Grand Erg Oriental Grand Erg Oriental The Grand Erg Oriental (English: 'Great Eastern Sand Sea') is a large "erg" or "field of sand dunes" in the Sahara Desert. Situated for the most part in Saharan lowlands of northeast Algeria, the Grand Erg Oriental covers an area some 600 km wide by 200 km north to south. The erg's northeastern edge spills over into neighbouring Tunisia. The Grand Erg Oriental is a desert, a natural region receiving very little rainfall. It is the largest "Erg" in Algeria, the next in size being the much smaller Grand Erg Occidental ('Western Sand Sea'). The largest erg
Grand Erg Oriental the language of the nomads, who habitually reside in such places." For these and similar reasons concerning the desert ecology of water, the geographer and historian of the Sahara E.-F. Gautier once wrote referring to the Grand Erg Oriental as "the great Igharghar Erg". Accordingly, surface moisture, seasonal pastures, and wells may reflect unseen conditions beneath the sands. What appears as an entirely inhospitable erg can elsewhere, in stark contrast, offer the fruits of "some buried wadi". To the north of the erg, the Aurès mountains provide abundant runoff. These waters feed the artesian aquifer of the Jerid, despite its