Niger Tourism

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Until recently, this part of Niger was considered to be the "useful" part of the country, in contrast with the austere and inhospitable desert areas. It consists of an almost horizontal strip, 780 miles long, bounded on the south by the borders of the country. The area presents a less contrasted landscape than the north of the country. More abundant rainfall has maintained lake-like features of the clay basins. But the landscape presents a picture of alternating low sandstone plateaus, sometimes covered with sand, and no less sandy depressions, indicating the existence of ancient basins of dallols (valleys.)

At its western end, the low-lying plateau is crossed by the River Niger Alluvial plain, then by the Bosso and Maouri dallols. In the center lies the vast ferrous sandstone plateau of Adar-Doutchi, which in certain places rises to an elevation of over 300 feet. Deep valleys and basins, sometimes enclosing lakes, cut into this plateau, which precedes the Goulbi zone (Maradi-Tessaoua), a region of broad valleys of rich soil, watered by fast-flowing seasonal rivers during the monsoon.

To the east lies a monotonous succession of sandy wastes, interrupted only by the granite outcrops of Damagaram (above 1,640 feet), the clay depressions of Damergou and the Massif of Minana (1,475 feet) and Koutous (1,970 feet). The manga zone, which marks the end of this strip and which itself ends at Lake Chad, is mainly sandy, with scattered flat-bottomed basins which are usually fertile.

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Niger Tourism