Gabroun

The region southeast of the Ubari Erg contains a series of lakes, about 20 in total, set amidst the landscape of towering dunes and palm fringed oases of the Ubari Sand Sea. The depth of the lakes, according to one Libyan diving centre, varies from seven meters deep (as in Gabroun) to 32 meters deep (as the lake of Ain al-Dibanah). Some of these lakes are slowly drying out, owing to drought and artificial drainage of underground resources. Gabroun is one of the largest and most beautiful lakes of the great Sand Sea of Ubari. Other picturesque lakes in the area include: Umm al-Ma, with its magical palm-fringed shores, Edhane Ubari, and the eleven Lakes of Dawada.

Most of the lakes of the Libyan interior are highly carbonated and thus allowing one to float without great effort. Some of the lakes are home for a harmless tiny red shrimp-like creatures that thrive in the shallow waters of the lake, which the Tuareg grind into a paste and use for making cakes, and which have earned the local inhabitants the name of ' worm eaters'.

The valley of Wadi Metkhandoush, running between the Messak Settafet plateaux and the sand dunes of Edhan Murzuk, is probably one of the ancient regions where rivers were abundant and wild beasts roamed, just as told by the remaining drawings and paintings of its numerous caves and engravings.

 

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