pierluca Rossi recounts a journey to the southern Algerian Sahara, near Amguid, a small Tuareg village renowned for its unusual nearby crater. In the Tefedest massif, with its mythical summit, Garet el Djenoun, on the slopes of a vast sand dune rising to over 400 meters, one can practice an unusual sport: sandboarding, a new technique to try. Surprising speeds can be reached, and participants can familiarize themselves with the equipment of this new sport, perhaps paving the way for new practices.