Sahara Desert, Egypt: description, photo, location on the map, how to get there. Rock painting in the Sahara Desert

DESERT SUGAR - INTERESTING FACTS.

The Sahara is the largest desert on Earth, with an area of \u200b\u200babout 9 million km2, this is slightly less area United States of America. The Sahara is located in North Africa, on the territory of more than ten states (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan). The Sahara does not lend itself to categorization within one type of desert, although the sandy-rocky type is predominant. There are many regions in the desert: Tenere, Greater Eastern Erg, Greater Western Erg, Tanezruft, Hamada al-Hamra, Erg-Igidi, Erg-Shesh, Arabian, Libyan, Nubian deserts. The name "Sahara" is the Arabic translation of the Tuareg word "tener", meaning desert.

In 2008, an international team of scientists from Germany, Canada and the United States found out that the Sahara became a desert about 2,700 years ago as a result of very slow climate evolution. Scientists were able to make such conclusions based on the study of geological deposits raised from the depths of Lake Joa, located in the north of Chad. According to research results, about 6 thousand years ago, trees grew in the Sahara and there were many lakes. Thus, this work of scientists refutes the existing theory about the transformation of this part of Africa into a desert 5.5 thousand years ago and the fact that the process of desertification took only a few centuries. About 160 thousand mirages are observed annually in the Sahara. They are stable and wandering, vertical and horizontal. Even special maps of caravan routes have been compiled with an assessment of the places where mirages are usually observed. These maps show where wells, oases, palm groves, mountain ranges.

The Sahara has a combined climate: subtropics and tropics.

The local conditions are practically unsuitable for human habitation, but the tribes of nomads (Tuareg and Teda), probably, cannot imagine another life and feel great in the world's largest uninhabited territory.

Geographically, the Sahara is rocky. It includes underground rivers that sometimes flow outward to form oases.

There are dunes that reach heights of up to 180 meters.

It may sound strange, but the peaks in the desert are covered with snow in winter. The eastern part of the Sahara, the Libyan Desert, is dry and has several oases.

The Sahara receives only 20 cm of rain per year. This is one of the reasons that only 2 million people live here.

During the last Ice Age, the desert was larger than it is now. The Sahara has one of the most violent climates in the world. A predominantly northeasterly wind often leads to sandstorms.

In the desert there is the City of Tidikelt, which has not received a single drop of rain for ten years.

The average temperature in the Sahara is 30 degrees Celsius, and the maximum is 50 degrees, in winter the temperature often drops below zero;

Only a few animals can survive in the Desert - Camels, sand snakes, scorpions, monitor lizards.

About 500 species of flora survive here;

Amy Cussi is the highest point in the Sahara mountains. Its height is 3415 meters.

Sahara Desert on Africa map
(pictures are clickable)

The Sahara Desert is located in North Africa, occupies about a quarter of the mainland and is the largest tropical desert on the planet. Geographically it covers the southern regions of Morocco and Tunisia, most of Egypt, Algeria, Mauritania and Libya, the northern territories of Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan. The maximum length from the northern end to the southern is about 2000 km, and from the western to the eastern end - 5700 km. Since the boundaries of the Sahara are determined by individual researchers in different ways, then estimates of the area vary - from 6 to 8 million km².

Climate in the Sahara Desert

Climatic conditions are characterized by high air temperatures with very large daily and annual fluctuations. Daytime temperatures in some areas rise to 56-58 ° C, thus approaching the maximum on the planet. At night, on the other hand, soil frosts are frequent. In the central mountain ranges, nighttime temperatures are recorded as low as -18 ° C. Sandstorms, which do not subside for several days, are very frequent, and the wind speed reaches 50 m / sec.

The average annual precipitation in the marginal areas is 100-200 mm, on the plains less than 50 mm (in the mountains, as a rule, less than 100 mm). In the central part of the desert, rains may not be seen for several seasons in a row.

But one can also observe such a situation when, at the last exodus of forces, rolling from one dune to another, as a certain gift of higher powers, a green oasis with palm trees and murmuring water appears on the horizon. It is he who constantly reminds that the desert is alive, which means that it is able to surprise its visitors again and again.

Flora and fauna

Sahara Desert Photos

Vegetation for the most part is perennial grasses and shrubs that are resistant to droughts and have a rather deep (reaching 15–20 m) root system, as well as ephemeral plants, the period of development of which falls on the time after rains. In general, the vegetation cover is rather sparse, in places where sand is accumulated it is completely absent. The mountainous areas boast a wide variety of vegetation, where many endemic plants can be found. Of the trees and shrubs, the most common are some types of acacias, tamarisks, ephedra, gorse.

The fauna in the most arid regions is very poor (with the exception of birds, about half of whose species in sahara desert flight). There are a total of about 60 species of mammals, including the Saharan hare, several species of gazelles and the ungulate, the antelope mendes, which is most adapted to a long existence without water. Among the predators, you can find fennec fox, jackal, cheetah, hyena. Of the rodent family, gerbils and jerboas are common. A large number of reptiles: lizards, monitor lizards and snakes.

Real life in the desert begins at night. Sunset gives the animals a signal to leave their daytime shelters and start an active search for food, as well as enjoy the fresh wind and coolness.

Sahara Desert Photos

The population of the Sahara, excluding the densely populated areas in the valley and the Nile delta, is about 3 million people. Two-thirds of the inhabitants (the density is 1000 people per km2 and more) are concentrated mainly in the northern part of the Algerian Sahara, along the outskirts of the western and southern regionsas well as in oases. The ethnic composition is very variegated with a predominance of the Berber-Arab population. The Ahaggar Highlands and the Air Plateau are the place of residence of Tuaregs (nomadic pastoralists), whose population is about 30 thousand people. The Tibesti Highlands are the habitat of the Negroid Tubu tribe.

The traditional occupations of the local population are nomadic animal husbandry and the collection of wild edible plants and fruits. In Voazis, agriculture is widespread, where date palm crops and vegetables are grown. Nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are engaged in breeding camels, sheep and goats. With the onset of spring, they move in search of pastures for them, and winter in oases.

In general, the Sahara Desert is unique phenomenoncreated by nature. Nothing shocks the human mind more than red-hot "red" sands, black rocks and majestic sand dunes.

A truly endless sea of \u200b\u200bsand, stone and clay, with only rare green spots of oases and a single river is the Sahara Desert. Its territory is eight million square kilometers... This is more Australia and slightly less Brazil! Five thousand kilometers of heat and sand, from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Red Sea. The origin of the great Sahara desert keeps many secrets and mysteries.

Scientists have conducted computer simulations of the Earth's climate. Research has shown the following:

• the desert exists on the site of the ancient Tethys Ocean, which existed in the Mesozoic era eleven million years ago (the remains of this ocean are the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas).
• during the Paleolithic period (10-12 thousand years ago), the climate in North Africa was much more humid. The Sahara was not a desert, but a steppe-savanna.
• about 5-7 thousand years ago, a drought began, the land of the Sahara was losing moisture more and more, and the grasses were drying up.

The skeleton of a whale in the Sahara desert

The photo shows the remains of a 15-meter beast that died thirty-seven million years ago and sank to the bottom of the ancient Tethys Ocean. And in Egypt there is also the Valley of Whales, included in the list " World heritage UNESCO".

There is one important point in the situation with these remains in the desert - the rate of growth of the soil level on average, according to official research, is 1-2 mm per year. Over 37 million years, several tens of kilometers should have accumulated, and these bones lie on the surface. And not only in the Sahara, there are such remains on the surface of other deserts, in the Gobi (Mongolia), Atacama (Chile). How did they come to the surface - they were probably brought by the same flood, which happened relatively recently - only 10 thousand ago.

The territory of the Sahara Desert is not all covered with sand. But we are presented with the image of this desert: solid sands, dunes with rare rocky massifs.

But there is still a lot of sand - where does it come from ?! Different versions are being put forward:

• The classic assumes that the sand is from the Tethys ocean. But it's not clear why there was so much sand at the bottom of the ocean.
• There is a version that the sand is the result of technological processing of rocks. V. Kondratov expresses such a version and connects it with aliens, who for some reason needed it
• I found a version, quite plausible, associated with the action of flood waves. More details here:

Little known landscapes of the Sahara Desert

Chad. 16 ° 52 ′ 24.00 ″ N 21 ° 35 ′ 31.00 ″ E

Egyptian desert

All these are remnants of the pristine surface. They look like islands. The rest of the territory might not be so strong, the flood carried away the rest of the soil as the waves passed through the continent. The washed-off soil is the sands of the Sahara. Soil, rocks washed by water erosion of a grain of sand flow to a grain of sand.

In general, not all Sahara is "yellow". There is the White Desert in its eastern part. It is full of bizarre outliers, covered with white sand, which gives it the appearance of the Arctic north, there are also many karst deposits and caves.

Rather, here the waters of the ocean receded gradually, here organic traces of the ocean are largely preserved.

The Sahara Desert and life in it

The fact that the territory of the Sahara Desert was once inhabited and actively used is also evidenced by the numerous rock paintings found in its different parts. During the years when glaciers raged in the north, the population of the Sahara was engaged in cattle breeding and agriculture, as well as hunting and even fishing.

Somewhere in the middle of the second millennium BC, the outlines of horse-drawn chariots appear on the rocks. The image of a horse on the rocks of the Sahara can be traced back to the 2nd century AD.

Also, one of the common themes of the rock art of the Sahara is the image of mysterious creatures, which many researchers take for gods, ancient astronauts or aliens.

The Sahara Desert is located in southeastern Africa and is the largest hot desert, the third largest after the Arctic and Antarctic.

What is she really?

The word "Sahara" in any person evokes associations with the breathing scorching heat of the African continent. Influenced by stereotypes, the layman often judges this African desert one-sidedly. But it is completely different. Endless sands stretching beyond the horizon with dunes and dunes rising on them, flat as a table, salt marshes, rocky plateaus and oases buried in greenery, exhausting daytime heat and piercing night cold, almost complete absence of moisture and violent floods during heavy rains ... In the eastern part, the Nile River flows through the Sahara Desert, which served as the only source of life for the civilizations that lived along its banks in antiquity.

Why is the desert called the Sahara?

An interesting fact: this unique area owes its name to the nomadic Tuareg tribes who have lived here since time immemorial. Translated from the local dialect "Sahara" means "desert area". The Sahara Desert in northern Africa was first mentioned in documents dating back to the 1st century AD.

Sahara Desert area.

According to various sources, the area of \u200b\u200bthe Sahara Desert ranges from 8.6 to 9.1 million km 2. Due to its vast territory and differences in climatic and relief conditions, the following deserts are distinguished in its composition:

• Nubian;
• Arabian;
• Talak;
• Libyan;
• Algerian.

Each of them has its own unique ecosystem, microclimate and inimitable relief.

Sahara Desert Climate.

In the northern part of the desert, the climate is subtropical, in the southern - tropical. The average monthly winter temperature in the northern and southern Sahara reaches +13 degrees Celsius, in July it is +37.2 degrees Celsius. At the same time, temperature fluctuations in the northern part are much higher than in the southern. The average daily temperature in the Sahara Desert can reach +50 degrees in summer (the maximum is recorded at +57.8 degrees), while the earth's surface warms up to 70-80 degrees Celsius. In mountainous areas, the temperature can drop to -18 degrees, so in winter at night the soil freezes, and occasionally even snow falls.

In the northern part, it rains from December to March, in other months there is little rainfall. In the southern part, it rains mainly in summer, often accompanied by thunderstorms. Also in the desert there are often dust storms, in which the wind speed reaches 50 meters per second. In the western part of the Sahara Desert, humidity is high and fogs are frequent.

In which countries is the Sahara Desert?

Every year millions of tourists flock to the secrets that the Sahara hides and admire its majesty. It stretched across several states. The list of the most visited countries by tourists, where the Sahara Desert is located, includes Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. Each of them has its own unique attractions.

Sahara Desert in Tunisia.

Tourists who come to Tunisia and want to see the Great Desert should visit the city of Douz, which stands on the border of a blooming oasis and endless sands and is a kind of gateway to the Sahara Desert. As a reminder of this, on the outskirts of the city, near the Great Dune, there is a monument in the form of a symbolic key.

A variety of excursion options are offered to tourists. It can be one-hour horseback riding on a camel to the dune closest to the city, or expeditions deep into the desert, designed for two weeks. Those wishing to see the Sahara from a height are invited to take a flight on a motor hang-glider. Breathing in the spirit of the ancient desert is possible in a remote ksar-Gilan oasis with its thermal waters and date palms surrounded by dunes.

Here you can also see the ruins of an ancient Roman settlement and defensive structure. And, having made a walk around the drying up salt lake Shott el-Jerid, you can see the famous bizarre mirages of the Sahara desert.

As part of the excursion, it is proposed to visit the filming locations of the Star Wars movie. An addition to the program is the opportunity to gorge on dates and purchase a “desert rose” as a souvenir - a creation of sand, sun and wind, similar to a rosebud.

The Sahara Desert in Egypt.

Not all tourists who come to Egypt are interested in beaches, sea and sunburn. Many of them purchase vouchers to get acquainted with the pyramid complex in the Giza Valley, take a photo against the backdrop of the grandiose and mysterious, and feel the magic of the desert. Travelers can visit the numerous oases of the Sahara Desert.

In the city of Siwa, in addition to the lush thickets of date palms growing near the springs, you can see the remains of ancient fortresses built of adobe and bricks, as well as a temple dating back to the reign of Alexander the Great. According to local legends, somewhere here is the grave of this commander.

Most of the Southern Oases are ideal starting points for horseback riding, car or hiking excursions through the Black or White Desert, which is part of the vast Sahara. You can get close to the Crystal Mountains, which fascinate travelers with their picturesqueness.

A visit to Bahariya, an oasis located in the western part of the Sahara Desert and consisting of several Bedouin villages, provides an opportunity to get acquainted with their life and customs. Some of the landscapes surrounding this oasis resemble a lunar surface, and from hundreds of springs located near the main settlement, thermal waters gush.

To the Dakhla oasis, located in the Nile Valley, knowledgeable tourists come to improve their health. There are many hot springs, the waters of which help to get rid of sciatica and some stomach diseases. And in the city of Muta there is the famous Ethnographic Museum, where you can learn in detail about the culture and customs of the people living here.

Travelers who find themselves in Morocco will certainly be attracted by the Draa Valley, which is home to many oases. The main attraction here is the incredible landscapes that make up the red dunes and the ruins of ancient fortresses.

Once there was the final stop of the caravans crossing the desert to the Mediterranean Sea. People come here to admire the eternal dunes - the virgin ergs of Shigaga. The path to this magnificent spectacle can be done both in an off-road vehicle and on horseback on camels, but only as part of a group. You cannot get to this place on your own.

Sahara Desert in Mauritania.

Traveling through the Mauritanian Sahara is quite dangerous due to the political situation in the country. But fans of extreme sensations are attracted here by the Adrar plateau. It became famous after the beginning of the space age of mankind. From the depths of space, a grandiose structure called Gu-Er-Rishat is clearly visible on it. The diameter of this formation exceeds 50 km, and the age is more than 0.5 billion years. The origin of this phenomenon is still not known exactly. Previously it was assumed that this is a trace from a meteorite impact, but today most scientists are inclined to the version of erosional origin. Although this place is remote from civilization, travel companies organize excursions here.

The Sahara Desert in Algeria.

The largest area of \u200b\u200bthe Sahara Desert went to a country like Algeria. Its endless sandy expanses occupy about 80% of the state's territory.

Unfortunately, the tourism infrastructure in Algeria is poorly developed, but travelers are happy to be offered to visit numerous attractions, including the Tassil Mountains of the Sahara Desert with unique rock paintings, protected by UNESCO, and the Mzab Valley with its unique architecture all five cities located in it.

10 states: Algeria, Egypt, Western Sahara, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, Chad

The Sahara is the most famous desert. No wonder, as this is the largest desert in the world. It is located on the territory of 10 African states.

The oldest text in which the Sahara appears as the "great" North African desert dates back to the 1st century AD.

A truly endless sea of \u200b\u200bsun-scorched sand, stone and clay, enlivened only by rare green spots of oases and one single river - this is what the Sahara is.

"Sahara" or "Sahra" is an Arabic word, it means a monotonous brown desert plain. Say this word aloud: can you hear in it the wheezing of a man choking with thirst and incinerating heat? We Europeans pronounce the word "Sahara" softer than Africans, but it also conveys to us the formidable charm of the desert. This is the hottest region on Earth (near the city of Tripoli, the air temperature is + 58 ° C). There is no rain in the Sahara for years, and if it does, it often doesn’t reach the ground - it dries up in the air.

But what are the feelings of a person who first found himself in the Sahara. In the morning, a huge ball of fire of the sun rises and everything around is heated: the air is hot and dry, which burns the lips, and it is impossible to stand on the ground. An Arabic proverb says: "In the Sahara, the wind rises and falls with the sun." The wind can bring dust storms, or it can pick up the terrible "song of the sands", and then a terrible whirlwind - samum - will sweep over the desert. At night, intolerable heat is replaced by piercing coolness. Even stones cannot withstand such sudden changes - they burst with a loud crash. In the Sahara, such stones were called "shooting", and the inhabitants of the desert say: "the sun in our country makes even stones scream",

The Tuareg, who always roam the most remote and uninhabited regions of the Sahara, are called "blue ghosts". A blue veil that covers his face so that only a strip for the eyes remains, the young man receives at a family celebration when he turns eighteen. From that moment on, he becomes a man, and again never in his life, neither day nor night, he does not remove the veil from his face and will only slightly move it away from his mouth while eating.

location

The Sahara stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, and from the foothills of the Atlas and the Mediterranean coast in the north to about 15 ° N. (Lake Chad) in the south, where it borders the savannah zone. Its area is approx. 7700 thousand km2. - it is more extensive than Australia and only slightly smaller than Brazil. By its size, the Sahara is not inferior to Europe with all its islands.

Sahara climate

The climate of the Sahara is extra-arid (tropical, dry and hot, in the north - subtropical). The wet factor is the wide location of the Sahara to the north and south of the Northern Tropic. This explains the fact that most of the desert is influenced by the northeastern trade winds that dominate most of the Sahara throughout the year.

An additional influence on the climate is exerted by the Atlas mountain barrier located in the north, which stretches from west to east and prevents the bulk of the humid Mediterranean air from entering the desert. In the south, from the Gulf of Guinea, wet masses enter the Sahara without hindrance in summer, which, gradually drying out, reach its central parts.

Extreme dry air, a huge amount of moisture deficit and, accordingly, an extremely high evaporation rate are characteristic of the entire Sahara. According to the regime of precipitation in the Sahara, three zones can be distinguished: northern, central and southern.

The aridity of the Sahara also changes in a latitudinal direction, from west to east. There is no heavy rainfall on the Atlantic coast, as the rare westerly winds are cooled by the Canary Current passing along the coast. Fogs are frequent here.

Dry air (relative humidity 30-50%), huge moisture deficit and high evaporation (potential evaporation of 2500-6000 mm, which is more than 70 times the amount of precipitation) are typical for the entire Sahara, except for narrow coastal strips. Precipitation in Northern Sahara is mainly winter, in Southern Sahara it is summer; the average annual precipitation in the outlying regions is 100-200 mm, in most of the Sahara plains less than 50 mm (in mountain ranges it is usually less than 100 mm), and in the interior regions it may not rain for several years in a row. There are several locations where rain has never been recorded at all. During rains, usually torrential, dry channels (wadis) quickly turn into violent streams and cause floods in bridles and mudflows in the mountains. During this period, the desert seems to come to life. Numerous streams, rivers, lakes appear in it.

The Sahara is generally poorly provided with water, but compared to other deserts in the world, it is rich in groundwater.

Most of the Sahara is characterized by abundant morning dew (condensation due to low night temperatures), which contributes to the formation of surface dusty crust. Snow falls on the summits of Ahaggara and Tibesti for a short time almost every year. Temperatures can reach 56-58 ° C, approaching the maximum on Earth, but the land surface can warm up to 70-80 ° C. The average monthly air temperature in July reaches 37.2 ° С (Adrar), the average January temperatures range from 16 to 27 ° С.In winter, in the Sahara at night, ground frosts are widespread, and in the central mountain ranges night temperatures up to -18 ° С are recorded ...

Prolonged winds and multi-day dust (sand) storms are frequent. The storms in the Sahara are extremely powerful. Wind speed sometimes reaches fifty meters per second (sometimes more; winds of sirocco, shergi, khamsin, harmattan and samum) (thirty meters per second is already a hurricane!). The caravan men say that sometimes heavy camel saddles are blown away by the wind two hundred meters away, and stones the size of a hen's egg roll on the ground like peas. The Bedouins call the tornado "the genie of the desert".

And when the Sahara is calm and the air is filled with dust, there is a "dry fog" known to all travelers. At the same time, visibility completely disappears, and the sun seems to be a dull spot and does not give a shadow. Even wild animals lose their orientation at such moments. They say that there was a case when during the "dry fog", usually very shy gazelles, calmly walked in a caravan, walking between people and camels.

The Sahara influences the climate of many adjacent territories. Winds can blow dust and sand far beyond Africa, in Atlantic Ocean or to Europe.

History

The Sahara has not always been a lifeless land.

As further studies confirmed, even in the Paleolithic period, that is, 10-12 thousand years ago (during the ice age), the climate here was much more humid. The Sahara was not a desert, but an African savannah steppe. The population of the Sahara was engaged not only in cattle breeding and agriculture, but also in hunting and even fishing, as evidenced by rock paintings in different regions of the desert.

In many parts of the Sahara, ancient cities were buried in sand; perhaps this is evidence of a relatively recent drying out of the climate.

Scientists at Boston University seem to have found further evidence that the Sahara was not always a desert. According to the Remote Sensing Center of Boston University, in the northwestern region of Sudan there used to be a huge lake, almost the size of Lake Baikal. Now a huge body of water, which because of its size was called Mega Lake, is hidden under the sands.

Scientists at Boston University in northwestern Sudan, in the middle of the Sahara, Dr. Eman Goneim and Dr. Farouk El-Baz, studied photographic and radar images of the Darfur region in order to pinpoint the location of the lake. According to their scientific data, coastline the lake was once located about 573 meters (plus or minus 3 meters) above sea level.

Researchers assume that several rivers flowed into the lake at once. The maximum area that Megaozero once occupied is 30,750 sq. km. In addition, the authors of the study calculated that in better times the volume of water in the lake could reach 2 530 cubic meters. km.

Currently, scientists cannot accurately determine the age of the lake, but state another fact that the size of the Mega Lake indicates constant rains, due to which the volume of the reservoir was regularly replenished. The find confirms once again that the territory of the Sahara was not always a desert before. She lay within the zone of moderate climatic zone and plants covered it.

Scientists led by El-Baz also suggest that most of the Mega Lake seeped into the soil and now exists in the form of groundwater. This information is extremely important for local residents, as it can be used for purely practical purposes. The fact is that this particular region of Sudan is experiencing a severe shortage of fresh water, and the discovery of groundwater would be a gift for them.

Then, about 5-7 thousand years ago, a drought began, the heat intensified, the surface of the Sahara was losing moisture more and more, and the grasses were drying up. Gradually, herbivores began to leave the Sahara, followed by predators. Animals had to retreat to distant forests and savannahs Central Africa, where all these representatives of the so-called Ethiopian fauna live to this day. Almost all people left the Sahara for animals, and only a few were able to survive where there was still a little water left. They became nomads wandering the desert. They are called Berbers or Tuaregs, and the "father of history" Herodotus called this tribe the Garamants - after the main city of Garama (modern Jerma).

By this time, scientists attribute the appearance of most of the famous frescoes of Tas-sely-Ajer, a plateau located in the center of the great desert. The name itself means "plateau of many rivers" and recalls that distant time when life flourished here. Fat herds and caravans carrying ivory are the central theme of the painting. There are also dancing people in masks and mysterious giant images of the so-called "Martian gods". Quite a lot has been written about the latter. The mystery of their origin still excites the minds: whether they represent a scene of shamans' rituals, or aliens abducting people.

Relief

The Sahara is, in fact, not the name of one particular desert, but a collective name for a number of deserts connected by a single space and climatic features. Her east End occupied by the Libyan desert. On the right bank of the Nile, up to the Red Sea, the Arabian Desert stretches, south of which, entering the territory of Sudan, is the Nubian Desert. There are other smaller deserts. Often they are separated by mountain ranges with rather high peaks.

There are also powerful mountains in the Sahara with peaks up to 2500 thousand m, and an extinct crater of the Amy-Kusi volcano, whose diameter is 12 km, and plains covered with sandy dunes, hollows with clay soil, salt lakes and salt marshes, blooming oases. They all replace and complement each other. There are also giant depressions. One of them is located in Egypt in the northeastern part of the Libyan Desert. This is Qatar, the driest depression on our planet, its bottom is 150 m below sea level.

In general, the Sahara is a vast plateau, the flat character of which is disturbed only by the depressions of the Nile and Niger valleys and Lake Chad. On this plain only in three places really high, albeit small in area, mountain ranges rise. These are the highlands of Ahaggar (Algeria) and Tibesti (Chad) and the Darfur plateau, rising more than three kilometers above sea level.

The mountainous, absolutely dry landscapes of Ahaggar, cut by gorges, are often compared to the lunar landscapes.

To the north of them are closed saline depressions, the largest of which turn into shallow salt lakes during the winter rains (for example, Melgir in Algeria and Jerid in Tunisia).

The Sahara's surface is quite diverse; vast spaces covered with loose sand dunes, stony surfaces are widespread, worked out in bedrocks and covered with crushed stone (hamada) and gravel or pebbles (regi).

In the northern part of the desert, deep wells or springs provide oases with water, which is why date palms, olive trees, grapes, wheat and barley are grown.

All the oases of the Sahara are surrounded by a palm grove. Date palms - the basis of life for local residents. Dates and camel milk are the main food of the fellah farmers.

It is believed that the groundwater supplying these oases with water comes from the slopes of the Atlas, located 300–500 km to the north. All life is concentrated mainly in the outskirts of the Sahara. The largest human settlements are concentrated in the northern regions. Naturally, there are no roads connecting the oases. Only after the discovery and the beginning of oil development, several highways were built, but camel caravans continue to run alongside them.

In the east, the desert is carved by the Nile Valley; since ancient times, this river has provided residents with water for irrigation and created fertile soil, depositing silt during annual floods; the regime of the river changed after the construction of the Aswan Dam.

Oil production

In the 1960s, oil and natural gas production began in the Algerian and Tunisian sectors of the Sahara. The main deposits are concentrated in the Hassi-Mesaud region (in Algeria). In the late 1960s, even richer oil fields were discovered in the Libyan sector of the Sahara. Transport system in the desert has undergone significant improvements. Several highways crossed the Sahara from north to south without displacing, however, the time-honored camel caravans.

Mirages

Few dare to travel across the Sahara. During a difficult journey, mirages may occur. Moreover, they always come across in approximately the same place. Therefore, it was even possible to draw up maps of mirages, on which 160 thousand marks were applied to the location of mirages. These maps even show what exactly is seen in one place or another: wells, oases, palm groves, mountain ranges, and so on.

It is difficult to find a more beautiful sight than a sunset in the desert. Perhaps only the aurora makes a greater impression on the traveler. The sky in the rays of the setting sun amazes every time with a new combination of shades - this is both blood red and pink-pearl, imperceptibly merging with the pale blue color. All this piles up on the horizon in several floors, burns and sparkles, expanding in some bizarre, fabulous forms, and then gradually fades away. Then, almost instantly, an absolutely black night sets in, the darkness of which even bright southern stars cannot disperse.

The Sahara is not that hard to reach these days. From the city of Algeria, along a good highway, the desert can be reached in one day. Through the picturesque gorge of El-Kantara - the "Gateway to the Sahara", the traveler finds himself in amazing places. To the left and right of the road, which runs along a stony and clay plain, there are small rocks, which the wind and sand have given the intricate outlines of fairytale castles and towers.

Flora

In Northern Sahara, the influence of the Mediterranean flora is significant, and in the south, species of paleotropic Sudanese flora widely penetrate into the desert. There are about 30 endemic plant genera known in the flora of the Sahara, belonging mainly to the families of cruciferous, hawk and Asteraceae. In the most arid, extra-arid regions of Central Sahara, flora is especially poor.

So, in the southwest of Libya, only about nine species of native plants grow. And in the south of the Libyan Desert, you can travel hundreds of kilometers without finding a single plant. However, there are regions in Central Sahara with comparative floristic richness. These are the desert highlands of Tibesti and Ahaggar. In the Tibesti highlands, near water sources, willow ficus and even a venereal hair fern grow. On the Tassini-Adgenr plateau, northeast of Ahanar, there are relic plants: individual specimens of the Mediterranean cypress.

In the Sahara, ephemera prevail, appearing for a short time after rare rains. Perennial xerophytes are common. The most extensive in terms of area are desert plant formations (various species of Aristida cereal). The tree-shrub layer is represented by free-standing acacias, low-growing xerophytic shrubs - kornulak, randonia, etc.). Zizyphus is often found in the northern zone of gramineous and shrub communities.

In the extreme west of the desert, in the Atlantic Sahara, special plant groups are formed, dominated by large succulents. Cactus euphorbia, acacia, wolfberry, sumac grow here. An Afghan tree grows near the ocean coast. At altitudes of more than 1700 m (the highlands and plateaus of Central Sahara) here begin to dominate: cereals, feather grass, fire, wildflowers, mallow, etc. The most characteristic plant of the Saharan oases is the date palm.

Fauna

In the Sahara there are about 70 species of mammals, about 80 species of nesting birds, about 80 species of ants, more than 300 species of darkling beetles, about 120 species of orthopterans. Species endemism in some groups of insects reaches 70%, in mammals it is about 40%, and in birds there are no endemics at all.

Rodents are the most numerous of mammals. Representatives of the family of hamsters, mice, jerboas, squirrels live here. Gerbils are diverse in the Sahara (the red-tailed gerbil is common). Large ungulates in the Sahara are not numerous, and the reason for this is not only the harsh conditions of the desert, but also their long-standing persecution by humans. The largest antelope of the Sahara is the Arix, slightly inferior in size to the Addax antelope. Small antelopes, similar to our gazelles, are found in all regions of the Sahara. On the coasts and plateaus of Tibesti, Ahaggar, as well as in the mountains on the right bank of the Nile, a maned ram lives.

Among the predators there are: miniature chanterelle, striped jackal, Egyptian mongoose, sand cat. Birds in the Sahara are not numerous. Common larks, hazel grouses, desert sparrow. In addition, there are: runner sandpiper, desert raven, eagle owl. Lizards are numerous (crested lizards, gray monitor lizard, agamas). Some snakes are excellently adapted to life in the sands - sand efa, horned viper

The one-humped camel deserves special attention, its appearance symbolizes the Sahara Desert.

Human Museum

The Great Desert is full of intentional human footprints. Some drawings and engravings of the Sahara are over 10 thousand years old. On the most ancient - wild animals: elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, ostriches, antelopes, often gigantic... Sometimes it’s the other way around: following the guide, you crouch down and crawl under a ledge of rock and find yourself among a herd of red cows the size of a palm.

The yellowish-brown and yellow-red background of the Tassili rocks and sandstones proved to be the ideal material, preserving an archive of several eras. In the hundreds of images of Tassili N "Ager, discovered, described and copied by the French explorer Henri Lot in the 50s of the XX century, there is the life of different peoples who inhabited the massif at different times.

“We were amazed,” wrote A. Lot, “by the variety of styles and plots that we discovered during the study of numerous layers of murals ... Some of the drawings were located in isolation, others were very complex compositions. We found ourselves in the greatest museum of prehistoric art. Two main styles characterize these murals: one is symbolic, more ancient, in all likelihood, of Negroid origin; the other is more recent, clearly naturalistic, in which the influence of the culture of the Nile Valley is felt. ... And if sometimes you can find Egyptian or possibly Mycenaean influence in them, the most ancient of them certainly belong to an unknown original art school. "

But the Sahara still holds many mysteries. One of them is in the desert part of Niger, on the Adrar Ma-det plateau. Here are laid out from rubble stone circles perfect concentric shape. They are located at a distance of almost a mile from each other, as if by arrows directed exactly to the four cardinal points. Who created them, when and why, there is still no clear answer to these questions!

Structure Guell Rishat, Mauritania

This structure is located in the Sahara Desert and is clearly visible from space, since its diameter is almost 50 km. It is believed that its oldest ring was formed more than half a billion years ago. But the reasons for its occurrence are not clear. Previously, it was believed that it arose after a huge meteorite hit the Earth, but the bottom of the structure is not flat, and traces of the impact along the edges of the structure itself have not been identified. Therefore, today most researchers believe that the structure is the result of erosion, but they do not even try to explain its almost perfectly round shape - this is a mystery.

Tourism

Excursions are offered to the Sahara. These are small trips for 2-3 days into the murderous desert. You can ride a camel, but only under the supervision of an overseer. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the beast among the endless sands. The most daring can cross the desert themselves (it is possible, although it seems unreal!). But before the hike, you need to consult with a specialist.

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