Tajarhi was and still is the southernmost village in Fezzan, located at the desert trade routes to the Niger River, Lake Chad and the Sudan.[5] Among the goods traded north were slaves,[6] and the trade in slaves through Tajarhi increased after Tunisia and Algeria abolished the trade in 1846 and 1848, respectively.[7] Tajarhi was described by British naval officer George Francis Lyon in 1819 as a lush oasis with groves of date palms and wild ducks on the brackish lakes.[5]