View source for Kaouar

[[File:Kaouartal-bei-Bilma.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|The Kaouar from near [[Bilma]].]]
{{Designation list
| designation1 = Ramsar
| designation1_offname = Oasis du Kawar
| designation1_date = 16 September 2005
| designation1_number = 1495<ref name="RSIS">{{Cite web|title=Oasis du Kawar|website=[[Ramsar Convention|Ramsar]] Sites Information Service|url=https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/1495|access-date=25 April 2018}}</ref>}}

The '''Kaouar''' (or '''Kawar''') is a series of ten [[oases]] in the southern [[Sahara]] in northeast [[Niger]], covering about {{convert|75|km|mi|-1|abbr=on}}  from north to south, and {{convert|1–5|km|mi|abbr=on}} east to west. They are on the eastern edge of the [[Ténéré]] desert, between the [[Tibesti Mountains]]  in the east and the [[Aïr Mountains]] in the west and between the [[Fezzan]] in the north and [[Lake Chad]] in the south.{{sfn|Decalo|1979|pp=133–134}}{{sfn|Mauny|1978}} They lie on the [[leeward]] side of a 100-meter-high north–south [[escarpment]] and easterly winds striking the escarpment provide easy access to groundwater for the oases.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Running south to north, [[Bilma]], [[Dirkou]], Aney and [[Séguédine]] are the largest towns.

The Kaouar oases are famous for salt and date production, and were along the route of the great [[Bornu Empire|Bornu]] to Fezzan caravan trail.  This was the major point of contact between the African [[Sahel]] and the [[Mediterranean]] civilisations until the 19th century. Numerous archeological sites and rock paintings attest to human habitation here reaching back some 10,000 years to when the area was surrounded by lush grasslands.

In 1997, the Kaouar was submitted as a tentative candidate for [[UNESCO]] [[World Heritage Site]] status as part of ''The salt route from Air to Kaouar.''<ref>[https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/875/ UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Tentative Lists Database, La Route du Sel de l'Air au Kaouar].</ref> The oases have been designated as a [[Ramsar site]] since 2005.<ref name="RSIS"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Decalo |title=Historical Dictionary of Niger |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio0000deca_w7m6 |url-access=registration |publisher=Scarecrow Press |location=London and New Jersey |year=1979 |isbn=0-8108-1229-0 }}
* {{cite book |first=Jolijn |last=Geels |title=Niger |publisher=Bradt London and Globe Pequot New York |year=2006 |isbn=1-84162-152-8 }}
* {{EI2|first=R.|last=Mauny|title=Kawār|volume=4|page=777|doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_4035}}
* {{cite book |first=Knut S. |last=Vikør |title=The Oasis of Salt. The History of Kawar, a Saharan Centre of Salt Production |location=London |year=1996 }}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928051619/http://www.moula-moula.de/printable/nigerschleife/kaouar/index.html Image galleries from the Kaouar].
*[http://www.sahara-overland.com/Sfiles/tenere.htm A traveler's experiences in the Kaouar, February-March 2001].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210950/http://www.sahara-overland.com/Sfiles/gastel3.htm Traveler's experiences in the Kaouar, by Tony and Elly van Gastel].
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060504002236/http://www.reineccius.com/tenere1/tenere00.htm Photo gallery from the Ténéré and the Kaouar].

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[[Category:Sahara]]
[[Category:Ramsar sites in Niger]]


{{Niger-geo-stub}}