DJANET - Deep in the Sahara desert lies the Algerian oasis of Djanet, one of earth's more stunning locations where visitors may feel they've actually been transported to another planet.
Parts of the landscape are more Martian or lunar, with only the blue of the sky giving the game away.
Visitors, local and now foreign as well, come to recharge their batteries and explore Djanet, 2,300 kilometres by road.
But there are also flights to the oasis, which is surrounded by sand dunes and sandstone plateaus, site of some of the world's most impressive prehistoric rock carvings.
A mini tourism boom began in eastern Algeria when the authorities started granting visas on arrival in 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic had hit tourism badly worldwide, and Algiers decided to promote the Sahara as a destination by allowing visas to be granted at the airport.
Direct flights from Paris to Djanet were key in marketing this strategy.
Last year, more than 2,900 foreigners of 35 different nationalities, mostly Westerners, stayed in Djanet, compared with 1,200 in 2021.
"Once you come to Djanet, you have to return... I'm here with two friends, and all they want is to come back as soon as possible," 57-year-old French tourist Karim Benacine told AFP.
Visitors are also attracted by the nearby Tassili n'Ajjer National Park, Africa's largest, that borders Libya, Niger and Mali.
Known for its lunar-like landscape with eroded sandstone orange and black "rock forests", Tassili has become a photographers' favourite at sunset.
A vast plateau of 72,000 square kilometres, the park also houses what UNESCO calls "one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world" with more than 15,000 examples.
These "record the climatic changes, the animal migrations and the evolution of human life on the edge of the Sahara from 6000 BC to the first centuries of the present era", UNESCO says.