Erg Chigaga

The size of the area around the sand dunes Erg Chigaga is hard to guess if you are not land surveyor. In all cases to reach the dunes from Zagora, M'Hamid and Foum Zguid and from what I heard, among other things so the distance is about the same from all those places. The entire area adjacent to the Algerian border and the Algeria is located about 70-80km from M'Hamid.

Sand dunes Erg Chigaga is about 40 km long and 10-15 km wide and sand dunes are quite low. Area around the Erg Chigaga consists partly of Hamada (stones) and partly of sand dunes where the highest sand dune, Lhabidia, or also La Grande Dune it is called, is approximately 120m high. Before you get there you drive through a landscape of Hamada most. You can see camels and sheeps or goats grazing there. There are nowadays not so many nomads, unfortunately, they might now prefer to stay a bit closer to civilization, so to speak. Some Germans where he built a school for their children, but the school is empty because there is no one to go. The landscape is a bit hilly, there is a real Saharan lake Iriki, but dry now and also the occasional oasis.

There are only campsites, no hotels, they are either only in M'Hamid or Zagora. For to come to sand dunes it is possible only by 4x4 or by camel.  By 4x4 it take approximately 2 hours from both Zagora or M´Hamid. With a normal car you can not. Asphalt ends just in M'Hamid.

You need to be careful because lots of desert tours goodwill promise you a nice camel trip from Zagora, but sand dunes Erg Chigaga are a good 4-5 day away. If you're going for 1-2 nights from Zagora by camel, you will not see the sand dunes, just rocky desert, which is uncomfortable for a camel ride and not so pretty. 

The simplest and best is to start in M'Hamid, both for camels and 4x4.. You go through the rocky desert, occasionally over sand dunes not higher than 1m. Approx. 7 km after M'Hamid, is a small Erg called Mezouaria. Someone says that there somewhere is also high sand dunes 20km long, 200m high, Erg Ezzahar. But it is not confirmed that it is true, it is only  in the description of one tour company so you should take it with a grain of salt sometimes and it is perhaps to attract tourists only.

However, it is very nice there and fascinating landscape. It is not exactly the Sahara, it is a bit further south, but you could say, it is the beginning, edge of the Sahara.

Somewhere near Zagora, there are old paintings in the rocky mountains.