The sand sea itself, extending from the Algerian oasis towns south and east into southern Tunisia. Day trips into the dune margins can be arranged from El Oued and Touggourt on the Algerian side, or from Douz in Tunisia. Multi-day 4WD or camel expeditions go deeper; these require a guide, advance planning, and on the Algerian side, additional bureaucratic clearances for some areas. The erg is at its most spectacular at dawn and dusk.
Grand Erg Dunes
A story
The Grand Erg Oriental covers roughly 192,000 square kilometres — larger than France — and its dunes can reach 150 metres in height. The dunes are not static: prevailing northeast winds push them slowly southwest at a rate of a few metres per year, and satellite images over decades show the erg visibly changing shape. The colour shifts through the day from pale gold in the morning, through deep orange at midday, to almost red in the last hour of evening light. At the heart of the erg, on clear nights, the absence of any light pollution makes the sky overwhelming.