Hoggar (Tamachek Ahaggar) is the name given to a mountainous mass of the Western Sahara, in the south of Algeria.
Located between the 12th and 13th northern parallels, crossed by the Tropic of Cancer 80 km north of Tamanrasset, it covers an area of about 540 000 km2, ie a quarter of the total area of Algeria.
To the east of Tamanrasset (1,395 m), there is a kind of eroded platform where the lava fields hold a large square, about 250 km wide, where the altitude is Everywhere greater than 2,000 m and on which the dismantled volcanoes make projections flush with the 3,000 m. This platform is called the Atakor of the Hoggar. Around it, the altitude remains elevated then decreases in gentle slopes imperceptible to the eye.
Its highest peak, Mount Tahat in the center of the Atakor, peaks at 2,918 meters and dominates Algeria. A famous site is the Assekrem, 80 km from Tamanrasset as the crow flies and easily accessible by track. Assekrem welcomed the summer hermitage of Charles de Foucauld, who settled there in 1911.
A true desert of stones, the Hoggar consists essentially of volcanic rocks. Erosion has shaped an astonishing landscape while sharp pegs. The climate is very hot in summer, and it can freeze the winter nights. Rains are limited and sporadic. Because of a less extreme climate than the rest of the Sahara, the Hoggar is an important refuge for certain animal and plant species.
The Hoggar massif is also the ancestral ground of the Touareg group called Kel Ahaggar. Near the town of Tamanrasset, in the oasis of Abalessa, it is possible to find the tomb of Tin Hinan, a matriarch who would be the ancestor of the Tuaregs of the Hoggar. According to legend, Tin Hinan would come from the Tafilalet, in the mountains of the Atlas, in Morocco.
