The Tuareg people are a large Berber ethnic group, traditionally nomadic pastoralists, who principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Algeria, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, as far as northern Nigeria.
The Tuareg languages constitute a group of closely related Berber languages and dialects. They are spoken by the Tuareg Berbers in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the Kinnin, in Chad.
The Hoggar Mountains are a highland region in the central Sahara in southern Algeria, along the Tropic of Cancer. The mountains cover an area of approximately 550,000 km2.
Tamanrasset or Tamanghasset is a province (wilaya) in southern Algeria. It is named after its province seat, Tamanrasset. The province is the home of two national parks: Ahaggar National Park and Tassili n'Ajjer National Park. It is the largest province in Algeria, with an area of 336,839 km2.
Tin Hinan was a 4th-century Tuareg queen. What may be her monumental tomb is located in the Sahara, at Abalessa in the Hoggar region of Algeria.
The Iwellemmedan (Iwəlləmədǎn), also spelled Iullemmeden, Aulliminden, Ouilliminden, Lullemmeden, and Iwellemmeden, are one of the seven major Tuareg tribal or clan confederations. Their communities are historically nomadic and intermixed with other ethnic groups. The Iwellemmeden inhabit a wide area ranging from east and north central Mali, through the Azawagh valley, into northwestern Niger and south into northern Nigeria. While once a single confederation of dozens of Tuareg clans, subject peoples, and allied groups, since the 18th century they have been divided into Kel Ataram (west) and Kel Dinnik (east) confederations.
Tamahaq also known as is the only known Northern Tuareg language, spoken in Algeria, western Libya and northern Niger. It varies little from the Southern Tuareg languages of the Aïr Mountains, Azawagh and Adagh. The differences mostly consist of sound substitutions, such as Tamahaq instead of Tamajaq or Tamasheq. This language is “one of the sister languages spoken by the inhabitants of many districts of the Atlas range of mountains from Egypt to the Western shores of Morocco, and which are all included in the general term Berber.”
Kel Ajjer is a Tuareg confederation inhabiting western Libya and eastern Algeria. Their main stronghold was Ghat, followed by Ubari, both in the Fezzan region of southwestern Libya. The Kel Ajjer speak Tamahaq, or Northern Tuareg.
Tamanrasset, also known as Tamanghasset or Tamenghest, is an oasis city and capital of Tamanrasset Province in southern Algeria, in the Ahaggar Mountains. It is the chief city of the Algerian Tuareg. It is located an altitude of 1,320 metres (4,330 ft). As of the 2008 census, it has a population of 92,635, up from 72,741 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 2.5%.
The Berbers are an indigenous ethnic group of the Maghreb region of North Africa. Following the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, most Berber tribes eventually became Muslims. Presently, about one-sixth of the population of Maghreb speaks one of the Berber languages, but most of them also speak some form of Arabic. Berbers are the first non-Arab people to have established an Islamic state.
The Azawagh is a dry basin covering what is today the northwestern Niger, as well as parts of northeastern Mali and southern Algeria. The Azawagh is mainly made up of Sahelian and Saharan flatlands and has a population that is predominantly Tuareg, with some Arabic-speaking and Wodaabe minorities and a recent influx of Hausa and Zarma.
The Kel Adagh are a Tuareg confederation of clans living in the region of the Adrar des Iforas highlands in Mali. The name comes from Tamasheq "Kel" and "Adagh" ("Mountains"). In the modern era, not all Tuareg in the Adrar des Iforas are Kel Adagh, while some Kel Adagh are spread through northern Niger and southern Algeria, with populations in the Aïr Mountains, Tassili n'Ajjer, and the Hoggar Mountains. Most Kel Adagh derive from Noble and Warrior castes and their tributaries.
The Kel Awey are a Tuareg clan confederation. From the 18th century until the advent of French colonial rule at the beginning of the 20th century, they were a dominant power in the Aïr Mountains of north central Niger.
The Teffedest Mountains are a mountain range in southern Algeria. They are part of the Hoggar Mountains, located in the Sahara.
The Tuareg Shield is a geological formation lying between the West African craton and the Saharan Metacraton in West Africa. Named after the Tuareg people, it has complex a geology, reflecting the collision between these cratons and later events. The landmass covers parts of Algeria, Niger and Mali.
Jeremy Keenan is a British social anthropologist. The regional focuses of his research are the Sahara, North Africa and the Sahel region, and he concentrates on anthropology of development, security and globalisation. He has published a number of books and articles about the approaches of the United States to counter terrorism in Africa.
The Tin Hinan Tomb is a monumental tomb located at Abalessa in the Sahara, in the Hoggar Mountains of southern Algeria. The sepulchre was built for Tin Hinan, the Tuareg ancient Queen of the Hoggar (Ahaggar).
Paul Flatters was a French soldier who spent a long period as a military administrator in Algeria. He is known as leader of the Flatters expedition, an ill-fated attempt to explore the route of a proposed Trans-Saharan railway from Algeria to the Sudan. Almost all members of the expedition were massacred by hostile Tuaregs. The survivors resorted to eating grass and to cannibalism on the long retreat through the desert. After a brief outburst of public indignation the fiasco was forgotten.
The Awlad Sidi Shaykh was a confederation of Arab tribes in the west and south of Algeria led by the descendants of the Sufi saint Sidi Shaykh. The Awlad had religious authority, and also owned agricultural settlements and engaged in trade. During the French occupation of Algeria they alternately cooperated with and opposed the colonialists.
Bir el-Garama is a well in the south of Algeria in Tamanrasset Province, 150 kilometres (93 mi) northeast of Tamanrasset, known as the site where a large part of the French colonial Flatters Expedition was wiped out by Tuaregs. It is better known on French maps by its Tamahaq language name: Tagmout T-an Koufar, or 'well of the foreigner'.
