Algeria and Tunisia (1979)

Abstract

Study leave at the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris in late 1978–early 1979. Instructive meetings with Théodore Monod and Professor Jean Dresch , two world authorities on the Sahara . Monod writes a foreword for The Sahara and the Nile. Fieldwork in 1979 among gypsum dunes south of the Aurès Mountains with Mohamed Ben Azzouz of the University of Constantine , Algeria . A tense encounter with some Algerian former partisans. Fieldwork in Tunisia 1979 with a team led by Professor Pierre Rognon . We decipher the complex deposits in the Wad el Akarit and in the Matmata Hills of Tunisia . The influence of wind-blown dust (loess) on runoff and sediment accumulation in local valleys becomes very evident. The Roman tradition of building stone dams to trap silt and moisture is maintained to this day in the coastal valleys of Tunisia.