The ghout gardens around El Oued are a remarkable agricultural system: date palms grown in hand-excavated bowl depressions that reach down to the water table, allowing trees to grow without surface irrigation. The gardens cover large areas around and within El Oued city, and several traditional ghout depressions can be visited on foot from the city edge. The best views of the garden basins are from the surrounding sand ridges — local guides know the best vantage points.
Ghout Oasis Gardens
A story
The ghout gardens are one of the most unusual agricultural systems in the Sahara. Farmers in the Souf region discovered that by digging bowl-shaped depressions into the sand — some going down 8 or 10 metres — they could reach the level of the water table and grow date palms without irrigation. The palms' roots reach down to the groundwater and pull up what they need. The system has sustained dense human settlement in one of the most arid parts of the Sahara for over a thousand years, and the palm-filled basins, viewed from the dune ridges above, look incongruously lush against the surrounding desert.