Dirkou

Dirkou is one of the oasis towns strung along the Kaouar escarpment, north of Bilma in the central Sahara. Palms and wells interrupt the desert at intervals along this route, which linked the Lake Chad basin with Fezzan. Salt and other minerals from the oases were traded southward, while caravans also travelled north across the desert.

Dirkou's rulers were associated with the Tebu title of tomagra, although the local ruling group claimed a connection with Bornu. Dirkou was at times regarded as a leading centre of Kawar. In the sixteenth century Dirkou and other Kawar towns sent horses to the mai of Bornu. Later, Tuareg forces displaced Bornu's authority in the oases and directed much of the salt trade westward through Aïr.