the location of Fort Zinderneuff

.The fictional fort can never be found on a real map. But where should it have been?

Bejoulais says: "Have you ever heard of our little post of Zinderneuf (far, far, north of Zinder which is in the Air Country) north of your Nigeria?"

I think that Zinder itself is said to be in the Air Country and north of Nigeria, and Fort Zindernuf to the north of Zinder. But exactly how "far, far north", and is it due north, or northwest, or northeast?

Zinder might be included within the borders of the Air Country, but it looks like it may be right on the edge of the Air Country, since it looks like it is a few hundred miles from Agades, the capital of the Air County.

Agades is north and a little west of Zinder. John and Digby pass through Agades on their long trek to escape from the Legion, before the fictional French mission to Agades in 1904, and thus Fort Zinderneuf should not have been too near Agades. If Fort Zinderneuf was as far north of Zinder as Agades was, it would have been either far west of Agades or far east of Agades, and so it was probably north east of Zinder.

When John, Digby, Hank,and Buddy plan to escape from the Legion, they hope to head south west toward British Nigeria. Thus Zinderneuf should be north of the eastern border of Nigeria, or even east of it. Again Fort Zinderneuf should be north east of Zinder.

John Geste passed though Agades some time before the french military mission of 1904 and some months later passes near Zinder, the headquarters of the French military Territory of the Sudan or of the Sahara. So the French had a military garrison at Zinder by 1904 at the latest.

But de Beaujolais said that Tokotu was the southernmost outpost of the military territory of the Sahara. Possibly Tokotu was garrisoned before Zinder. If so, it is possible that Tokotu was actually north of Zinder, which later took over the title of southernmost outpost. But if there already was a French garrison at Zinder by the time of the attack on Fort Zinderneuf, then Tototu would have to be at least a little bit south of Zinder.

Fort Zinderneuf was said to be over a hundred miles from Tokotu (and thus less than two hundred miles) but probably only a little bit more than a hundred miles since it was about two days's hard ride from Zinderneuf to Tokotu.

So I picture Tokotu as being almost a hundred miles from Zinder, east and a little to the south, with Fort Zindereuf a little over a hundred miles from Tokotu and almost due north of Tokotu. Thus Fort Zinderneuf would be closer to north of Zinder than to east of Zinder - but probably not very much closer.

Would about i50 miles a little closer to north than to due north east count as far, far to the north of Zinder? Perhaps Beaujolais exaggerated a little.

If my reasoning is sound, someone good with maps might extend a line exactly 45 degrees north east of Zinder and mark off areas about 125 to 175 miles from Zinder, and stretching several miles north of the line. And then that area might be studied for possible oasis. And if some are found, perhaps one day there might be a Fort Zinderneuf recreated by one of them for the tourists.