Timimoun

Timimoun is called the red oasis for the colour of its buildings: mud brick coloured by local earth, built with pointed crenellations, blind arcading and heavy square forms that owe more to the Sahel than to the Mediterranean. It sits on an escarpment above a sebkha, a dry salt lake that turns white and pink in low light, with a large palm grove below fed by foggaras, underground channels dug by hand for kilometres to bring water from the water table by gravity, divided among users by measuring combs at the outlet. Around the town are ksour, some abandoned, and the Gourara region is the home of the ahellil, a sung poetry recognised by UNESCO.

What you actually see

• Red mud-brick architecture - crenellations and blind arcading in local earth.
• The sebkha below the escarpment - the salt flat changing colour with the light.
• Foggara water channels - underground galleries feeding the palm grove.
• Ksour around the oasis - the older settlements, some abandoned.

When to go

November to March; summer here is dangerously hot. Two to three days. Flights from Algiers are the practical route; road journeys are very long.

Honest expectations

It is remote, and flights are infrequent and subject to cancellation. Accommodation is limited. Travel beyond the town needs guides and authorisations. Foggaras are failing in places as the water table drops. Summer visits are not advisable.

Nearby

Adrar is south; the Grand Erg Occidental lies north.