The Tuareg silver pendant known as the Southern Cross or Cross of Agadez is a well known piece of jewelry. There are 21 designs that are associated with oases and villages of the Air and Azawagh regions or with Tuareg tribal groups of northern Niger. Many theories have been offered as to their origins. The term 'cross' is a European term that has no equivalent in Tamasheck, the language of the Tuaregs. They themselves refer to these silver pendants as 'teneghelt' from the verb 'enghel' that means 'to pour' in reference to the lost wax method of pouring out the melted wax and pouring in the hot silver, the very method of how most Tuareg silver crosses are produced one by one to this day.

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