Atar

Atar is the town every desert journey in this country is assembled in, a market and garrison settlement below the Adrar escarpment where the vehicles are hired, the guides found and the water loaded. A seasonal charter flight from Europe lands here through the winter and is the reason the Adrar has any tourism at all. West of town a pass climbs the escarpment past a rock shelter painted with cattle and hunters. The old Almoravid site lies among palms a short drive to the north. Summer heat here is genuinely dangerous rather than merely uncomfortable.