The town sits on a low escarpment looking out across an immense sebkha — a flat, white-crusted salt depression that, in the rare years it rains heavily, briefly fills with shallow water and reflects the sky. Beyond the sebkha the dunes of the Grand Erg Occidental rise on the horizon. The view from the terrace below the old town, particularly at sunrise and sunset when the rust-red walls catch the light against the pale flats, is the postcard image of Timimoun and worth lingering over.
The promenade in front of the historic Hotel Saoura is the unofficial viewpoint; the hotel will normally let non-guests take a drink on the terrace. From here you can also see the palm groves laid out below, irrigated by the ancient foggara system of underground channels that has watered the oasis for a thousand years.