Description
The world’s largest desert that stretches across the northern part of the African Continent. The name Sahara itself means “wilderness” in Arabic.
It occupies about one-third of the total area of the African Continent. Most of it is rocky desert except for some dunes, and it is rich in underground resources such as oil, coal and iron ore.
It borders the Nile in the east, the Red Sea in the broader sense, and the desert region of Saudi Arabia, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea in the north, and the transitional region called the Sahel (periphery) in the south. The annual rainfall is 100 mm or less, and most of it consists of a sandy desert called an erg and a rocky desert called Hamad. It is a plateau at an altitude of about 300 m, but in the center there are the Hoggar Mountains (highest point 3003 m) and the Tibesti Mountains (highest point 3415 m).
Since the southern part belongs to the tropics, it is extremely hot compared to other deserts, reaching 40 to 50 ° C during the summer daytime, and recorded 84 ° C in Tamanrasset, Algeria. The rain that falls in the surrounding area becomes groundwater to create an oasis, where transhumance and nomadism are carried out. Irrigated agriculture such as dates can also be seen. There are many salt lakes in the northwest.
Various people also live in the Sahara Desert area and speak their own languages. As mentioned above, the movement and settlement of people have been repeated in this area along with major environmental changes. This makes the Sahara region the most anthropologically and linguistically unclear place on the African Continent.
