Assekrem

Assekrem is a high plateau in the heart of the Hoggar Mountains of southern Algeria, rising to about 2,726 metres above the larger volcanic upland of the Atakor. From its edge the view opens across one of the strangest landscapes of the Sahara: a field of dark, isolated spires, domes and needles scattered over a plain of stone, each one standing apart like a chess piece. These are the cores of extinct volcanoes. The cones that once surrounded them have long since worn away, and what remains is the harder rock that plugged their throats, now left standing in the open desert. The highest summit of the range, and of Algeria, is Mount Tahat at about 2,908 metres.

The plateau owes much of its fame to one man. Charles de Foucauld, a French army officer turned hermit and mystic, came to the Hoggar, the land of the Kel Ahaggar Tuareg, and around 1910 to 1911 he built a small stone hermitage on the top of Assekrem to live in contemplation of the desert. He devoted himself to the oral culture of the Tuareg and compiled a dictionary of it. His hermitage still stands, and a few Catholic monks continue to live there, keeping the place as a site of silence rather than a monument.

The classic visit is unhurried. Travellers drive up from Tamanrasset, spend the night near the foot of the plateau, and walk up the short path, about a quarter of an hour, to the hermitage for sunset, then return before dawn to watch the sun rise over the volcanic peaks. As the light comes up, the spires catch it one by one and throw long shadows across the plain, Summers are hot, but on winter nights the temperature falls below freezing. The plateau lies within Ahaggar National Park, a region that also preserves prehistoric rock paintings.

Getting there

Assekrem lies about 75 to 80 km by dirt track from Tamanrasset, the main town of the Hoggar, roughly 56 km away in a straight line. Tamanrasset's Aguenar – Hadj Bey Akhamok Airport (TMR), about 55 km from the plateau, is the gateway to the region. The track up to the plateau is driven by jeep, and the usual way to visit is with a local guide and driver from Tamanrasset, with an overnight stay near the hermitage.