Sahara Tourist Road and Physical Travel Reference Map.

Scale 1:3,400,000. Size 27"x39". International Travel Maps edition. Indexed.

ITMB is pleased to announce another brand new map. Although we published a schematic map of the desert crossings a number of years ago, we felt that it had out-lived its useful shelf life and was retired last year.

Using the digital data base that we have been creating for Africa for the past few years, we now have what we feel is a very strong map of the northern portion of Africa, from southern Morocco and Mauritania in the west to Egypt in the east, and from the Mediterranean coast south to partway through Niger, Chad, and Sudan.

Technically, the coastal regions and the Nile Delta are not part of the desert, but desert-like features are so close to the coast in the vicinity of Cairo and Tripoli that it makes more sense to include all the areas that try to edit those more specifically a desert.

The bad news about publishing a map of this part of the world at this time is that Islamic militancy is very much evident throughout the region and travel to Libya in particular is not recommended. However, this is a short-term reality that does not deter from the value of such a map, showing as it does the three great north-south passageways through the desert to the sub-Saharan countries.

I used the western route many years ago, through Morocco and Mauritania, to Senegal. The other well-travelled route is through Algeria, through Tamanghasset, to Nigeria, and the route gaining favour being the Cairo to Cape route through Sudan. This map, being a digital data base, will be much easier to update as time passes and is very accurate, being satellite driven.