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Mainly in the Central Sahara, but also far into the Western Sahara, you can see strange hooks or horseshoe-shaped structures, which I summarize with the term "U-Monuments". Most of these can be found from the Tassili N'Ajjer through the Tamanrasset to the Kidal region of northern Mali. Although they are quite similar from a bird's eye view, these are at least three different groups of monuments. The most common are the structures called "Tente de Fatima (Ehen n-Fatima)" by the Tuareg. At least 2,500 of these are known. There are also a few hundred L-shaped monuments and a handful of U-shaped structures, like the Royal Tumulus.

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Sketches of various U and L shapes. (from: Gauthier-2002-Monuments A antenna en L)

 

Images courtesy of Google Earth™


 

Download Placemarks (kmz) for Google Earth >

 

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