page_title: Tibesti Mountains
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Tibesti Mountains / Geography / Location
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Massif du Tibesti, vu depuis le sud, avec une exagération du relief&#160;; au premier plan à droite, l'Emi Koussi.
context_page_description: The Tibesti Mountains are a mountain range in the central Sahara, primarily located in the extreme north of Chad, with a small extension into southern Libya. The highest peak in the range, Emi Koussi, lies to the south at a height of 3,445 metres and is the highest point in both Chad and the Sahara. Bikku Bitti, the highest peak in Libya, is located in the north of the range. The central third of the Tibesti is of volcanic origin and consists of five volcanoes topped by large craters: Emi Koussi, Tarso Toon, Tarso Voon, Tarso Yega and Toussidé. Major lava flows have formed vast plateaus that overlie Paleozoic sandstone. The volcanic activity was the result of a continental hotspot that arose during the Oligocene and continued in some places until the Holocene, creating fumaroles, hot springs, mud pools and deposits of natron and sulfur. Erosion has shaped volcanic spires and carved an extensive network of canyons through which run rivers subject to highly irregular flows that are rapidly lost to the desert sands.
  Tibesti, which means "place where the mountain people live," is the domain of the Toubou people.
context_section_description: The mountains lie on the border between Chad and Libya, straddling the Chadian regions of Borkou and Tibesti and the Libyan districts of Murzuq and Kufra, around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) north of N'djamena and 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) south-southeast of Tripoli. The range is adjacent to Niger and located approximately halfway between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Chad, just south of the Tropic of Cancer. The East African Rift is 1,900 km (1,200 mi) to the east and the Cameroon line lies 1,800 km (1,100 mi) to the southwest.
  The range is 380 km (240 mi) in length, 350 km (220 mi) in width, and spans 100,000 km² (39,000 sq mi). It draws a large triangle with sides of 400 km (250 mi) and vertices facing south, northwest and northeast in the heart of the Sahara, making it the largest geologic area of the desert. It is slightly larger than the Massif Central in France, with which it shares some geomorphological characteristics.
caption: The Tibesti Mountains viewed from the south with the Emi Koussi in the lower right corner
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