Mons Ater (Gebel as-Soda)

The Gebel as-Soda or Black Mountain is a platform between the oases of Djofra and Sebha in the Libyan desert. The area is covered with millions of blocks of black basalt; the sand that must once have been there, is blown away, creating a surface of a type that is called "desert pavement". The area is not flat: wadis cut through the landscape and on several places, you can see the conical shapes of ancient volcanos.

The Roman author Pliny the Elder mentions that the Romans already called this area the Black Mountain (Mons Ater):

This range of mountains extends in a prolonged chain from east to west: these have received from our people the name of the Black Mountains, either from the appearance which they naturally bear of having been exposed to the action of fire, or else from the fact that they have been scorched by the reflection of the sun's rays.^note[Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.35.]

The photos above were made along the road from Djofra to Sebha.