71-535: A guelta (Arabic: قلتة, also transliterated qalta or galta ) is a pocket of water that forms within rock formations in the Sahara Desert and Arabian Desert . The term is of Arabic origin and specifically refers to oases that emerge in rocky landscapes in Arab regions, particularly in countries like Algeria and Saudi Arabia . A guelta is a natural water pool that forms in rocky basins and often serves as
142-503: A bed of flowers. The three are assumed to have died within 24 hours of each other, but as their skeletons hold no apparent trauma (they did not die violently) and they have been buried so elaborately – unlikely if they had died of a plague – the cause of their deaths is a mystery. Physiographic provinces Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
213-426: A consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers. The subtropical ridge is the predominant factor that explains the hot desert climate ( Köppen climate classification BWh ) of this vast region. The descending airflow
284-497: A crucial water resource in arid regions. It has been known in Arabic by other names, such as Waqb (a depression in the ground or rock). When multiple gueltas occur in close proximity, they are collectively called a Nadheem . Gueltas are known for their ability to retain water for extended periods, sometimes throughout the year, especially if fed by springs. This makes them essential for survival in arid climates, where they can remain
355-519: A healthy adult. The Saharan silver ant is unique in that due to the extreme high temperatures of their habitat, and the threat of predators, the ants are active outside their nest for only about ten minutes per day. Dromedary camels and goats are the domesticated animals most commonly found in the Sahara. Because of its qualities of endurance and speed, the dromedary is the favourite animal used by nomads . Human activities are more likely to affect
426-441: A source of water even during the dry season. This geomorphology article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Sahara The Sahara ( / s ə ˈ h ɑːr ə / , / s ə ˈ h ær ə / ) is a desert spanning across North Africa . With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than
497-569: A summer rainy season that extends across Africa from east to west. The southern limit of the Sahara is indicated botanically by the southern limit of Cornulaca monacantha (a drought-tolerant member of the Chenopodiaceae ), or northern limit of Cenchrus biflorus , a grass typical of the Sahel. According to climatic criteria, the southern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the 150 mm (5.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation (this
568-542: A surface feature of Earth, with near-current technology. The Sahara is mainly rocky hamada (stone plateaus); ergs (sand seas – large areas covered with sand dunes ) form only a minor part, contrary to common misconception , but many of the sand dunes are over 180 metres (590 ft) high. Wind or rare rainfall shape the desert features: sand dunes, dune fields, sand seas, stone plateaus, gravel plains ( reg ), dry valleys ( wadi ), dry lakes ( oued ), and salt flats ( shatt or chott ). Unusual landforms include
639-660: Is a long-term average, since precipitation varies annually). Important cities located in the Sahara include Nouakchott , the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset , Ouargla , Béchar , Hassi Messaoud , Ghardaïa , and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; Ghat in Libya; and Faya-Largeau in Chad. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert . It is located in
710-422: Is a north African gazelle that can also go for a long time without water. Other notable gazelles include the rhim gazelle and dama gazelle . The Saharan cheetah ( northwest African cheetah ) lives in Algeria, Togo , Niger, Mali, Benin , and Burkina Faso . There remain fewer than 250 mature cheetahs, which are very cautious, fleeing any human presence. The cheetah avoids the sun from April to October, seeking
781-629: Is a prehistoric industry, or domain, that existed between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago in the Sahara, during the Neolithic Subpluvial . Human remains from this culture were found in 2000 at a site known as Gobero , located in Niger in the Ténéré Desert . The site is known as the largest and earliest grave of Stone Age people in the Sahara. The Kiffians were skilled hunters . Bones of many large savannah animals that were discovered in
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#1732773383538852-465: Is associated with high rates of wind-blown mineral dust, and these dust levels are found as expected in marine cores from the north tropical Atlantic. But around 12,500 BCE the amount of dust in the cores in the Bølling / Allerød phase suddenly plummets and shows a period of much wetter conditions in the Sahara, indicating a Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) event (a sudden warming followed by a slower cooling of
923-403: Is estimated to include five hundred species of plants, which is extremely low considering the huge extent of the area. Plants such as acacia trees, palms, succulents, spiny shrubs, and grasses have adapted to the arid conditions, by growing lower to avoid water loss by strong winds, by storing water in their thick stems to use it in dry periods, by having long roots that travel horizontally to reach
994-667: Is the strongest and the most effective over the eastern part of the Great Desert, in the Libyan Desert: this is the sunniest, driest and the most nearly "rainless" place on the planet, rivaling the Atacama Desert , lying in Chile and Peru . The rainfall inhibition and the dissipation of cloud cover are most accentuated over the eastern section of the Sahara rather than the western. The prevailing air mass lying above
1065-422: Is very unreliable and erratic in the Sahara as it may vary considerably year by year. In full contrast to the negligible annual rainfall amounts, the annual rates of potential evaporation are extraordinarily high, roughly ranging from 2,500 millimetres (100 in) per year to more than 6,000 millimetres (240 in) per year in the whole desert. Nowhere else on Earth has air been found as dry and evaporative as in
1136-543: The Adrar of Mauritania and a value of 75 °C (167 °F) has been measured in Borkou , northern Chad. Due to lack of cloud cover and very low humidity, the desert usually has high diurnal temperature variations between days and nights. However, it is a myth that the nights are especially cold after extremely hot days in the Sahara. On average, nighttime temperatures tend to be 13–20 °C (23–36 °F) cooler than in
1207-488: The Algerian Desert called Bou Bernous , at an elevation of 378 metres (1,240 ft) above sea level, and only Death Valley, California rivals it. Other hot spots in Algeria such as Adrar , Timimoun , In Salah , Ouallene , Aoulef , Reggane with an elevation between 200 and 400 metres (660 and 1,310 ft) above sea level get slightly lower summer average highs, around 46 °C (114.8 °F) during
1278-765: The Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians , early Holocene Capsians , and mid-Holocene Mechta groups, whereas the Tenerian crania are more like those of Mediterranean groups. Graves show that the Tenerians observed spiritual traditions, as they were buried with artifacts such as jewelry made of hippo tusks and clay pots. The most interesting find is a triple burial, dated to 5300 years ago, of an adult female and two children, estimated through their teeth as being five and eight years old, hugging each other. Pollen residue indicates they were buried on
1349-904: The Nile Valley in Egypt and the Sudan . It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west, where the landscape gradually changes from desert to coastal plains. To the south it is bounded by the Sahel , a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna around the Niger River valley and the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa . The Sahara can be divided into several regions, including
1420-756: The Richat Structure in Mauritania. Several deeply dissected mountains, many volcanic, rise from the desert, including the Aïr Mountains , Ahaggar Mountains , Saharan Atlas , Tibesti Mountains , Adrar des Iforas , and the Red Sea Hills . The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi , a shield volcano in the Tibesti range of northern Chad. The central Sahara is hyperarid , with sparse vegetation. The northern and southern reaches of
1491-474: The horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge , a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from the upper troposphere usually descends, warming and drying the lower troposphere and preventing cloud formation. The permanent absence of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As
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#17327733835381562-509: The African continent. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250 mm (9.8 in) were included, the Sahara would be 11 million square kilometres (4,200,000 sq mi). It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division . The Sahara is so large and bright that, in theory, it could be detected from other stars as
1633-417: The African humid period. At its largest extent, sometime before 5000 BCE, Lake Mega-Chad was the largest of four Saharan paleolakes, and is estimated to have covered an area of 350,000 km . The Sahara pump theory describes this cycle. During periods of a wet or " Green Sahara ", the Sahara becomes a savanna grassland and various flora and fauna become more common. Following inter-pluvial arid periods,
1704-412: The Great Desert the hottest large region in the world, and the hottest place on Earth during summer in some spots. The average high temperature exceeds 38 to 40 °C (100.4 to 104.0 °F) during the hottest month nearly everywhere in the desert except at very high altitudes. The world's highest officially recorded average daily high temperature was 47 °C (116.6 °F) in a remote desert town in
1775-486: The Intertropical Convergence Zone from the south and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Timbuktu, Mali and Agadez , Niger are found in this zone. The vast central hyper-arid core of the desert is virtually never affected by northerly or southerly atmospheric disturbances and permanently remains under the influence of
1846-523: The Kiffian culture do not exist after 8,000 years ago, as the Sahara went through a dry period for the next thousand years. After this time, the Tenerian culture colonized the area. Gobero was discovered in 2000 during an archaeological expedition led by Paul Sereno , which sought dinosaur remains. Two distinct prehistoric cultures were discovered at the site: the early Holocene Kiffian culture, and
1917-462: The Sahara (birds in particular) such as African silverbill and black-faced firefinch , among others. There are also small desert crocodiles in Mauritania and the Ennedi Plateau of Chad. The deathstalker scorpion can be 10 cm (3.9 in) long. Its venom contains large amounts of agitoxin and scyllatoxin and is very dangerous; however, a sting from this scorpion rarely kills
1988-472: The Sahara area then reverts to desert conditions and the flora and fauna are forced to retreat northwards to the Atlas Mountains , southwards into West Africa , or eastwards into the Nile Valley . This separates populations of some of the species in areas with different climates , forcing them to adapt , possibly giving rise to allopatric speciation . It is also proposed that humans accelerated
2059-528: The Sahara is strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with warmer winter temperatures during negative NAO events and cooler winters with more frosts when the NAO is positive. This is because the weaker clockwise flow around the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone during negative NAO winters, although too dry to produce more than negligible precipitation, does reduce
2130-504: The Sahara is the continental tropical (cT) air mass, which is hot and dry. Hot, dry air masses primarily form over the North-African desert from the heating of the vast continental land area, and it affects the whole desert during most of the year. Because of this extreme heating process, a thermal low is usually noticed near the surface, and is the strongest and the most developed during the summertime. The Sahara High represents
2201-638: The Sahara region. However, at least two instances of snowfall have been recorded in Sahara, in February 1979 and December 2016, both in the town of Ain Sefra . One theory for the formation of the Sahara is that the monsoon in Northern Africa was weakened because of glaciation during the Quaternary period, starting two or three million years ago. Another theory is that the monsoon was weakened when
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2272-713: The Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs , including Afrovenator , Jobaria and Ouranosaurus , have also been found here. The modern Sahara, though, is not lush in vegetation, except in the Nile Valley, at a few oases , and in the northern highlands, where Mediterranean plants such as the olive tree are found to grow. Shifts in Earth's axis increased temperatures and decreased precipitation, which caused an abrupt beginning of North Africa desertification about 5,400 years ago. The Kiffian culture
2343-595: The amount of rainfall received – the Northern (Mediterranean), Central and Southern Zones. There are two transitional zones – the Mediterranean-Sahara transition and the Sahel transition zone. The Saharan flora comprises around 2800 species of vascular plants . Approximately a quarter of these are endemic . About half of these species are common to the flora of the Arabian deserts. The central Sahara
2414-612: The ancient Tethys Sea dried up during the Tortonian period around 7 million years ago. The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variations between wet and dry over the last few hundred thousand years, believed to be caused by long-term changes in the North African climate cycle that alters the path of the North African Monsoon – usually southward. The cycle is caused by a 41,000-year cycle in which
2485-421: The atmospheric circulation itself, the desert is made even drier by its geographical configuration and location. Indeed, the extreme aridity of the Sahara is not only explained by the subtropical high pressure: the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia also help to enhance the aridity of the northern part of the desert. These major mountain ranges act as a barrier, causing a strong rain shadow effect on
2556-616: The climate). The moister Saharan conditions had begun about 12,500 BCE, with the extension of the ITCZ northward in the northern hemisphere summer, bringing moist wet conditions and a savanna climate to the Sahara, which (apart from a short dry spell associated with the Younger Dryas ) peaked during the Holocene thermal maximum climatic phase at 4000 BCE when mid-latitude temperatures seem to have been between 2 and 3 degrees warmer than in
2627-474: The daytime. The smallest variations are found along the coastal regions due to high humidity and are often even lower than a 10 °C (18 °F) difference, while the largest variations are found in inland desert areas where the humidity is the lowest, mainly in the southern Sahara. Still, it is true that winter nights can be cold, as it can drop to the freezing point and even below, especially in high-elevation areas. The frequency of subfreezing winter nights in
2698-469: The desert experiences around three to five months when the average high strictly exceeds 40 °C (104 °F); while in the southern central part of the desert, there are up to six or seven months when the average high temperature strictly exceeds 40 °C (104 °F). Some examples of this are Bilma , Niger and Faya-Largeau, Chad. The annual average daily temperature exceeds 20 °C (68 °F) everywhere and can approach 30 °C (86 °F) in
2769-643: The desert, along with the highlands, have areas of sparse grassland and desert shrub , with trees and taller shrubs in wadis , where moisture collects. In the central, hyperarid region, there are many subdivisions of the great desert: Tanezrouft , the Ténéré , the Libyan Desert , the Eastern Desert , the Nubian Desert and others. These extremely arid areas often receive no rain for years. To
2840-528: The deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic . The name "Sahara" is derived from Arabic : صَحَارَى , romanized : ṣaḥārā /sˤaħaːraː/ , a broken plural form of ṣaḥrā' ( صَحْرَاء /sˤaħraːʔ/ ), meaning "desert". The desert covers much of North Africa , excluding the fertile region on the Mediterranean Sea coast, the Atlas Mountains of the Maghreb , and
2911-531: The drying-out period from 6000 to 2500 BCE by pastoralists overgrazing available grassland. The growth of speleothems (which requires rainwater) was detected in Hol-Zakh, Ashalim , Even-Sid, Ma'ale-ha-Meyshar, Ktora Cracks, Nagev Tzavoa Cave, and elsewhere, and has allowed tracking of prehistoric rainfall. The Red Sea coastal route was extremely arid before 140 and after 115 kya (thousands of years ago). Slightly wetter conditions appear at 90–87 kya, but it still
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2982-667: The eastern continental extension of the Azores High , centered over the North Atlantic Ocean . The subsidence of the Sahara High nearly reaches the ground during the coolest part of the year, while it is confined to the upper troposphere during the hottest periods. The effects of local surface low pressure are extremely limited because upper-level subsidence still continues to block any form of air ascent. Also, to be protected against rain-bearing weather systems by
3053-614: The edge of the desert thousands of years ago, since the end of the last glacial period . In the Central Sahara, engraved and painted rock art were created perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago, spanning the Bubaline Period , Kel Essuf Period , Round Head Period , Pastoral Period , Caballine Period , and Cameline Period . The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles survive, with half found in
3124-484: The flow of dry, cold air from higher latitudes of Eurasia into the Sahara significantly. The average annual rainfall ranges from very low in the northern and southern fringes of the desert to nearly non-existent over the central and the eastern part. The thin northern fringe of the desert receives more winter cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of low pressure systems over the Mediterranean Sea along
3195-699: The habitat in areas of permanent water (oases) or where water comes close to the surface. Here, the local pressure on natural resources can be intense. The remaining populations of large mammals have been greatly reduced by hunting for food and recreation. In recent years development projects have started in the deserts of Algeria and Tunisia using irrigated water pumped from underground aquifers. These schemes often lead to soil degradation and salinization . Researchers from Hacettepe University have reported that Saharan soil may have bio-available iron and also some essential macro and micro nutrient elements suitable for use as fertilizer for growing wheat. People lived on
3266-405: The highest recorded worldwide. The sky is usually clear above the desert, and the sunshine duration is extremely high everywhere in the Sahara. Most of the desert has more than 3,600 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 82% of daylight hours), and a wide area in the eastern part has over 4,000 hours of bright sunshine per year (over 91% of daylight hours). The highest values are very close to
3337-551: The hottest months of the year. Salah, well known in Algeria for its extreme heat, has average high temperatures of 43.8 °C (110.8 °F), 46.4 °C (115.5 °F), 45.5 °C (113.9 °F) and 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) in June, July, August and September respectively. There are even hotter spots in the Sahara, but they are located in extremely remote areas, especially in the Azalai , lying in northern Mali. The major part of
3408-491: The hottest regions year-round. However, most of the desert has a value in excess of 25 °C (77 °F). Sand and ground temperatures are even more extreme. During daytime, the sand temperature is extremely high: it can easily reach 80 °C (176 °F) or more. A sand temperature of 83.5 °C (182.3 °F) has been recorded in Port Sudan . Ground temperatures of 72 °C (161.6 °F) have been recorded in
3479-406: The last glacial period , the Sahara was much larger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries. The end of the glacial period brought more rain to the Sahara, from about 8000 BCE to 6000 BCE, perhaps because of low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north. Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern Sahara dried out. In the southern Sahara, the drying trend
3550-458: The late nineteenth century, The hypothesis was later formally proposed and tested by the meteorologist John Kutzbach in 1981. Kutzbach's ideas about the impacts of insolation on global monsoonal patterns have become widely accepted today as the underlying driver of long-term monsoonal cycles. Kutzbach never formally named his hypothesis and as such it is referred to here as the " Orbital Monsoon Hypothesis " as suggested by Ruddiman in 2001. During
3621-530: The leeward side by dropping much of the humidity brought by atmospheric disturbances along the polar front which affects the surrounding Mediterranean climates. The primary source of rain in the Sahara is the Intertropical Convergence Zone , a continuous belt of low-pressure systems near the equator which bring the brief, short and irregular rainy season to the Sahel and southern Sahara. Rainfall in this giant desert has to overcome
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#17327733835383692-419: The maximum area of water and to find any surface moisture, and by having small thick leaves or needles to prevent water loss by evapotranspiration . Plant leaves may dry out totally and then recover. Several species of fox live in the Sahara including: the fennec fox , pale fox and Rüppell's fox . The addax , a large white antelope , can go nearly a year in the desert without drinking. The dorcas gazelle
3763-437: The middle Holocene Tenerian culture . The post-Kiffian desiccation lasted until around 4600 BCE, when the earliest artefacts associated with the Tenerians have been dated to. Some 200 skeletons have been discovered at Gobero. The Tenerians were considerably shorter in height and less robust than the earlier Kiffians. Craniometric analysis also indicates that they were osteologically distinct. The Kiffian skulls are akin to those of
3834-579: The north, the Sahara skirts the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya, but in Cyrenaica and the Maghreb , the Sahara borders the Mediterranean forest, woodland, and scrub eco-regions of northern Africa, all of which have a Mediterranean climate characterized by hot summers and cool and rainy winters. According to the botanical criteria of Frank White and geographer Robert Capot-Rey,
3905-477: The northern limit of the Sahara corresponds to the northern limit of date palm cultivation and the southern limit of the range of esparto , a grass typical of the Mediterranean climate portion of the Maghreb and Iberia . The northern limit also corresponds to the 100 mm (3.9 in) isohyet of annual precipitation. To the south, the Sahara is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of dry tropical savanna with
3976-459: The opposite is true, with decreased annual precipitation and less vegetation resulting in a phase of the Sahara climate cycle known as the "desert Sahara". The idea that changes in insolation (solar heating) caused by long-term changes in Earth's orbit are a controlling factor for the long-term variations in the strength of monsoon patterns across the globe was first suggested by Rudolf Spitaler in
4047-419: The physical and atmospheric barriers that normally prevent the production of precipitation. The harsh climate of the Sahara is characterized by: extremely low, unreliable, highly erratic rainfall; extremely high sunshine duration values; high temperatures year-round; negligible rates of relative humidity ; a significant diurnal temperature variation ; and extremely high levels of potential evaporation which are
4118-401: The polar front, although very attenuated by the rain shadow effects of the mountains and the annual average rainfall ranges from 100 millimetres (4 in) to 250 millimetres (10 in). For example, Biskra , Algeria, and Ouarzazate , Morocco, are found in this zone. The southern fringe of the desert along the border with the Sahel receives summer cloudiness and rainfall due to the arrival of
4189-532: The recent past. Analysis of Nile River deposited sediments in the delta also shows this period had a higher proportion of sediments coming from the Blue Nile , suggesting higher rainfall also in the Ethiopian Highlands . This was caused principally by a stronger monsoonal circulation throughout the sub-tropical regions, affecting India, Arabia and the Sahara. Lake Victoria only recently became
4260-608: The same area suggest that they lived on the shores of a lake that was present during the Holocene Wet Phase, a period when the Sahara was verdant and wet. The Kiffian people were tall, standing over six feet in height. Craniometric analysis indicates that this early Holocene population was closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb, as well as mid-Holocene Mechta groups. Traces of
4331-463: The scale of the Nile floods between 2700 and 2100 BCE. The Sahara comprises several distinct ecoregions . With their variations in temperature, rainfall, elevation, and soil, these regions harbor distinct communities of plants and animals. The flora of the Sahara is highly diversified based on the bio-geographical characteristics of this vast desert. Floristically , the Sahara has three zones based on
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#17327733835384402-521: The shelter of shrubs such as balanites and acacias. They are unusually pale. The other cheetah subspecies ( northeast African cheetah ) lives in Chad, Sudan and the eastern region of Niger. However, it is currently extinct in the wild in Egypt and Libya. There are approximately 2000 mature individuals left in the wild. Other animals include the monitor lizards , hyrax , sand vipers , and small populations of African wild dog , in perhaps only 14 countries and red-necked ostrich . Other animals exist in
4473-596: The source of the White Nile and dried out almost completely around 15 kya. The sudden subsequent movement of the ITCZ southwards with a Heinrich event (a sudden cooling followed by a slower warming), linked to changes with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle, led to a rapid drying out of the Saharan and Arabian regions, which quickly became desert. This is linked to a marked decline in
4544-561: The strongest anticyclonic weather regime, and the annual average rainfall can drop to less than 1 millimetre (0.04 in). In fact, most of the Sahara receives less than 20 millimetres (0.8 in). Of the 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) of desert land in the Sahara, an area of about 2,800,000 square kilometres (1,100,000 sq mi) (about 31% of the total area) receives an annual average rainfall amount of 10 millimetres (0.4 in) or less, while some 1,500,000 square kilometres (580,000 sq mi) (about 17% of
4615-611: The theoretical maximum value. A value of 4300 hours (98%) of the time would be recorded in Upper Egypt ( Aswan , Luxor ) and in the Nubian Desert ( Wadi Halfa ). The annual average direct solar irradiation is around 2,800 kWh/(m year) in the Great Desert. The Sahara has a huge potential for solar energy production. The high position of the Sun, the extremely low relative humidity, and the lack of vegetation and rainfall make
4686-472: The tilt of the earth changes between 22° and 24.5°. At present, it is in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become green again in 15,000 years. When the North African monsoon is at its strongest, annual precipitation and subsequent vegetation in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the " green Sahara ". For a relatively weak North African monsoon,
4757-478: The total area) receives an average of 5 millimetres (0.2 in) or less. The annual average rainfall is virtually zero over a wide area of some 1,000,000 square kilometres (390,000 sq mi) in the eastern Sahara comprising deserts of: Libya, Egypt and Sudan ( Tazirbu , Kufra , Dakhla , Kharga , Farafra , Siwa , Asyut , Sohag , Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel , Wadi Halfa) where the long-term mean approximates 0.5 millimetres (0.02 in) per year. Rainfall
4828-750: The western Sahara, the central Ahaggar Mountains , the Tibesti Mountains , the Aïr Mountains , the Ténéré desert, and the Libyan Desert . For several hundred thousand years, the Sahara has alternated between desert and savanna grassland in a 20,000-year cycle caused by the precession of Earth's axis (about 26,000 years) as it rotates around the Sun, which changes the location of the North African monsoon . The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria , Chad , Egypt , Libya , Mali , Mauritania , Niger , Western Sahara and Sudan , and parts of southern Morocco and Tunisia . It covers 9 million square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), 31% of
4899-403: Was initially counteracted by the monsoon , which brought rain further north than it does today. By around 4200 BCE, however, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, leading to the gradual desertification of the Sahara. The Sahara is now as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. Lake Chad is the remnant of a former inland sea, paleolake Mega-Chad, which existed during
4970-399: Was just one tenth the rainfall around 125 kya. In the southern Negev Desert speleothems did not grow between 185 and 140 kya ( MIS 6), 110–90 (MIS 5.4–5.2), nor after 85 kya nor during most of the interglacial period (MIS 5.1), the glacial period and Holocene . This suggests that the southern Negev was arid-to-hyper-arid in these periods. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Sahara
5041-430: Was more extensive than it is now with the extent of the tropical forests being greatly reduced, and the lower temperatures reduced the strength of the Hadley Cell . This is a climate cell which causes rising tropical air of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to bring rain to the tropics, while dry descending air, at about 20 degrees north , flows back to the equator and brings desert conditions to this region. It
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