the lack of infrastructure has hampered the development of tourism. The Saharomontane flora and fauna, which include the rhim gazelle and Barbary sheep, have adapted to the mountains, yet the climate has not always been as harsh. Greater biodiversity existed in the past, as evidenced by scenes portrayed in rock and parietal art found throughout the range, which date back several millennia, even before the arrival of the Toubou. The isolation of the Tibesti has sparked the cultural imagination in both art and literature. Toponymy The Tibesti Mountains are named for the Toubou people, also written Tibu or Tubu, that inhabit the area. In the Kanuri language, tu means "rocks" or "mountain" and bu means "a person" or "dweller," and thus Toubou roughly translates to "people of the mountains" and Tibesti to the "place where the mountain people live". Most of the mountain names are derived from Arabic as well as the Tedaga and Dazaga languages. The term ehi precedes the names of peaks and rocky hills, emi precedes those of larger mountains, and tarso precedes high plateaus and gently-sloping mountainsides. For example, the Ehi Mousgou is a stratovolcano near Tarso Voon. The name Toussidé means "that which killed the Tou," as in the Toubou, reflecting the danger of the still active volcano. The name of Bardaï, the principal town in the range, means "cold" in Chadian Arabic. In the Tedaga language, the town is known as Goumodi, which means "red pass," signifying the color of the mountains at dusk. Geography Location The mountains lie on the border between Chad and Libya, straddling the Chadian region of Tibesti and the Libyan districts of Murzuq and Kufra, around north of N'djamena and south-southeast of Tripoli. The range is adjacent to Niger and located approximately halfway between the Gulf of Sidra and Lake Chad, just south of the Tropic of Cancer. The East African Rift is to the east and the Cameroon line lies to the southwest. The range is in length, in width, and spans . It draws a large triangle with sides of and vertices facing south, northwest and northeast in the heart of the Sahara, making it the largest mountain range of the desert. Topography The highest peak in the Tibesti Mountains, as well as the highest point in Chad and the Sahara Desert, is the Emi Koussi, located at the southern end of the range. Other prominent peaks