Kaouar

The Kaouar, also called the Kawar, is a chain of ten oases in the southern Sahara of northeastern Niger, running about seventy five kilometers from north to south and one to five kilometers wide, on the eastern edge of the Tenere desert between the Tibesti Mountains to the east and the Air Mountains to the west. The oases lie on the leeward side of a hundred meter high north to south escarpment, where easterly winds striking the escarpment help bring groundwater within reach. Its main towns, from south to north, are Bilma, Dirkou, Aney, and Seguedine, and the chain was historically a major link on the caravan route between Bornu and the Fezzan, serving as a chief point of contact between the African Sahel and Mediterranean civilizations until the nineteenth century.