In the region of Fezzan, to the southwest of Libya, we can find a huge area full of sand, the dunes sea of Ubari. But the most spectacular part of this place are its crystalline lakes that are spread throughout the desert terrain, something like the remains of what once this place was 200,000 years ago, a green and fertile region dominated by a lake more or less the size of the Republic Czech.
The lake was dried and devoured by the sands of Sahara desert, but we can get to intuit how this place was thanks to these aqueous residues that work almost like a natural open-air museum. Currently there are twenty of these crystalline lakes scalloped by vegetation which is greener than usual for the contrast of the sandy color in the environment.
The most photogenic lakes are the Gaberoun and Umm al-Maa ones. But you will have to get along with taking pictures and little more. If you arrived here dying of thirst and you found such an oasis, the worst you could do is to drink from this water: you would die soon.
And it seems that some of these lakes are almost five times saltier than the Mediterranean sea. This is due to the fact that these lakes are continuously evaporating and do not have any rivers to replenish their water (Libya has no perennial rivers that persist all year). Several of them even get to take a tonality as red as blood due to the presence of salt tolerant algae.
Photos: Abdalla Naas, Eric Lafforgue and Lybian Soup.
