Geographical Information: Sahara Desert
The Sahara is the largest desert in world.
- 3,000 miles long east to west / 1,200 miles wide north to south
- 15% sand dunes
- 70% stone desert
- remaining land is mountains, oasis, and sparse vegetation
- highest temperature in recorded history is 136 degrees / 58 C Sept 1922 (Libyan Sahara Desert)
Typical Songhai villages usually consist of collections of extended, polygamous family groupings. Their homes are usually made of mud or straw on a foundation of sand. For those not living right along the river, survival is limited by the shortage of water because the Sahara Desert meets the river just yards from its shores.
Bartleby describes The Sahara's geography, climate, resources, peoples, and history like this:
"[Arab.,=desert], world’s largest desert, c.3,500,000 sq mi ... the western part of a great arid zone that continues (from North Africa) into SW Asia...
The Sahara has one of the harshest climates in the world. Located in the trade winds belt, the region is subject to winds that are frequently strong and that blow constantly from the northeast between a subtropical high-pressure cell and an equatorial low-pressure cell... The desiccating and dust-laden winds are sometimes felt north and south of the desert, where they are variously known as sirocco, khamsin, simoom, and harmattan. Border zones on the north and south, where the desert merges with the steppe (Sahel) receive about 10 in. of rain a year with some seasonal regularity, but over most of the region rainfall is sparser, with an average annual total of less than 5 in... Daytime temperatures are high... Heat loss is rapid at night... Freezing temperatures are not uncommon at night from December to February...
The Nile and Niger rivers, both fed by rains outside the desert, are the only permanent rivers in the region. Water is present at or just below the surface gravel in wadis (intermittent streams) that radiate from the mountain massifs, in scattered oases where the water table comes to the surface, and at greater depths in huge underground aquifers...
Important discoveries of minerals, oil, and gas have been made in the Sahara. There are huge oil and gas deposits in Algeria and Libya, but in most cases, inaccessibility has delayed exploitation. In searching for oil reserves, underground deposits of water also have been found. Extensive iron ore deposits are worked in the Fort Gouraud area of Mauritania. Salt is still mined, as in the past, at Taoudenni, Mali, and at Bilma, Niger, and is transported, as in the days of the great medieval kingdoms of W Africa, by camel caravans across the desert...
A profitable trans-Saharan trade in gold and slaves from W Africa, salt from the desert, and cloth and other products from the cities on the Mediterranean coast was carried on by the nomads. The first European explorers to travel in the Sahara were Friedrich Horneman in 1805 and Mungo Park in 1806. Some areas of the Sahara remain virtually unexplored, although a network of air and automobile routes now crosses the desert and links the major oases and mining areas."
