Terramata Travelogues
Printed Pages

28 June 2007

The Number 56 giugno 2007 of the Italian magazine devoted to caves and caving:

28 May 2007

The Number 18 of the international scientific magazine:

November 2006

A report about the use of Quickbird high resoultion satellite images to look for new rock-art sites was presenteted to the Asita 2006 Conference in Bolzano:
Immordino F., Menardi Noguera A. e Laberio Minozzi (2006) – Analisi di immagini ASTER e QuickBird per lo studio geo-archeologico del Jebel Uweinat (Libia Meridionale) – 10a Conferenza Nazionale delle Associazioni Scientifiche per le Informazioni Territoriali e Ambientali, Bolzano, 14-17 Novembre 2006.

August 2005

On the gorgeous N° 16 of the international scientific journal Sahara - Prehistory and History of the Sahara , the best journal about Saharan archaeology, the results of our 2005 Easter expedition have been published:

New rock art sites in the south-western sector of Jebel Uweinat (Libya)

by:
Alessandro Menardi Noguera, Paolo Carmignoto, Stefano Laberio Minozzi, Francesco Romanzi, Giannantonio Schirato, Michele Soffiantini and Tiziana Tormena.

The paper includes a folded table with the photo-mosaic of the fantastic painted vault of the Giraffe Cave, a cave discovered by our party in the Libyan sector of the Jebel Uweinat. The cover of the issue shows a redrawn pictogram from the Giraffe Cave and the miniature oasis of Ain Duarmé, revisited by us, originally discovered in 1934 by Prof. Umberto Mònterin and Major Ottavio Rolle.

Copies of the journal can be ordered through the Sahara Journal Web Site.

	The handbook "Algeria in auto e moto su piste e deserti" by Stefano Laberio Minozzi and Fabio Tessarollo, comprehensive of the contribute by other Saharan travelers, presents many fantastic itineraries across the heart of the Algerian desert. The itineraries are described with original maps and GPS points (Global Positioning System). The new way of traveling in the deserts allowed by satellite navigation and intensive use of computers finds its natural expression in the attached CD-rom containing the GPS files recorded along the Algerian tracks. A fast and accurate upload to any GPS device is therefore possible. It is an absolute novelty that set a new standard for the sector of guide-books. The attached CD-rom makes this book useful and valuable also for the non-Italian reader. It is possible to buy this handbook directly from the Internet by visiting the Web Site of the Polaris Editor: www.polaris-ed.it
	How many thousand of guide books have been written about Egypt? Many hundred-thousands probably, each one repeating practically the same things. Anyway this last one is a little bit different in the way it encourages the independent tourist willing to discover by itself the fabled country of the Pharaohs, possibly without the passive attitude of the package tourists. The  "Egitto, le città, le oasi e la civiltà lungo il Grande Fiume" by Marco Pieri is completed by a chapter about the oasis written by  Alessandro Menardi Noguera, the Terramata Webmaster. It is possible to buy this handbook directly from the Internet by visiting the Web Site of the Polaris Editor: www.polaris-ed.it
	Sahara, Itinerari e Passioni - Numero 1, 2003 - I Monti della Pietra Purpurea. Sulle vie del Porfido Imperiale nel Deserto Orientale Egiziano -  Alessandro Menardi-Noguera. A travel in  Eastern Egyptian Desert region where the Old Romans quarried the Imperial Porphyry, the most famous and expensive colored marble of the antiquity. This marble was the symbol of the imperial dignity and was extensively used to carve sarcophagi for the emperors and to embellish the most  important architectural masterpieces of the World. Just to mention few: the  Pantheon in  Rome, Villa Adriana in Tivoli, San Vitale in Ravenna, San Ambrogio in Milan, Santa Sofia in Constantinople (Istanbul). It was also recovered from ancient ruins and monuments to be re-used in the Vatican, in San Pietro, in the Baptistery of Florence, in San Mark in Venice, in the Suleiman Mosques and Top Kapi palace in Istanbul and many other Renaissance buildings. The quarry complex of Mons Porphirites is a wonderful place where desert nature and history are amazingly intermingled.
	Sahara, Itinerari e Passioni - Numero 2, 2003 - Gebel Umm Shaumar and Wadi Isla, natural wonders along an ancient monks' trek  Alessandro Menardi-Noguera Two contributions from the Terramata Webmaster: The first deals with an exploratory trekking in the granite core of Sinai (Egypt). The second one, coauthor Stefano Laberio Minozzi, is a popularizing note about the use of the DEM (digital elevations models) and development of three-dimensional terrain models.
	Journal of Zoology - 2003 Table of Contents (Volume 259, Issue 4) - Decline Of The Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus Lervia) In Egypt During The 20th Century: Literature Review And Recent Observations - Nicolas Manlius, Alessandro Menardi-Noguera, Andras Zaboray The Barbary Sheep is the biggest mammal surviving from the prehistoric ages to the present in the Gilf Kebir and Jebel Uweinat, the core of the most hyperarid part of the Sahara. The few individuals surviving in the extreme conditions of this region represent also the most endangered species in Egypt. An account of the decline of this specie, largely due to over-hunting, which former area of distribution encompassed all the three deserts of Egypt, just two hundreds years ago.