Fifty-seven-year-old Abdulkarim Hadiya has worked as a guide in Gaberoun since the 1990s. After years of prosperous tourism, thanks to the famous Lake Gaberoun in the southern Libyan desert, he was able to support his nine-member family from the tourism trade.

Fifty-seven-year-old Abdulkarim Hadiya has worked as a guide in Gaberoun since the 1990s. After years of prosperous tourism, thanks to the famous Lake Gaberoun in the southern Libyan desert, he was able to support his nine-member family from the tourism trade.

Before the civil clashes that have plagued Libya since 2014, tourists had come to Gaberoun from all over the world. Hadiya accompanied groups on two kinds of trips: one using desert cars set out from the town of Tikirkibh, 45 km south of the lake, in the early morning so they could stop at the lakes before continuing to Gaberoun. The other trips were on camels, which were longer yet more interactive and enjoyable for the tourists.

Hadiya is one of many mourning the loss of tourism in this town of Tikirkibh, which used to rely on tourism in Gaberoun. Tikirkibh, located on the Ubari Road, is the nearest populated area to the lake. It was full of rest areas and hotels, places to rent desert cars, workshops that sell spare parts, tourist companies, restaurants and shops selling food products, providers of camels and other tourist-related services. Tourist guides came to this town to find jobs.

The road to the lake is full of dunes, which reach several meters high. Travelers speed over these dunes up to 90 kilometers per hour until they reach the highest dune which overlooks the lake.    

It is well-known that nobody can drown in this lake, which is located in the Libyan Desert, due to its salty water. It is surrounded by palms and sand. However, when a small hole is drilled near it, fresh water will emerge.

Ramadan Karnafoudah, owner of a tourist company, said he used to bring groups to visit Gaberoun directly from European airports to Sabha Airport and then transport them by bus to Wadi al-Hayaa and then to Gaberoun.

The trips started early in the morning and when the tourists arrived, they found their breakfast ready, since the preparation teams arrived two hours earlier. 

“I was keen on providing quality services,” Karnafoudah remembered. “The lake was full of tourists who liked to swim, as many of them believed the water could treat many skin diseases,” he said.

The voices of Fezzan’s singing can still heard at the lake where people stay up at night. The sweet melodies bring people to dance, applaud and sing.

Imara, a 46-year-old singer from Fezzan, still visits the lake and sings for the Libyan families who spend their holidays on its banks. He always takes his musical instruments with him in his trips as well as a bottle of juice extracted from palm trees.

Imara also lamented the lake’s golden days and related stories about how tourists enjoyed Fezzan’s singing during their stays at the lake so much, that tourist groups requested that it become a fixture in the itineraries.

After the deterioration of tourism in Gaberoun, the shops selling antiques produced by local craftsmen from the town of Tikirkibh suffered under the recession.     

Karnafoudah said that the people of Tikirkibh and those working in tourism were hit badly by the collapse of tourism in Gaberoun. Their life is dull and they depend on state subsidies, which are not paid on time. He does not foresee a return of tourism due to the current political situation and the lack of security, which has discouraged tourists from going on adventures in the heart of the Libyan desert.