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 Lakes of Ounianga
Ounianga Sérir
'Lesser Ounianga': some fifteen lakes nestled at the foot of a cliff, separated by dune ridges, including Lake Téli.
LakeUNESCO World Heritage 2012
- Elevation
- 390 m
- Coordinates
- 18.9333° N, 20.8667° E
- Lake
- The Lakes of Ounianga
History
Ounianga Sérir, 60 km south-east of Ounianga Kébir, forms a set of some fifteen lakes nestled at the foot of a cliff: Melekui, Dirke, Ardjou, Téli, Obrom, Élimé, Hogo, Djiara, Ahoita, Daléyala, Boukkou.
It is here that the hydrological mechanism behind the site's universal value is most legible. The lakes are separated from one another by dune ridges but connected at depth by the aquifer. Fresh water flows from upstream to downstream; reeds covering almost the entire surface of some lakes slow evaporation; and the salt, carried along step by step, concentrates in Lake Téli, the largest of the group, which acts as the outlet.
The result: in the driest desert on earth, lakes stay fresh and permanent with no river feeding them at all.
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