Grand Erg Oriental - Routes, Cities, Oil Industry

Routes, Cities, Oil Industry

The Grand Erg Oriental is accessible overland by an Algerian road, which goes south from Constantine. It passes through the Aurès mountains, then salt lakes by the city of Biskra. Next the road skirts the western edge of the erg. After about 500 km. in all, it reaches the ancient oasis of Ourgla . Since late antiquity Wargla was a stop for the Saharan trade, being situated along a caravan route of several thousand kilometers, stretching from the Mediterranean to the Sahel. In the process such caravans crossed the great desert (Ar: aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-kubra). Wargla was the capital of late medieval M'zab, an Ibadi political entity descended from the earlier Rustamid polity. Wargla is today a mid-sized modern city (pop: 129,000) and provincial capital, with a focus on the oil industry.

The above north-south Algerian road from Constantine passes through other oases. North of Wargla lies Touggourt (pop: 153,000), where date palms are grown commercially. Touggourt was formerly a medieval Sultanate and a northern oasis on a Trans-Saharan trade route.

South of Wargla on this road, lies Hassi Messaoud, which is located within the Grand Erg. Until recently Hassi Messaoud was a small Saharan village, but has grown substantially on account of the local discovery of oil in 1956. An oil refinery has since been built, and the city (current population estimated at 60,000) is now served by an international airport.

A desert road going east from Hassi Messaoud continues through the Grand Erg, passing by a well named Bordj Sif Fatima, on its way to the small but ancient settlement of Ghadames at the Libyan frontier. Another and better road from Hassi Messaoud goes south, also crossing the grand erg where it passes a well named Hassi Tartrat, before reaching the erg's far side. Further south lies the Ahaggar mountains.

The cities of Wargla and Touggourt lie outside the western limits of the erg. Nearby, within its accepted boundaries, the Grand Erg is described as being "practically free from dunes" evidently due to strong, persistent winds.

Petroleum and other hydrocarbons have been extracted in Algeria, from areas in and surrounding the Grand Erg Oriental. In addition to oil in Wargla and Hassi Messaoud (see above), other Algerian hydrocarbon sites include In Salah, a city (pop: 44,000) to the erg's southwest, yielding natural gas, and also El Adeb Larache, Edjelé, Tingentourine, and Zarzaïtine (south of the erg, close to Libya). One of Algeria's largest field of natural gas is near Ghardaïa, west of Touggourt. Gas pipelines have been constructed north to the Mediterranean port of Bourgie, and later northeast through Tunisia.

Along the north rim of the Grand Erg Oriental, both the physical ecology and the human culture surviving there since ancient times are said to form a continuum. From Biskra (pop: 200,000) in Algeria by the Aurès mountains, this region extends east to the Djerid of Tunisia. It is a low-lying area of chotts (salt pans), and occasional oases, where exists intensive cultivation of date palms in the tens of thousands. Between Biskra and the Djerid, but a little to the south, lies El Oued, a mid-sized Algerian city (pop: 139,000), graced with domes and arches of Saharan architecture. Also an oasis, it's located about 100 km. east of Touggourt and by the northern frontier of the erg. The thirst of El Oued is quenched by a subterranean river.

In Tunisia south of the sea port of Gabès, in the vicinity of the Grand Erg's northeast edge, there are a number of Berber villages, among them Tataouine. From here a bleak Tunisian paved road leads south along the Libyan border, by sand dunes of the Grand Erg's eastern limits, terminating at Borj El Khadra, an oasis, near Ghadames.

The ancient oasis town of Ghadames (pop: 7,000) in Libya is located by where the frontiers of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya meet. The city is situated directly adjacent to the erg's southeast edge. Tuareg Berbers (a people sourced in the central Sahara) compose the majority in Ghadames. This oasis was known by ancient Egypt, and later by Carthage and by Rome, as Cydamus. A Libyan road from Tarabulus on the Mediterranean coast now leads to present-day Ghadames. The historic Saharan architecture found in its Old Town has received international recognition.

In Algeria Oued Irara Airport at Hassi Messaoud (located in the erg) serves a few international flights and also national flights. Ouargla Airport (OGX) has limited international and national flights. North of the erg Guemar Airport, 20 km. from El Oued, has only national flights. In Libya Ghadames Airport schedules only national flights. In Tunisia Djerba–Zarzis Airport (DJE/DTTJ) serves international and national flights, it being over 100 km. north of the edge of the Grand Erg Oriental.