Guelta d'Archei
The Guelta d'Archei is a watering hole and probably the most famous guelta in the Sahara . It is located on the Ennedi Plateau in northeastern Chad, southeast of the village of Fada . The Guelta is used by various animals. The five crocodiles sighted in the gorge in 2001 are very astonishing . On the occasion of his trip to Tibet in the spring of 1964, Staewen reported nine crocodiles, the longest specimens measuring up to 1.80 m. Between the years 2008 and 2012, between six and nine crocodiles were counted on various occasions. Remnants from the middle Holocene as well as rock carvings are an indication that this species was previously widespread in the area of today's desert; as well as in swamps and rivers on the southern Mediterranean coast. The small group of surviving armored lizards in the Guelta is probably the last remaining population in the eastern Sahara ; the animals that lived in the mountains near Tagant probably became extinct in 1996. The populations in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, which were documented until the late 20th century, have now also died out. Only in Mauritania are crocodiles still found in three southern Saharan regions (Tagant, Assaba and Affole). New DNA tests show that it is not the Nile crocodile, but the extremely rare West African crocodile .
The Guelta d'Archei is remote and not accessible by roads or slopes. The gorge itself can be reached with an all-terrain vehicle or camel . The vantage point, which is typically chosen for photos, also requires an hour-long walk through rocky terrain. To reach the Guelta of N'Djamena from the capital of Chad, it takes about four days by off-road vehicle .
literature
- Eine Fahrt ins Tibesti, Christoph Staewen, Verlag G. Richter, 1st edition 2005, ISBN 3-00-015063-3 (travel report from spring 1964)
- José C. Brito, Fernando Martínez-Freiría1, Pablo Sierra, Neftalí Sillero, Pedro Tarroso: Crocodiles in the Sahara Desert: An Update of Distribution, Habitats and Population Status for Conservation Planning in Mauritania. PLoS ONE 6 (2): e14734. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pone.0014734 , February 25, 2011
Web links
Coordinates: 16 ° 54 ′ 17 ″ N , 21 ° 46 ′ 29 ″ E
- Ed Yong: Nile crocodile is two species. Nature news, September 14, 2011 ( doi: 10.1038 / news.2011.535 )