The Sahara is the biggest desert in the world

Its parched, forbidding landscape took shape over thousands of years, but even today,
the Sahara is constantly
changing.
Why is this desert so
important to Africans? How
do people survive its harsh,
dry climate? And is the
Sahara getting bigger, or
smaller?
By studying satellite photos,
some scientists have come
to believe that the Sahara
regularly shrinks and grows.
In the early 1980s, the
Sahara's
southern
edge
expanded into the Sahel, a
dry band that separates the
desert from the savanna. But by the mid-1980s this area was green and wet again.
The Sahara receives less than three inches of rain a year; Chicago's annual precipitation,
its combined rainfall, snow and sleet, is 33.34 inches (84.68 cm). Even in the Sahara's
wettest areas, it may rain twice one week and not rain again for years.
For centuries caravaneers have traveled through the Sahara desert. Even though there
are many oases in the Sahara, the desert is so immense that travelers may go for days
to reach them.

Oases make trade possible between the ports of North Africa and savanna markets
further south. Without these wet rest stops for humans and animals, crossing the desert
would be almost impossible.
As the world's biggest desert, the Sahara covers a third of the African continent-an area
about the size of the United States.

The Sahara: Facts, Climate and Animals of the Desert

Kim Ann Zimmermann, LiveScience Contributor | September 12, 2012 04:50pm ET

The Sahara is the worlds largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the
planet. It is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold
deserts.
At 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers), the Sahara, which is Arabic for
"The Great Desert," engulfs most of North Africa. The desert covers large sections of
Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and
Tunisia.

This is the image many people have of the Sahara: a vast sea of sand dunes. The terrain is actually quite
varied.
Credit: apdesign | ShutterStock

The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the western edge, the Atlas Mountains
and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea on the east, and the Sudan and the
valley of the Niger River on the south. The Sahara is divided into western Sahara, the
central Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Air Mountains, an area of
desert mountains and high plateaus, Tnr desert and the Libyan desert, which is the
most arid region.

In the north, the Sahara reaches to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya.
In Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara experiences a more Mediterranean climate
with a winter rainy season.
Major cities located in the Sahara include Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, the
capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bechar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaia, and El
Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.

Climate and geography of the Sahara

The Saharas northeasterly winds can reach hurricane level and often give rise to sand
storms and dust devils. Half of the Sahara receives less than an inch of rain per year, and
the rest receives up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) per year. The infrequent rain is usually
torrential.
The highest peak in the Sahara is the volcano Emi Koussi (11,204 feet or 3,415 meters)
in the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. The deserts other mountains and mountain
ranges include the Ar Mountains, Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti
Mountains, Adrar des Iforas and the Red Sea hills.

The Hoggar Mountains in Algeria are in the central Sahara.

Credit: Pichugin Dmitry | ShutterStock

Many people imagine the Sahara as dotted with sand dunes, and the desert does have
its share of ergs, which are large areas of shifting sand dunes, with some of some of
them reaching 590 feet (180 meters). However, most of the Sahara is characterized as
rocky hamada, a type of desert landscape that has very little sand and is made up of
primarily barren, hard, rocky plateaus.
With the exception of the Nile River, the Saharas rivers and streams are irregular or
seasonal. The Nile crosses the desert from its origins in central Africa to empty into the
Mediterranean.
The central part of the Sahara has extremely limited vegetation. The northern and
southern reaches of the desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland
and desert shrub, with trees and taller shrubs.

The Addax nasomaculatus, also known as the screwhorn antelope, is the Sahara's largest indigenous
mammal

Animals of the Sahara

Thousands of years ago, the Sahara had enough water so that people and animals were
able to survive on the edge of the desert. There is evidence that the area was able to
sustain river animals such as crocodiles. Fossils of dinosaurs, including Afrovenator,
Jobaria and Ouranosaurus, have also been discovered in the desert.
Prehistoric rock paintings also depict cattle, giraffes, elephants and lions that roamed a
once-lush Sahara.
Today, there is little water or vegetation to sustain life in most part of the Sahara. Some
exceptions include the Nile Valley, a few oases, and the northern highlands, where
Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow. The change occurred in
about 1600 B.C., after shifts in the Earth's axis increased temperatures and decreased
precipitation.
Camels, most often associated with the Sahara, were introduced to the desert around
200 A.D. Their advantages over the horses they replaced include soft feet that are
aligned so that they can move quickly and easily through sand and their ability to go for
up to 17 days without food or water.

The venomous deathstalker scorpion can be 4 inches in length.

Credit: Ester Inbar

Rodents, snakes and scorpions thrive in the desert environment. The desert is home to
the deathstalker scorpion, which can be nearly 4 inches (10 cm) in length. Its dangerous
venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin.
Among the 40-plus species of rodents in the Sahara is the jerboa, related to the mouse,
rat and squirrel. To keep cool, the jerboa burrows underneath the desert's sands to more
humid soils.
The Addax nasomaculatus, also known as the screwhorn antelope, is the Sahara's largest
indigenous mammal. It travels in small herds throughout the Western Sahara, Mauritania
and Chad. Instead of drinking water, it sucks moisture from the desert grasses and
bushes. Its oversized hooves make the addax adept at moving through the Sahara's
loose sand.
Jackals and several types of hyenas are among the carnivores that roam the Sahara.
Weighing less than 3 pounds (1.4 kg), the Mall Fennec Fox is another carnivore that
makes its home in tunnels in the sand dunes during the day and comes out at night to
prey on the rodents.
Kim Ann Zimmermann
The Sahara: Facts, Climate and Animals of the Desert
Kim Ann Zimmermann, LiveScience Contributor | September 12, 2012 04:50pm ET

Dunes
Dunes are mounds of sand that have been blown and shaped by the wind. Dunes can be
as big as a tall hill. Some dunes move across the desert, but some stay in one place and
become fossilizedhard and permanent.
There are different types of dunes. When the wind blows in one direction, long curved
dunes called barchan dunes form. When the wind blows from two directions, long,
straight dunes called linear dunes form. When the wind comes from several directions,
star dunes form. From above, this kind of dune looks like a star, and can be more than a
thousand feet high.

Exploring from the Sky

Can someone explore the Sahara without going there? Yes. In fact, some of the most
exciting discoveries about the Sahara have been made using explorers high in the sky
satellites. Thanks to these sky-high explorers, we know more about the history of this
amazing desert.
The satellites send down images, or pictures, of Earth. Some are taken by the SIR-A radar
system. It can make images that show what is under the ground, below the sand. These
images have shown geologiststhat, in ancient times, there were lakes, mountains, and
valleys where the Sahara is now.
So the Sahara was not always a forbidding desert. Long ago, dinosaurs and giant
crocodiles lived there. After the dinosaurs became extinct, giraffes, elephants, hippos,
and other animals lived in the Sahara. So did people. They were shepherds and hunters

who had small villages and farmed the land. There were forests and grasslands in the
Sahara.
Then, about 6,000 years ago, the climate began to change. Within a few centuries, the
Sahara became the desert that it is today. Why? Scientists think that conditions in the
atmosphere changed so that the Sahara got warmer and drier. As the climate changed,
fewer and fewer plants grew there, and the people had to move to places where there
was more water.
Satellite images help people make other discoveries in the Sahara. With these pictures,
archaeologists can find where ancient people had their settlements. Paleontologists
scientists who study fossils to learn about prehistoric lifeuse satellite images to help
them find the best places to search for clues to life millions of years ago.

What makes the Sahara a desert?

The Sahara is one of the hottest places on Earth. Even though temperatures there may
rise to 136 F (57.7 C), its dryness, not heat, that makes a place like the Sahara a desert.
The frozen continent of Antarctica is so dry that some scientists consider it a desert, too.
As the world's largest desert, the Sahara receives less than three inches (7.6 cm) of rain
a year. Even in its wettest areas, rain may arrive twice in one week, then not return for
years.