George Steinmetz flying over an abandoned ksar (fortified village) lost in the dunes of the Grand Erg Occidental just north of Timimoun. Every old village in the area has a ksar, but most are crumbling ruins. This one is unusual in that it is virtually intact, is circular and made of stone, not mud brick. The fields that must have once supported the people of the ksar are long since buried in the sands, but the walls of the ksar are strong enough to resist the erosion of blowing sand and tall enough that the sand does not get inside. We were told that this is Ksar Dra'a, and that it was once occupied by a Jewish sect, and that most of Algeria was Jewish, long before the conversion to Islam.
