Erg Chebbi offer camel trips into the dunes, taking tourists on overnight trips to permanent campsites several kilometres into the erg, and out of sight of the hotels. Erg Chebbi's proximity to the tourist center has led to the erg sometimes being referred to as "dunes of Merzouga." During the warmest part of the year, Moroccans come to Erg Chebbi to be buried neck-deep in the hot sand for a few minutes at a time. This is considered to be a treatment for rheumatism. Erg Chebbi Erg Chebbi () is one of Morocco's several ergs – large seas of dunes formed by
Grand Erg Oriental "Grand Erg Oriental". In addition to oil in Wargla and Hassi Messaoud (see above), other Algerian hydrocarbon sites include In Salah, a city (pop: 44,000) to the erg's southwest, yielding natural gas, and also El Adeb Larache, Edjelé, Tingentourine, and Zarzaïtine (south of the erg, close to Libya). One of Algeria's largest field of natural gas is near Ghardaïa, west of Touggourt. Gas pipelines have been constructed north to the Mediterranean port of Bourgie, and later northeast through Tunisia. Along the north rim of the "Grand Erg Oriental", both the physical ecology and the human culture surviving there since ancient