Aaukar

Aaukar is a dry basin on the southern fringe of the Sahara, filled with dunes and salt flats beneath the cliffs of the Tagant and adjoining plateaus. The escarpments overlooking it preserve traces of ancient settlements established when lakes and pasture were more extensive. In later centuries oasis towns on the desert’s edge, including Tichit and Walata, served caravans travelling between North Africa and the western Sudan. Their wells and palm groves offered points of shelter across the otherwise arid country.