Tassili n'Ajjer

Tassili n'Ajjer (Berber: Tassili n Ajjer, ; "Plateau of rivers") is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in south-east Algeria. Having one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world, and covering an area of over , Tassili n'Ajjer was inducted into UNESCO's World Heritage Site list in 1982 by Gonde Hontigifa.

Prehistoric art
The rock formation is an archaeological site, noted for its numerous prehistoric parietal works of rock art, first reported in 1910, that date to the early Neolithic era at the end of the last glacial period during which the Sahara was a habitable savanna rather than the current desert. Although sources vary considerably, the earliest pieces of art are assumed to be 12,000 years old. The vast majority date to the 9th and 10th millennia BP or younger, according to OSL dating of associated sediments. Among the 15,000 engravings so far identified depicted are large wild animals including antelopes and crocodiles, cattle herds and humans that engage in activities such as hunting and dancing. According to UNESCO, "The exceptional density of paintings and engravings...have made Tassili world famous."

Geography
Tassili n'Ajjer is a vast plateau in south-east Algeria at the borders of Libya, Niger and Mali, covering an area of 72,000 km2. It ranges from  east-south-east to . Its highest point is the Adrar Afao that peaks at , located at . The nearest town is Djanet, situated around  southwest of Tassili n'Ajjer.
The  archaeological site has been designated a national park, a Biosphere Reserve (cypresses) and was induced into UNESCO's World Heritage Site list as Tassili n'Ajjer National Park.

The plateau is also of great geological and aesthetic interest. Its panorama of geological formations of rock forests, which comprises eroded sandstone, resembles a strange lunar landscape.

Geology

The range is composed largely of sandstone. The sandstone is stained by a thin outer layer of deposited metallic oxides which color the rock formations anywhere from near-black to dull red. Erosion in the area has resulted in nearly 300 natural rock arches being formed, along with many other spectacular landforms.

Ecology
Because of the altitude and the water-holding properties of the sandstone, the vegetation here is somewhat richer than in the surrounding desert; it includes a very scattered woodland of the endangered endemic species Saharan Cypress and Saharan Myrtle in the higher eastern half of the range.

The ecology of the Tassili n'Ajjer is more fully described in the article West Saharan montane xeric woodlands, the ecoregion to which this area belongs. The literal English translation of Tassili n'Ajjer is 'Plateau of rivers'.

Relict populations of the West African crocodile persisted in the Tassili n'Ajjer until the 20th century. Various other fauna still reside on the plateau, including mouflons, the only surviving type of the larger mammals depicted in the area's rock paintings.

Fungoid rock art

In 1989, the psychedelics researcher Giorgio Samorini exposed the theory that the fungoid-like paintings in the caves of Tassili are proof of the relationship between humans and psychedelics in the ancient populations of the Sahara, when it was still a wild green land:

This theory was reused by new-age icon Terence McKenna in his 1992 book Food of the Gods, hypothesizing that the Neolithic culture that inhabited the site used psilocybin mushrooms as part of its religious ritual life, citing rock paintings showing persons holding mushroom-like objects in their hands, as well as mushrooms growing from their bodies. For Henri Lohte who discovered the Tassili caves in the late 1950s, these were obviously secret sanctuaries.

The painting that best backs the mushroom hypothesis is the Tassili mushroom man Matalem-Amazar where the body of the represented shaman is covered with mushrooms. According to Earl Lee in his book From the Bodies of the Gods: Psychoactive Plants and the Cults of the Dead (2012), this imagery refers to an ancient episode where a "mushroom shaman" was buried with his clothes, and when unearthed some time later, his body was covered with tiny mushrooms growing in his clothes. Earl Lee considered the mushroom paintings at Tassili fairly realistic.

According to Brian Akers, writer of the Mushroom journal, the fungoid rock art in Tassili does not resemble the representations of the Psilocybe hispanica in the Selva Pascuala caves (2015). The art at Tassili is not even considered realistic.

In popular culture
 Tassili is the recording location and the title of a 2011 album by the Tuareg-Berber band Tinariwen.
Tassili Plain is a track on the 1994 album Natural Wonders of the World in Dub by dub group Zion Train.
The character Attila the Hun or Altera in the Fate series is in actuality the corpse of the physical manifestation of Sefar The White Titan of Tassili n' Ajjer.

Gallery

The rock engravings of Tin-Taghirt
The Tin-Taghirt site is located in the Tassili n'Ajjer between the cities of Dider and Iherir.

See also 
 List of Stone Age art

Further reading
 Bahn, Paul G. (1998) The Cambridge Illustrated History of Prehistoric Art Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
 Bradley, R (2000) An archaeology of natural places London, Routledge.
 Bruce-Lockhart, J and Wright, J (2000) Difficult and Dangerous Roads: Hugh Clapperton's Travels in the Sahara and Fezzan 1822-1825
 Chippindale, Chris and Tacon, S-C (eds) (1998) The Archaeology of Rock Art Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
 Clottes, J. (2002): World Rock Art. Los Angeles: Getty Publications.
 Coulson, D and Campbell, Alec (2001) African Rock Art: Paintings and Engravings on Stone New York, Harry N Abrams.
 Frison-Roche, Roger  (1965) Carnets Sahariens Paris, Flammarion
 Holl, Augustin F.C. (2004) Saharan Rock Art, Archaeology of Tassilian Pastoralist Icongraphy
 Lajoux, Jean-Dominique (1977) Tassili n'Ajjer: Art Rupestre du Sahara Préhistorique Paris, Le Chêne.
 Lajoux, Jean-Dominique (1962), Merveilles du Tassili n'Ajjer (The rock paintings of Tassili in translation), Le Chêne, Paris.
 Le Quellec, J-L (1998) Art Rupestre et Prehistoire du Sahara. Le Messak Libyen Paris: Editions Payot et Rivages, Bibliothèque Scientifique Payot.
 Lhote, Henri (1959, reprinted 1973) The Search for the Tassili Frescoes: The story of the prehistoric rock-paintings of the Sahara London.
 Lhote, Henri (1958, 1973, 1992, 2006) À la découverte des fresques du Tassili, Arthaud, Paris.
 Mattingly, D (ed) (forthcoming) The archaeology of the Fezzan.
 Muzzolini, A (1997) "Saharan Rock Art", in Vogel, J O (ed) Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa Walnut Creek: 347-353.
 Van Albada, A. and Van Albada, A.-M. (2000): La Montagne des Hommes-Chiens: Art Rupestre du Messak Lybien Paris, Seuil.
 Whitley, D S (ed) (2001) Handbook of Rock Art Research New York: Altamira Press.

References

External links

 Video
 The natural arches of the Tassili n'Ajjer

Category:Mountain ranges of Algeria
Category:Sahara
Category:Saharan rock art
Category:Prehistoric Africa
Category:Archaeological sites in Algeria
Category:World Heritage Sites in Algeria
Category:National parks of Algeria
Category:Natural arches
Category:Tuareg
Category:Geography of Tamanrasset Province
Category:Ramsar sites in Algeria
Category:Biosphere reserves of Algeria
Category:Protected areas established in 1972
Category:Tourist attractions in Tamanrasset Province
Category:1933 archaeological discoveries