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Ain Sefra




















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AIN SEFRA
Gateway to the desert

Ain Sefra has as many other towns out in Sahara little to offer beyond its setting and the surroundings. Ain Sefra is set at the end of the Sahara Atlas Mountains, and the function of being the gate to Sahara is dramatically depicted by red sand dunes that crawls in on the mountains. Ain Sefra itself is still very much up in the mountains, with an altitude of 1,000 metres. The nearby gorges is another sight of the town.
Ain Sefra is the place where the Russian writer and adventurer Isabella Eberhardt was killed by something as unlikely as a flood in 1904. Eberhardt travelled all around Algerian Sahara on horseback, she converted to Islam, and dressed as a man. She is also buried here.

Eat and Sleep
Relatively expensive hotel. Eating is done in the hotel as well.

Transportation
Acceptable bus connections to most places, south or north. Hitchhiking is often recommended, but note that Ain Sefra lies 2-3 km off the main road, and that you quickly find yourself going out this way.




By Tore Kjeilen