DesertDemanding
The Grand Loop: Ennedi and the Lakes of Ounianga
Fifteen days on the track linking Chad's two World Heritage sites, out by the northern route and back through the Ouaddaï.
- Duration
- 15 days
- Group size
- 4–12
The Ennedi Massif
The Aloba Arch
One of the largest natural arches on earth: a sandstone span 77 metres wide and close to 120 metres high.
Geological formationUNESCO World Heritage 2016
- Elevation
- 690 m
- Coordinates
- 16.7442° N, 22.2711° E
- Geological formation
- The Ennedi Massif
History
The Aloba Arch is the product of tens of millions of years of differential erosion. Ennedi sandstone is not homogeneous: some strata, softer or more fractured, yield faster to sand-laden wind and to the rare but violent monsoon rains. A rock wall is pierced, the opening widens, and eventually only a suspended span remains.
At 77 metres wide and close to 120 metres high, Aloba ranks among the world's largest natural arches by size — and unlike the best-known American arches it stands in total isolation, with no road, no barrier, no infrastructure of any kind.
It is one piece of a larger set: the Ennedi holds hundreds of arches, pillars and sandstone mushrooms. The Lyre Arch — Djolio — the Bachikélé arch, the Elephant Rock and the Two-Eyed Rock make up a catalogue of forms that erosion took millions of years to carve.
Galerie
The Aloba Arch en images
Our journeys
Y aller avec nous
DesertModerate
Essential Ennedi
Eight days in the heart of the massif, flying in to Fada so that all the time goes to the ground.
- Duration
- 8 days
- Group size
- 4–10
DesertDemanding
Complete Chad: Ennedi and Zakouma
Eighteen days crossing the country north to south: the desert, then the savannah and its elephants.
- Duration
- 18 days
- Group size
- 4–10
Sites & heritage
