Amguid Crater

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Amguid crater is an impact crater located in a remote and inaccessible region of southwestern Algeria. The crater cannot be approached by car because of the rocky terrain. The nearest inhabited place is more than a hundred km away, although just 13 km north of the crater is a permanent guelta surrounded by pre-Islamic tombs, which suggests that the place has long been inhabited. Some travellers report that this crater has been visited much less than the summit of Everest, at least in modern times.

The first mention of Amguid crater in scientific literature occurred in 1953 by French explorer Roman Karpoff, who noted that he has noticed a possible impact crater from a plane in 1948. The first recorded visit was by a French geologist Jean-Phillippe Lefranc in 1969.



The crater is about 500 m across and the approximate depth between the bottom of the crater and its rims is 65 m. Crater has been partly filled with a wind blown sand; the real depth of the crater below the layer of this sand has not been measured. The central part of Amguid crater is flat and covered with aeolian silts. These silts refract the light due to which the crater appears white when viewed from space.

The crater is thought to have been formed less than 100,000 years ago but older than 10,000 years. There is no research yet which would provide a more exact data.













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