The astonishing sand sea of Idehan Murzuq rises dramatically from the plateau of Wadi Berjuj. This is a place of astounding, glorious, breathtaking natural beauty; picture the most spectacular landscape of sand dunes you can imagine – this is it, and yet so much more! The Murzuq consists of wave upon wave of extravagantly shaped dunes, some as high as 200-300 meters, which span 35,000 square kilometers, or roughly the size of Switzerland. With the sun low in the sky the twilight bathes each angled dune face with its own soft, subtle hue, playing tricks of distance and perspective on your eyes. If you see nothing else of interest during your visit to Libya, these few moments would make the whole trip worthwhile. Close by is Wadi Matkhandoush where a 12km bluff of desert-varnished sandstone is home to hundreds of petroglyphs (rock carvings), some of which have been dated to 10,000BC. Wild animals such as elephants, giraffe, hippo and crocodile are depicted, as well as domesticated cattle and some human representations dating to a later period.