Algeria’s Ahaggar National Park covers an area of approximately 450,000KM² found at the extreme southern end of the country. The park is over populated by the Ahaggar Mountains commonly known as the Hoggar; this mountain has got the highest peak being Mount Tahat with 3,003 meters above sea level.
Though well preferred, the mountain within the park has got a number of jagged volcanic rocks. This is a nice place to be visited before departing Algeria due to its wonderful biodiversity; surprisingly animal species that are extinct in other parts of the Sahara can still be found in the Ahaggar National Park. The climate of the park is considered to be more favourable here compared to other parts of the country and this has favoured the reservation of the extinct animal species.
Nice to hear, the Algeria national parks conservation have monitored populations of the globally threatened species within Ahaggar national park in 2005 to where a number of cheetahs were found still inhabited the park. It was confirmed that Saharan cheetahs were living in the park; this was backed up by nomadic herders who complained that cheetahs that became a menace to their livestock.
The park is also inhabited by other internationally important species rare to the other parks and these include the Dorcas gazelle and Barbary sheep plus the Golden jackals, genets, wild cat, mongoose, leopards, Ruppel’s foxes, sand cats, fennecs, addax, dama gazelle and the endangered painted hunting dog among many others
The tomb of Tin Hinan at Abalessa and the oasis near Tamanghasset is another interesting feature to visit within the park. The tomb was built on a Roman fortification made by Lucius Cornelius Balbus during Augustus times. Visitors to the tomb may witness the body of the late Tin Hinan laying on the remains of a wooden platform, other materials found in the tombs includes the red leather cloak which is somehow decayed in the dust. Visitors are guided through by the park guides who even improvise all the necessary history attached to the tomb.
