Here, just for a bit of fun, we present some fascinating facts about the Sahara Desert, the most talked about desert in the world which covers the lion’s share of northern Africa. Many people think of sand dunes, camels, oases, bedouins, mirages, and palm trees when they think of the Sahara. But it’s a lot more interesting than that. This article highlights facts about the Sahara desert that you may not be aware of. Things you didn’t know you didn’t know. Have a read and surprise your friends with your new-found knowledge.
Facts about the Sahara Desert:
The Sahara desert is a wide hot desert between two cold deserts!
Well, it’s a bit of a cheat, but a common misunderstanding is that the Sahara is the biggest desert in the world. It is indeed the largest hot desert, where average daytime temperatures can reach between 38-46 C. But the definition of a desert has nothing to do with temperature; a desert is defined as an area having very little precipitation, usually less than 250 mm (10 inches) a year. So the Sahara is only the third largest desert in the world behind the cold deserts of the Arctic and Antarctica far to the north and south respectively.
The Unstable Size of the Sahara Desert.
Despite covering about 9,000,000 square kilometres, the Sahara Desert’s geographical area isn’t stable as it expands and shrinks with the change of seasons.
How The Sahara Desert Was Formed.
The area that is now the Sahara desert was once an ocean, but when the African tectonic plate collided with Eurasia and the Indian subcontinental plate also crashed into Eurasia, the Alps, and the Himalayas were formed, changing the earth’s weather patterns and raising up northern Africa so the African ocean dried up, becoming a dust bowl. This occurred during the Pliocene period between 7-9 million years ago.
The Reasons Behind the Increasing Area of the Sahara Desert.
Scientists from the University of Maryland have conducted a study that shows that the total area of the Sahara has increased by 10% since 1920. Over the years various researchers have suggested reasons for such change including normal weather cycles and climate change which has been triggered by us as human beings.
It seems that the Sahara has a 20,000-year cycle over which time it changes from savannah to desert and back again. The Sahara will likely be green again in about 15,000 years if further human activity doesn’t break the cycle.
Countries that the Sahara Desert Embraces.
The Sahara desert covers about a third of the African continent and spans about 10 countries including large parts of Egypt, Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Sudan as well as the southern areas of Morocco and Tunisia. The northern areas of Morocco and northwest Algeria are protected from its reach by the Atlas Mountains.
The Origin of The Sahara’s name.
Regarding the name, Sahara has its origins in the Arabic word “Sahara الصحراء” which is a broken plural form of the word Sahra which means “desert”.
The Sahara Desert is not just Sand Dunes.
The Sahara is classified as a desert due to the dearth of precipitation in the region. But sand dunes account for only about 25% of its total area. Other aspects include sandy flatlands, beaches on the coast, high rocky plateaus, mountains that can be covered by snow, gravel plains, salt flats, and huge rocky expanses called hamada, littered with debris where rocks have been shattered by the alternating incessant heat of the daytime sun and the sometimes freezing cold nights. The hamada forms the largest part.
The Highest Point in the Sahara.
Apart from the Sahara’s famous dunes, which can reach heights of up to 180 metres ( 590 ft.) in places, the highest summit is Mount Koussi, which is an extinct volcano in Chad with an altitude of 3,415 metres (11,204 feet).
The Diversity of Wildlife in the Sahara.
Despite having one of the harshest climates on Earth, the Sahara has a surprisingly diverse flora and fauna which have evolved to be superbly adapted to the severe conditions. And new species are being discovered all the time. The wildlife therefore isn’t restricted to camels and goats.
There are also apex predators such as the cheetah, smaller carnivores like the fennec fox, graceful gazelles, birds from the largest in the world, the ostrich down to tiny songbirds, reptiles including monitor lizards and snakes besides potentially lethal creatures like the hunter scorpion and the venomous sand viper. And there are thousands of different species of insects and spiders.
The Sahara Has a Human Population of Millions.
The Sahara isn’t only home to a rich diversity of wildlife, but about 2.5 million people live there too, although that works out at less than one person per square kilometre. They are mostly desert nomads with Arabic or Amazigh (Berber) origins. They move from water source to water source and build their temporary tents and bivouacs as shelter. Some of their tents are rather beautiful and luxurious. They raise herds of sheep, goats and camels taking them from one place to another.
The Importance of Trade in the Sahara.
The importance of trade in the Sahara desert has declined over the last couple of centuries, but before that, it played a vital role in the economy of Africa. Van trains were used to carry goods such as copper, salt and gold. One time, a caravan of 12,000 camels was registered transferring goods between Egypt and Sudan.
Today, metallic metals such as iron ore and copper, phosphates, coal, oil and natural gas are all extracted from various areas in the Sahara and tourism is becoming increasingly important to support the local economies that don’t necessarily benefit from the exploitation of the natural resources.
