First published: 11/04/19.

Wojciech Fedoruk 3.5

Agadez

Agadez (Inscribed)

Agadez by Wojciech Fedoruk

There are not many big cities in Sahara, so Agadez was always outstanding - it is located on the crossroads of trade routes North-South and East-West of the desert. Agadez was (and still is) treated by Tuaregs as their capital. Its tourist attractivity increased in the 1980s, with the increase of popularity of the Paris-Dakar Rally. Even at the beginning of the 21st century, every self-respecting globetrotter exploring West Africa stopped at Agadez, visiting nearby Tenere National Park and the Air Mountains. Air France maintained regular scheduled flights from French cities, and hotels and tourism experienced real desert in the city. Then, however, much worse times came to the region.

In 2007, another Tuareg rebellion broke out in the region, destabilizing the province and bringing several hundred deaths. Although in 2009 peace was established (with Gaddafi acting as a mediator), but soon after that Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram messed up and the situation in neighboring Mauritania, Libya and Tchad suffered a drastic deterioration. It was better in Niger itself, but it was also dangerous to go beyond Niamey and the south of the country. Tourists left Agadez for a long time.

At the moment, Western governments still issue red travel warnings to the whole Agadez region. But it turned out that Niger Airlines have regular flights from Niamey to Agadez so it could not be that dangerous and we decided to go. Ticket Niamey - Agadez and Agadez - Zinder costs approximately 330 euros per person (cannot be bought online yet so Nigerien fixer recommeded). In Agadez, we were expecting rather basic conditions but we stayed at Auberge d'Azel hotel, run by a French-Nigerien couple. The hotel turned out to be a nice surprise, with great kitchen, large rooms and well-functioning wifi. All at decent prices - I paid around 50 euros per night.

An absolute gem was Agadez himself. The city itself, in the opinion of all the locals (confirmed by us), is very safe, hence we could easily walk the streets and observe local life.The historical center of Agadez got WHS status as the buildings with clay and dried bricks remained intact for centuries. The center is really very nice, many buildings are thoroughly restored with help of Western European countries. The number one attraction is the central mosque with highest in the world minaret made of clay and dried brick. You can enter the minaret, but the staircase is really narrow. It is worth the effort, because you can admire the best panoramic view of Agadez from above.

Near the mosque, you can buy legal and not very legal souvenirs - for example, dinosaur teeth, which are found in the area (by the way, some sites of dinosaurs in Agadez region are TWHS).

My impression of Agadez was really good, especially because we were surrounded by friendly and smiling people. The city is really authentic and gives impression how Saharan cities looked like a couple of hundred years ago.

___

My dream was to visit the Air and Tenere WHS, but the border requires at least 6 hours driving one way and is really not that safe (we had to hire local police even if we went outside Agadez for 20 kilometers). For now Air and Tenere becomes one of the hardest to reach WHS in the world.

Comments

No comments yet.

Log in to post a comment