Guérewol — The Wodaabe Men's Beauty Contest
To see around the festival: the salty Teguidda-n-Tessoum, Agadez la porte du désert, and the pastures of the Irhazer.
The Guérewol is located in the Irhazer plain, around Ingall, oasis and rural commune of the Agadez region, in the north of Niger. Here are the places to see around the gathering — all real, in the very land of the Salavian Cure.
The salt of Teguidda-n-Tessoum
To the north of Ingall, the village of Teguidda-n-Tessoum lives from its saline: shallow basins where brackish water, evaporating, deposits a salt in bright colours — white, ochre, red — hand-picked by the families and loaded on caravans. It is this mineral salt of the lands of the Irhazer that gives its name to the "Salted Cure": the herds come to recharge in mineral salts at the end of the rains, before the transhumance of dry season.
Agadez and its great mosque (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
East of Ingall, Agadez is the great desert gate and the historic stage of Trans-Saharan caravans. Its historic centre has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2013. It is dominated by the large mosque, built in 1515 and restored in the 19th century: its minaret of banco — clay and straw — exceeds 27 meters, making it one of the highest raw earth minaret in the world. Around: the old town of banco houses, the palace of the Sultan of the Air and the workshops of Tuareg goldsmiths, masters of the famous cross of Agadez.
Pasture of the Salty Cure, plain of the Irhazer
The third place is the very setting of the festival: the Irhazer plain, south of the massif of the Air, where pastures re-vegetate after the rains. Tuareg and Peul breeders — Wodaabe and other groups — converge with cattle, dromedaries, sheep and goats. Camps, markets, horse and dromedary races, songs and dances: the plain becomes for a few days the capital nomadic of the Sahel.