Grand Erg Occidental

The Grand Erg Occidental is one of the two great sand seas of Algeria, covering some eighty thousand square kilometres of the western Sahara in long parallel dune ridges built by wind over tens of thousands of years, with almost no vegetation and no permanent water inside it. What makes it approachable is its edges: a string of oases, ksour and palm groves runs along the northern and western margins at Timimoun, Beni Abbes and Taghit, where red mud-brick towns sit between the palms and the sand. Trips into the erg are made with guides and four-wheel-drive vehicles, camping among the dunes, and the sunrise and sunset colour on the sand is the reason people go.

What you actually see

• Parallel dune ridges - the wind-built structure of the sand sea.
• Oases along the edges - Timimoun, Beni Abbes and Taghit in the palms.
• Camping among the dunes - the standard way the erg is visited.
• Colour at dawn and dusk - the light the sand is known for.

When to go

November to March; from May to September daytime heat is dangerous. Two to four days for a desert trip. Nights are cold in winter. Travel here requires a licensed guide and arrangements made in advance.

Honest expectations

Independent travel into the erg is not permitted and not safe; guides and authorisations are required. Vehicles get stuck and breakdowns are serious. There is no water, shade or phone signal. Heat from late spring to early autumn is genuinely life-threatening.

Nearby

Timimoun is on the northern edge; Taghit lies west.