The largest and most famous desert is the Sahara. Its name translates as "sand". The Sahara desert is the hottest. It is believed that there is no water, vegetation, living creatures, but in fact this is not such an empty area as it seems at first glance. This unique place once looked like a huge garden with flowers, lakes, trees. But as a result of evolution, the most beautiful place turned into a huge desert. It happened about three thousand years ago, and yet five thousand years ago the Sahara was a garden.
Geographic features
The Sahara Desert is located in Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Chad, Libya, Morocco, Mali, Niger, Western Sahara and Mauritania. In summer, the sand warms up to a temperature of 80 degrees. This is one of the few places where evaporation exceeds several timesthe amount of precipitation. On average, about 100 mm of precipitation per year falls in the Sahara desert, and evaporation is up to 5500 mm. On hot, rainy days, raindrops disappear, evaporating before they hit the ground.
There is fresh water under the Sahara. There are huge reserves of it here: under Egypt, Chad, Sudan and Libya there is a huge lake with 370 thousand cubic meters of water.
The desertion of the Sahara began about five thousand years ago. The found rock paintings of those times prove that several thousand years ago there was a savannah in place of the sands with a large number of lakes and rivers. Now in these areas in the sand you can see huge channels. During the rains, they are filled with water, turning into full-fledged rivers.
The photo of the Sahara desert shows solid sands. They occupy a large area. In addition to them, in the desert there are sandy-pebble, pebble, stony, saline types of soil. The thickness of the sands is on average about 150 m, and the largest hills can reach a height of 300 m.
According to scientists, in order to scoop up all the sand from the desert, every person on Earth had to endure three million buckets.
Climate
Here is the real kingdom of wind and sand. In summer, the temperature in the Sahara desert rises to fifty degrees and above, and in winter - up to thirty. In the southern part of the Sahara, the climate is tropical, dry, and in the north - subtropical.
Rivers
Despite the drought and heat, there is life in the desert, but only near bodies of water. The biggest and greatest riveris the Nile. It flows through desert lands. In the last century, a reservoir was built on the banks of the Nile. Because of this, a large lake Toshka was formed. The Niger flows in the southwest, and within this river there are several lakes.
Mirages
The air temperature in the Sahara desert is so high that mirages are created at certain moments. Exhausted by the heat, travelers begin to see oases with green palm trees and water. It seems to them that these objects are two kilometers away from them, but in fact the distance is measured at five hundred or more kilometers. This is an optical illusion that occurs due to the refraction of light at the border of different temperatures. There are hundreds of thousands of such mirages per day in the desert. There are even special maps designed for travelers that tell you where, when and what to see.
Animals and flora
It is amazing that the desert is filled with a variety of animals. Over the millennia of evolution, they have adapted to survive in such conditions.
Sahara desert animals are found everywhere, but most often near rivers and lakes, oases. In total, there are about four thousand species. Even in such an arid region as Death Valley, where there is no rain for several years, there are a variety of fauna. You can even find thirteen species of fish here.
Lizards living in the desert are able to collect moisture from the environment. The Sahara is a habitat for camels, monitor lizards, scorpions, snakes, sand cats.
Allplants that grow in the desert have roots deep underground. They are able to get water at a depth of more than twenty meters. Mostly thorns and cacti grow in the Sahara.
Amazing weather facts
Where the Sahara desert is located, real miracles happen with the weather. As mentioned above, during the day the air warms up to fifty degrees and above, and at night the temperature drops sharply - to zero and below. There have even been snowfalls here. A photo of the Sahara desert in the snow can be seen in our article - this amazing phenomenon happens about once every hundred years.
Once every few years, in some parts of the desert, such an amount of precipitation falls that there is enough moisture to transform the area. It is rapidly turning into a flowering steppe. Plant seeds can lie in the sand for a long time, waiting for moisture.
There are oases in the desert. There is always a small pond in the center, and vegetation around it. Under such oases there are huge lakes, with an area larger than our Baikal. Groundwater feeds surface lakes.
Desert features
The desert is a unique natural phenomenon. Travelers can watch how huge dunes move. Due to the winds, the sands are shifting right before our eyes. And in the Sahara the wind blows every day. This is due to the relatively flat surface of the territory. And if there is no wind for at least twenty days a year, then this is real luck.
The size of the desert is constantly changing. If you look at satellite images, you can see howThe sugar expands and shrinks in size. This is due to the rainy seasons: where they passed in large numbers, everything is quickly covered with vegetation.
Sahara is the world's largest oil and gas deposit. There are deposits of iron, gold, uranium, copper, tungsten and other rare metals.
In the center of the desert is the Tibesti Plateau, which covers southern Libya and part of Chad. Above this territory rises the Emmi-Kusi volcano, about three and a half kilometers high. You can see snowfalls in this place almost every year.
The northern part of the desert is occupied by Tenere - a sandy sea with an area of approximately 400 kilometers. This natural creation is located in northern Niger and western Chad.
How people live
In those places where the Sahara desert is located, people once lived, trees grew, there were many lakes and rivers. After the area became deserted, people went to the banks of the Nile, forming the ancient Egyptian civilization.
In some areas of the Sahara, people are building houses out of s alt. They do not worry that their housing will melt from the water, because the rains here are rare and in small quantities. Most of them do not have time to reach the ground, evaporating in the clouds.
Population
Sahara is a sparsely populated area. About two million people live here, and most of the people live near water bodies, on islands with vegetation that allow them to feed livestock.
There were times when the territory was densely populated. In the desert, people are engaged in cattle breeding, and along the banks of rivers -agriculture. There are people involved in other crafts such as fishing.
Once upon a time, a trade route passed through the desert, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with northern Africa. Previously, camels were used to move goods, and now two highways have been laid across the Sahara, connecting several large cities. One of them passes through the largest oasis.
Desert location
Where is the Sahara desert and how big is it? This miracle of nature is located in Africa, in the northern part of the continent. It stretched from west to east for about five thousand kilometers, and from north to south for a thousand kilometers. The area of the Sahara is about nine million square kilometers. This is an area comparable to Brazil.
On the western side of the Sahara is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. In the north, the desert borders the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlas Mountains.
Sahara captures more than ten states. Most of its territory is not inhabited, as these lands are not suitable for human life. There are no oases, rivers, lakes. All settlements are located precisely along the banks of water bodies, and most of the population of the continent lives on the banks of the Nile.
Sahara scientists
Sahara continues to evolve. Gradually, it captures more and more new territories. According to scientists, every year it wins the land from people, turning them into sands. Scientists' forecasts are disappointing. If the processes of depopulation continue, then in two hundred years the whole of Africa will becomeone huge Sahara.
The results of the ongoing observations showed that every year the Sahara increases in size by ten kilometers. And every year the covered area increases. If the desert growth continues, all the rivers and lakes of the continent will dry up forever, forcing people to leave Africa and move to other countries of the world.
