Sahara – the largest desert on Earth with an area of 9,000,000 km2, located in North Africa. This desert is larger than the country of Brazil. The name Sahara has been mentioned since the 1st century AD. e. The name comes from the Arabic word for desert – sahra.
- BagLib: General information about Western Sahara, covering geography, climate, travel tips and popular sights.
The Sahara partially captures the territory of more than ten states – Algeria, Egypt, Western Sahara, Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, Chad. Vast expanses of the Sahara are uninhabited, sedentary life is limited to areas of oases. The Sahara is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Red Sea to the east, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains to the north, and the Sahel to the south. On the territory of the Sahara, Western Sahara, the Ahaggar Mountains, the Tibesti, Air, the Tenere Desert, the Great Eastern Erg, and the Great Western Desert are distinguished.
Climate – dry, subtropical, tropical. The temperature in winter is +13*С. The soil can freeze at night down to -18*C. In summer the temperature is +40*С. The soil warms up to + 80 * C during the day.
Resorts and attractions of the Sahara
According to HEALTH-BEAUTY-GUIDES, the Sahara is the cradle of civilization. What could be more amazing and exotic than a trip to the world’s greatest desert. The name Sahara comes from Arabic and means – a flat, flat place.
It is believed that it was the desertification of these swampy areas in the past that became the impetus for the development of world civilizations. This is one of the scientific hypotheses. People forced out into the areas of swampy valleys were forced to develop and improve their knowledge in the field of science and technology.
One of the most interesting and sensational unraveled mysteries of the 20th century. there was a discovery under the desert at a depth of 150 meters of a huge fresh sea.
Two highways pass through the desert, which begin in the city of Algiers. The Trans-Saharan “road of unity” goes through Ain Salah and Tamanrasset and ends in Lagos, has two branches: to Agadez (Niger) and Gao (Mali). The second road passes through the Tuat oasis. There are airports in the cities of Adrar, Tamanrasset and a number of others.
Tassilin-Adjer. The national park, part of the Sahara desert, has a dry climate with scant rainfall but does not merge with the dunes. This rocky plateau rises above the surrounding seas of sand, covering 27,800 square miles (72,000 square kilometers) in southeastern Algeria.
Interesting facts
Sahara in ancient Arabic means “desert”. The Sahara turned into a desert about
3,000 years ago (the process of desertification took several centuries).
Under the sands of the Sahara there are large pools of groundwater, including artesian ones. They provide water to oases.
The landscape of the Sahara is very diverse. Most of its territory (up to 70%) is occupied by flat clayey serirs, pebble regs and rocky plateaus (Hamada) with a height of less than 500 m, dropping to 200 m in coastal areas. Mountain performances are the highest in the Central Sahara – the Tibesti highlands (Emi-Kusi volcano, 3415 m) and Ahaggar (Fahaf mountain, 3003 m). These areas bear traces of active volcanism.
In 2008, an international team of scientists from Germany, Canada and the United States, led by Stefan Krepplinim from the Institute of Prehistoric Geology at the University of Cologne, as a result of research, found out that the Sahara turned into a desert about 2700 years ago as a result of a very slow climate evolution. Scientists managed to draw such conclusions based on the study of geological deposits raised from the depths of Lake Yoa, located in northern Chad. According to research results, 6000 years ago, trees grew in the Sahara and there were many lakes. Thus, this work of scientists refutes the existing theory that this part of Africa turned into a desert 5500 years ago and that the desertification process took only a few centuries.
