View source for In-Gall

{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
<!-- Infobox begins -->
{{Infobox settlement
|official_name          = In-Gall
|other_name             = In Gall, I-n-Gall, In-Gal, Ingal, Ingall
|native_name            =  <!-- for cities whose native name is not in English -->
|nickname               =
|settlement_type        = <!--For Town or Village (Leave blank for the default City)-->
|motto                  =
|image_skyline          =
|imagesize              =
|image_caption          =  View of in Gall, from the roof of a banco home.
|image_flag             =
|flag_size              =
|image_seal             =
|seal_size              =
|image_shield           =
|shield_size            =
|city_logo              =
|citylogo_size          =
|image_map              =
|mapsize                =
|map_caption            = Location of in Gall
|image_map1             =
|mapsize1               =
|map_caption1           =
|image_dot_map          =
|dot_mapsize            =
|dot_map_caption        =
|dot_x =  |dot_y =
|pushpin_map            = Niger<!-- the name of a location map as per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Location_map -->
|pushpin_label_position = <!-- the position of the pushpin label: left, right, top, bottom, none -->
|pushpin_map_caption    =
|pushpin_mapsize        =300
|subdivision_type       = Country
|subdivision_name       = {{flag|Niger}}
|subdivision_type1      = [[Regions of Niger|Region]]
|subdivision_name1      = [[Agadez Region]]
|subdivision_type2      = [[Departments of Niger|Department]]
|subdivision_name2      = In-Gall Department
|subdivision_type3      = [[Communes of Niger|Commune]]
|subdivision_name3      = In Gall
|subdivision_type4      =
|subdivision_name4      =
|government_footnotes   =
|government_type        =
|leader_title           =
|leader_name            =
|leader_title1          =  <!-- for places with, say, both a mayor and a city manager -->
|leader_name1           =
|leader_title2          =
|leader_name2           =
|leader_title3          =
|leader_name3           =
|leader_title4          =
|leader_name4           =
|established_title      =  <!-- Settled -->
|established_date       =
|established_title2     =  <!-- Incorporated (town) -->
|established_date2      =
|established_title3     =  <!-- Incorporated (city) -->
|established_date3      =
|area_magnitude         =
|unit_pref                = <!--Enter: Imperial, if Imperial (metric) is desired-->
|area_footnotes           =
|area_total_km2           =61171 <!--http://citypopulation.de/en/niger/admin/-->
|area_land_km2            = <!--See table @ Template:Infobox Settlement for details on automatic unit conversion-->
|area_water_km2           =
|area_total_sq_mi         =
|area_land_sq_mi          =
|area_water_sq_mi         =
|area_water_percent       =
|area_urban_km2           =
|area_urban_sq_mi         =
|area_metro_km2           =
|area_metro_sq_mi         =
|population_as_of               =2012-12-10
|population_footnotes           =
|population_note                =
|population_total               =51903
|population_density_km2         =
|population_density_sq_mi       =
|population_metro               =
|population_density_metro_km2   =
|population_density_metro_sq_mi =
|population_urban               =
|population_density_urban_km2   =
|population_density_urban_sq_mi =
|population_blank1_title        =
|population_blank1              =
|population_density_blank1_km2 =
|population_density_blank1_sq_mi =
|timezone               =
|utc_offset             =
|timezone_DST           =
|utc_offset_DST         =
|coordinates            = {{coord|16|47|10|N|06|56|01|E|region:NE|display=inline,title}}
|elevation_footnotes    =  <!--for references: use<ref> </ref> tags-->
|elevation_m            = 456
|elevation_ft           = 1499
|postal_code_type       =  <!-- enter ZIP code, Postcode, Post code, Postal code... -->
|postal_code            =
|area_code              =
|blank_name             =
|blank_info             =
|blank1_name            =
|blank1_info            =
|website                =
|footnotes              =
}} <!-- Infobox ends -->
'''In-Gall''' (var. '''In Gall''', '''I-n-Gall''', '''In-Gal''', '''Ingal''', '''Ingall''') is a department, commune and town in the [[Agadez Region]] of northeast [[Niger]], with a year-round population of less than 500. Known for its [[oasis]] and [[Salt pan (geology)|salt flats]], In-Gall is the gathering point for the [[Cure Salee]] festival of [[Tuareg people|Tuareg]] and [[Wodaabe]] pastoralists to celebrate the end of the rainy season each September. During the festival, In-Gall's population grows to several thousand nomads, officials, and tourists. As of 2011, the commune had a total population of 47,170 people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stat-niger.org/statistique/file/Annuaires_Statistiques/Annuaire_ins_2011/population.pdf|title=Annuaires_Statistiques|publisher=[[Institut National de la Statistique du Niger|Institut National de la Statistique]]|access-date=2 May 2013}}</ref>
In-Gall had been a stop on the main roads between the capital of Niger, [[Niamey]] (600&nbsp;km to the southwest), and the mining town of [[Arlit]] (200&nbsp;km to the northeast, 150&nbsp;km from the Algerian border) or the provincial capital [[Agadez]] (100&nbsp;km to the east).  In the 1970s, the main road was repaved to transport [[uranium]] from the French-owned mines in [[Arlit]], but the new road bypassed In-Gall, ending its use as a [[wikt:way station|waystation]].  Since then, its population has dropped from almost 5,000 to less than 500.
During the Tuareg insurgency of the 1990s, In-Gall was a prime fortification of the Niger armed forces, and when peace was concluded in 2000 the old fort was reportedly abandoned.
<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_17/letters/nigerltr1.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=11 September 2006 |archive-date=12 April 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180412123614/http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_17/letters/nigerltr1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Description==
<blockquote>"''InGall, an oasis town in a semi-desert zone that forms the gateway to the Sahara. InGall is a conglomeration of mud houses, whose gardens, in contrast to the barren landscape in which the town is set, are filled with fruit trees and vegetable patches.''"</blockquote><ref>[http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10325-1168679,00.html Iain Gately, ''Sunday Times'', 2004.]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==History==
The history, archaeology, and culture of the In-Gall area has been extensively studied, most notably by the French anthropologist and archaeologist couple, Suzanne and Edmond Bernus.<ref>While the Bernus have written several works on the area, the most notable is the five volume ''La Région d'In Gall—Tegidda n Tesemt (Niger): programme archéologique d'urgence, 1977–1981.'' which indexed ancient burial mounds, trade routes, metal working, the first medieval Berber occupation sites, and the unique salt extraction economy which was fading after the construction of the paved highway in the 1970s. Prior to this they produced a single volume work: [[Edmond Bernus]] and [[Suzanne Bernus]]. Du sel et des dattes: introduction à l'étude de la communauté d'In Gall et de Tegidda-n-tesemt. Etudes Nigeriennes, 31. Niamey: Centre Nigérien de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, (1972).</ref>
In-Gall is not only a prominent Tuareg seasonal centre, to which certain clans return each year, but it has a history as a stop in the [[Trans-Saharan trade]], was an eastern outpost of the [[Songhay Empire]] in the 16th century, was an important centre of the [[Sultanate of Agadez|Aïr Sultanate]] thereafter, and became a French colonial fort in an often hostile region in the early 20th century.
===Pre-history===
Archaeological evidence shows the area as a centre of prehistoric populations dating back some eight thousand year to when it sat in the midst of a now dry [[Azawagh]] river valley, fed by the Aïr Massif and flowing south to the [[Niger River]]. Of particular note have been thousands of pre-common era stone burial mounds which suggest a common culture in the area.  Archeologists have also found in the In-Gall region many of the earliest mosques in Niger, dating back to early Berber occupations before 1000CE.<ref>Bernus, Suzanne, and Patrice Cressier. La région d'In Gall-Tegida N Tesemt (Niger): programme archéologique d'urgence, 1977–1981. IV, Azelik-Takadda et l'implantation sédentaire médiévale. Etudes nigériennes, 51. Niamey: Institut de recherches en sciences humaines, 1991.</ref>
<!--
===Central Saharan trade route===
===Songhay===
<ref>Alidou, Husseina & Ekkehardt Wolff. 2001. "On the Non-Linear Ancestry of Tasawaq (Niger), or: How “Mixed” Can a Language Be?" in ed. Derek Nurse, Historical Language Contact in Africa, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.</ref>
===Agadez Sultanate===
[[Kel Fadey]]
===French occupation===
===Post independence===
-->
==Salt extraction==
In-Gall is intimately linked with the nearby salt industry at [[Tegguiada In Tessoum]], around 15&nbsp;km to the north. Teguidda, on the site of an ancient lake bed, floods as water washes down from the [[Aïr Massif]] to the east each year, producing natural salt ponds. The population of In-Gall maintain and harvest from evaporation ponds here, sending labourers from the local clans to work the salt and transport it back to In-Gall at the end of the season.  In-Gall is near enough that, unlike the oasis town of [[Fachi]] where plots are owned by [[Agadez]]-based Tuareg clans and worked by a permanent population, the workers at Teguidda return to In-Gall for the remainder of the year.  Teguidda also lacks a stable oasis, which provides In-Gall with market gardens and date palm farming on a year-round basis.  Prior to its decline in the 20th century — because of the smaller scale of the In-Gall salt markets as well as its easy access by road — In-Gall was once a destination of the [[Azalai]] salt caravans, in which Tuareg merchants transported salt from the markets here across the [[Sahel]] for agricultural and medicinal uses.
==Uranium mining==
In 2004, a Canadian corporation was granted a government license to mine for uranium in the area.  Northwestern Mineral Ventures was awarded the Irhazer and Ingall concessions, each {{convert|2000|km2}} in size.  Mines would reportedly be "open pit" strip mines.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060708035630/http://www.stockinterview.com/nwt.html http://www.stockinterview.com/nwt.html]</ref> More than 100 uranium exploration licenses have been granted in the [[Azawagh]] area since 2004 to foreign firms from China (over 40%), Canada, and India.<ref>See the map on page 9 of this document: ftp://perso.numericable.fr/DOSSIER_TCHINAGHEN_AOUT2008.pdf{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Since 2007, a Chinese mining consortium, whose license covers an area north of In-Gall, has carried out infrastructural work for new uranium mine at [[Azelik]], some 85&nbsp;km north of in Gall, which includes extending roads from In-Gall to the site. Nigerien human rights, environmental and Tuareg groups have argued that mining activities in this region are a threat to scarce water resources, upon which pastoralists depend.  The short rainy season in the [[Azawagh]] area north and west of In-Gall makes the region the northern destination for a cattle and camel herding [[transhumance]] cycle, which sees communities travel as far south as [[Burkina Faso]] during the dry months.<ref>http://www.sahara-sahel.com/articles/avenit/ave.html{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==Dinosaurs==
In-Gall is also famous to outsiders for its palaeontological digs, most notably the [[Jobaria tiguidensis]], and the remains of petrified forests dating back 135 million years.<ref>See The Dinosaurs of InGall [http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/feature_12_03_2000_e.htm http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/feature_12_03_2000_e.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928072620/http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/feature_12_03_2000_e.htm |date=28 September 2006 }}</ref>
==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Abdoulkader Aghali, Koffi Kouassi. [http://www.lasdel.net/spip/IMG/pdf/198.pdf Observatoire de la décentralisation au Niger: N° 73 La commune d'In Gall]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (3, 2008). Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local, (LASDEL), Niamey.   Retrieved 2009-03-16.
* Abdoulkader Aghali, Salekh Rhousseini. [http://www.lasdel.net/spip/IMG/pdf/172.pdf Observatoire de la décentralisation au Niger: N° 61 La commune d'In Gall]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (2, October 2007).  Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local, (LASDEL), Niamey.   Retrieved 2009-03-16.
* Samuel Decalo. Historical Dictionary of Niger.  Scarecrow Press, London and New Jersey (1979). {{ISBN|0-8108-1229-0}}
* [https://archive.today/20130115032446/http://intou.phost.be/page.php?ID=15 Niger: Intou.org]. Accessed 2009-03-27.
* Jolijn Geels. Niger. Bradt London and Globe Pequot New York (2006). {{ISBN|1-84162-152-8}}.
* [http://www.palinstravels.co.uk/book-2141 Michael Palin's Travel entry for Ingall]
* [http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/9_26_2000.htm description of the town during the Cure Salee festival of 2000.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908111934/http://www.projectexploration.org/niger2000/9_26_2000.htm |date=8 September 2006 }}
==Other Links==
* [http://www.ingall-niger.org Ingall]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928090311/http://www.4cornersclub.com/local/image.php?ID=2863&Country=128 Photo of Tuareg men at Ingal Market]
* [http://www.bourlingueurs.com/niger/index.htm photographs of the InGall market taken by members of a French aid convoy in 2003.]
{{Coord|16|47|N|6|56|E|region:NE_type:city(8215)}}
{{Communes of Niger}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Communes of Niger]]
[[Category:Waystations]]
[[Category:Sahara]]
[[Category:Oases of Niger]]
[[Category:Tuareg]]