Niger

Niger is landlocked, largely desert, and among the least-visited countries in the world - and yet Agadez was once one of the great cities of the Saharan trade, a junction point for caravans crossing between sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean. The mud minaret of its mosque is the tallest in the world. The Air Mountains rise from the desert in a way that makes no geological sense and is all the more striking for it. The Wodaabe people hold the Gerewol festival each year - a male beauty contest in which the men dress and compete for the women's attention, an inversion that arrives with full ceremony.

Travel advisory Border regions carry significant security advisories. Check current conditions before planning travel.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Agadez's trading quarter, Air Mountain treks, Gerewol festival timings and the desert crossing logistics that require more planning than most journeys but return something most journeys do not.