Sahara Desert: map, photo, description. The tribes of the Sahara desert are proud and unyielding inhabitants of the sands. How to get to the Sahara

Sometime in tropical forests herds of elephants roamed and leopards hunted. A dense network of rivers and lakes covered the steppes, and caravans loaded with gold, slaves and ostrich feathers crossed the sands. And all in the same area! Sahara Desert occupied a third of Africa, almost all of its north. In terms of area, the Sahara is only slightly inferior to the United States, it now freely accommodates a dozen countries. But there are half as many inhabitants here as in St. Petersburg.

On the maps, the Sahara desert is depicted as a huge yellow spot, which is probably why most people imagine it as a boring plain with endless sands. In fact, the Sahara landscapes are surprisingly diverse. Mountains, massifs of bushes, crushed stone and gravel, steppes and scorched clay plains stretch here. There are oases where life is in full swing, and around - dry river valleys, salt marshes and lakes, scattered huge stones and rocky hills. And, of course, the sands, from which the wind forms bizarre reliefs - labyrinths, wavy fields and dunes as high as a 60-story (!) skyscraper. Here you can hear the "singing sands": moving, dry hot grains of sand create sounds resembling squeaking, grinding, rattling, grumbling of a dog, a vibrating rumble that is heard 10 km away.

"Sugar Pump"

The climate of the Sahara is controlled by an invisible conductor - the wind. Above the equator, the air heats up strongly, rises and goes towards the poles. On the way, it cools, sinks in the north of the Sahara and returns to the equator, replacing the heated, rising portions of air. This scheme is called the “Sahara pump”, and the air currents that constantly rush from the tropics to the equator are the trade winds.

Flying over the north of the continent, the dried trade wind carries away the remaining moisture from the surface of water bodies and land. Already at a speed of 10 m / s, it pulls it out even from the soil, and the roots of the plants are deprived of nourishment. And when the wind intensifies, it carries away the very fertile soil. In addition to the trade winds, they walk here local winds- khamsin, ghibli, sirocco. They carry sand and heat at a hurricane speed (up to 40 m / s) to the north, to Spain, Italy. In the calm over the Sahara hang "dry fogs" - fine dust.

Climate of the Sahara.

In the Sahara, summer temperatures around +50°C are common. On stones and sand, you can fry fried eggs without making a fire. Daytime heat is replaced by night cold (up to +15°C). Rocks burst from such drops!

In the hot air, mirages are frequent - imaginary reflections of what lies beyond the horizon. Since stable caravan routes have developed in the Sahara, mirages are often seen in the same places. Even maps have been drawn up, where the places of appearance of 1500 mirages are indicated, and conditional icons show what can be seen where: an oasis, the ruins of a fortress, a well, mountains, etc.

Receiving with an excess of solar heat, the Sahara languishes from a lack of moisture. In many regions, rain has been waiting for years. Sometimes its drops do not reach the ground, drying up on the way.

Snow in the Sahara does happen, but it's always a worldwide sensation. This happened in 2016, and before that - in 1979!

Through the sands, rainwater easily seeps into the ground, and over millions of years, real freshwater lakes. In some places, underground water is squeezed closer to the surface. In such places, oases have long been formed - with drinking springs, palm trees, etc.

The Sahara has the driest air in the world. Clouds in the sky here are rare guests. For this reason, the heat is even greater, and the Eastern Sahara is one of the most illuminated places in the world. Here the Sun shines an average of 11 hours a day throughout the year.

How did the Sahara Desert come about?

Millions of years ago, the land from Spain to Mongolia was flooded by the Tethys Ocean. Whales frolicked in it, dinosaurs roamed the shores. Then, when from the abyss began to rise mountain systems the ocean receded. Its remnants formed the Mediterranean, Black, Sea of Azov, Caspian and Aral. And the current Sahara is the former bottom of the Tethys. It is not surprising that the skeletons of extinct animals have long been found in the desert from Morocco to Egypt. For example, 45-ton paralithans, Egyptosaurs and other monsters.

Approximately 9,000 years ago, the local coastal forests were replaced by African steppes - savannahs: full-flowing rivers and lakes, a carpet of dense grasses, light forests. Herds of giraffes, elephants, antelopes, buffaloes, rhinos, flocks of ostriches and lions roam. People quickly mastered the fertile land - they hunted, fished, kept livestock, settled along the rivers. On the rocks, now lost in the sands, entire galleries of graffiti have been found - images and inscriptions that confirm this. Why isn't it right now? There is no unity among scientists here. Some people explain everything by the arrival of aliens. But there are also more real assumptions.

Hypothesis 1. The climate has become "not the same." It used to be hotter and the sea level higher. The air above the equator was heated more strongly, which means that it retained heat longer and cooled further than it does now, over mediterranean sea. Having descended, the trade winds were saturated with its moisture, rushed to Africa and brought rains and fogs. They created the prosperity of the Sahara.

Hypothesis 2. The earth swayed in the wrong direction. During the movement of the Earth around the Sun, the tilt of its axis is not constant. As a result, the planet receives a different amount of solar heat and light, and the seasons alternate. Over the millennia, this inclination and the orbit itself change markedly. Therefore, global climate change is coming. It is possible that the great drought in northern Africa is just such a case.

Hypothesis 3."Global flood". Fossilized bones of whales, sharks, rays, turtles, mollusk shells are found in the Sahara shallow. And the ocean had existed for millions of years, kilometer-long layers of marine sediments should have been lying above the bones. Where are they? It is possible that they were carried away by a real flood, the legends of which are kept in the Bible and folklore. Streams of ocean water washed away the top layer of soil and brought the remains of animals. The root cause of the flood could be the fall of a huge meteorite, which caused a tsunami and turned mountain ranges into dust and sand.

Hypothesis 4. With my own hands. Perhaps the formation of the Sahara is the first ecological catastrophe in the history of mankind. The nomadic way of life does not focus on the concern for the preservation and renewal natural environment. A nomad - he is here today, tomorrow there. Together with their herds that eat and trample the greens. Deprived of a grid of roots, the soil is easily blown out, washed off. The bare soil and the air above it warms up more, a zone of high pressure arises, and the winds blow not here, but from here, keeping the clouds away.

Most likely, the Sahara arose under the influence of several natural factors, which exacerbated the unreasonableness of man. And even now… Laying tracks, exploration and production of oil and gas, car rally – all this destroys the fragile ecosystems of the desert.

Sahara Desert. Plants. Country of dates and feneks.

The word "desert" was invented by our ancestors to designate the property of a vast landscape that struck them - its "emptiness", that is, uninhabited. To live here permanently, indeed, is almost impossible. But there are extreme sports among plants and among animals.

For plants, the Sahara could become a paradise - a lot of light, heat, mineral salts. But without water, you yourself understand ... Nevertheless, about 3,000 plant species have been found in the desert, and one in four cannot be found outside it. Many species live only where there is water, in oases - with date palms, cypresses, vegetables, citrus fruits, pomegranates, cereals. And in those that grow outside the oases, botanists have identified a lot of adaptations that allow you to overcome the lack of moisture:

dense and extensive network of surface roots - allows you to effectively absorb the moisture of rare rains, morning fogs and dew before everything dries;
deep (up to 30 m!) roots - get to groundwater, penetrate through cracks into the thickness of the rocks;
the leaves are narrow, small, covered with hairs (wormwood), wax, turned into spines (cacti) or scales (saxaul) - in order to evaporate less moisture;
thickening of stems and leaves, which turn into fleshy pantries of water (aloe);
storage of reserves of moisture and nutrients underground - in rhizomes, bulbs, tubers;
the roots are covered with thick bark or a case of hardened sap and sand and do not dry out when the soil is blown off them by the wind;
the stem grows very quickly and / or the roots grow in any of its places - protection from falling asleep with sand;
a very short period of life - sometimes for several spring days plants have time to bloom, form seeds, and they lie and wait (sometimes for years) until “life gets better”;
the development of solonchaks - here from the depths along the soil capillaries all the time moisture and salts are pulled up;
withstand almost complete drying, but recover very quickly after rains.

Sahara desert and wildlife.

Desert animals also have to solve the problem of water shortage. Some hide during the day, and are active during cool hours, from dusk to dawn. Thicker body coverings protect scorpions and beetles from moisture loss. There are many species that can not drink for a long time (or even never) - they lack the meager moisture that is always in food.

Reptiles feel good in the Sahara - cobras, vipers, chameleons and others. Densely covered with scales, they are protected from moisture loss. The skink lizard can literally “swim” in the sand: having instantly dived into it, it rows with its feet and makes its way through the sand at a speed of up to 90 cm per minute.

Many prefer to live not among clay and rubble, but in the sands, where it is easier to burrow, arrange underground holes and wait out the heat there (jerboas and other small rodents). A business card of the Sahara could serve as a funny fennec fox - smaller than our usual cat, but with huge ears. Ears allow you to quickly give off excess heat (protection against overheating). And, of course, together with big eyes, they help to hunt mice and bugs at night. The smallest animal of the cat family lives in the Sahara - the dune cat. There are also antelopes - gazelles, and monitor lizards that look like small crocodiles.

You will not believe it, but ... toads also live here. And not off the banks of the Nile, but in the Central Sahara. They doze, buried deep in the clay soil, eat nothing and barely breathe, But as soon as a good rain passes, every large puddle is teeming with toads. They lay eggs, there is an accelerated development of tadpoles, and when the puddle dries up, a new generation of toads is already settled in the dungeon. Desert snails can remain in underground hibernation for more than one year.

The Sahara is home to some of the most heat-tolerant animals, the satin runner ants. They are active at air temperatures up to +70°C. Their long legs allow them to hold their bodies high above the hot ground. Their upper body is covered with silvery hairs that reflect sunlight. And the hairs on the bottom, like radiator plates, remove excess heat from the body. Runners get out of their holes to the surface when their enemies - lizards hide from the heat. Insects scurry about, collecting food for 10 minutes, and then go underground too - it gets hot for them too.

And for humans, camels have been the most important desert animals for centuries. True, there are no wild ones in the Sahara for a long time, but caravans of domesticated camels slowly cross it all the time.

The Sahara desert is turning... turning...

In the 19th-20th centuries, plans were hatched in Europe to change the Saharan climate, to restore the lost prosperity of these lands. For example, more than once it was proposed to create a “Sahara Sea”: to lay a canal that would connect the Mediterranean Sea with relief depressions in the north of the desert. They say that a man-made reservoir will increase the humidity of the air, and the trade winds will carry this moisture, pouring rain over the desert. The project “failed” - calculations showed that the lowlands are small, most of the desert lies above sea level, so it will not be possible to create a stable reservoir.

In 2008, the Sahara Forest project was born. British engineers proposed not only to plant greenery in the desert, but to install powerful solar power stations and a network of greenhouses between forest plantations on sea water. According to the plan, circular mirrors at the stations will collect sunlight, use it to heat water in a boiler, the steam of which will turn turbines. They will provide energy for distillers, fresh water will go to greenhouses. And the population will receive water for drinking and irrigation, electricity and agricultural products. The project aroused interest in the Middle East, in the Arabian Emirates, but political situation in North Africa does not yet give hope for the transformation of the Sahara.

The same can be said about the Great Man-Made River project, which Libya undertook to put into practice: the supply of an underground fresh water through a network of pipes covering almost the entire country. Water came to cities and villages, in the south, in the desert, groves of date palms, gardens and fields turned green, but all work was interrupted Civil War (2011–2014).

Meanwhile, the Sahara continued its offensive, inexorably advancing towards the equator. Back in 1974, the Green Wall program was launched in Algeria. Here they began to plant strips of trees along roads and oases. Eucalyptus and pine trees formed a belt 1500 km long. He kept the soil from weathering, reduced the speed of dry winds. The expansion of the Sahara in this area has slowed down.

Assessing this success, the African Union in 2010 undertook the Great Green Wall project. In fact, it is an extended continuation of the Algerian program. Across the entire continent, from Somalia to Senegal, the planting of a continuous green ribbon 15 km wide and 7775 km long has begun. Of course, huge costs. Of course, there are no guarantees that what has been planted will take root, that local residents will not cut down trees for firewood, and so on. But something needs to be done!

Meanwhile, satellite imagery (2002) showed that in the west the Sahara Desert had begun to recede. Dense grass is returning to pastures, acacias are growing, ostriches and antelopes have appeared. Ecologists do not exclude that this is the result - oddly enough - of global warming. The warmer the air, the more water vapor it can hold. As a result, winds bring more abundant and frequent rains. Whether the trend will continue is unknown. Sahara Desert after all, she is also famous for the fact that she is able to present surprises.

The Sahara Desert is one of largest deserts peace. The Sahara stretches across most of North Africa, covering 9 million square kilometers. In fact, the Sahara Desert occupies 30% of the entire African continent. It is the hottest and hottest place in the world with summer temperatures often exceeding 57 degrees Celsius. The desert receives an annual downpour and very powerful sandstorms that raise the sand 1000 meters in height and move the dunes.

We continue the theme of the deserts of Africa. In previous editions of LifeGlobe we told you about the White Desert in Egypt and the Namib Desert, but now it's time to talk about the Sahara. Some say that the Sahara Desert was much larger before the first ice age, and some say that the Sahara Desert appeared 4,000 years ago. For example, German scientists, using methods of computer modeling of the Earth's climate, found that the Sahara became a desert 4,000 years ago. 10 thousand years ago, the largest desert in the world was covered with grass and low shrubs, but then the summer became hotter, and the rains almost stopped. Naturally, many ancient civilizations disappeared, and all living things left the Sahara. According to scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, the transformation of the Sahara into a desert was one of the most dramatic climatic events on Earth in foreseeable millennia. Why is the climate so unstable? It turns out that the inclination of the earth's axis to the Sun is gradually changing: approximately 9 thousand years ago it was 24.14 degrees, now it is 23.45 degrees. Today, the Earth comes closest to the Sun in January, ten thousand years ago - at the end of July. Subtle changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, amplified by interactions with the atmosphere, ocean and land, are changing the climate beyond recognition.

The climate of the Sahara is extraordinary. The wet factor is the broad position of the Sahara north and south of the Tropic of the North. This explains the fact that most of desert throughout the year is under the influence of the northeast trade wind. An additional influence on the climate is exerted by the Atlas mountain barrier located in the north, elongated from west to east and preventing the main mass of humid Mediterranean air from penetrating into the desert. In the south, from the side of the Gulf of Guinea, wet masses freely enter the Sahara in summer, which, gradually drying up, reach its central parts. The extreme dryness of the air, the enormous deficit of humidity, and, accordingly, the exceptionally high evapotranspiration are characteristic of the entire Sahara. According to the precipitation regime in the Sahara, three zones can be distinguished: northern, central and southern.

IN northern zone Precipitation falls in winter and their amount does not exceed 200 mm per year. To the south, their number decreases, and in the central zone they fall sporadically. Their average value does not exceed 20 mm. Sometimes there is no precipitation at all for 2-3 years. However, in such areas unexpected showers can occur, causing severe flooding. The aridity of the Sahara also varies in the latitudinal direction, from west to east. On the Atlantic coast, heavy precipitation does not fall, since rare westerly winds are cooled by the Canary Current passing along the coast. Fogs are frequent here. On the tops of mountain ranges and highlands, the amount of precipitation slightly increases due to the condensation of water vapor. Sahara is distinguished by a high degree of evaporation. Its total annual value varies from 2500 to 5500 mm, which is more than 70 times the amount of precipitation.

The Sahara is characterized by high, one might say, record holders of air temperature. The average temperature of the coldest month, January, does not fall below 10 ° C in almost the entire Sahara. The average July temperature in the central part of the desert is 35 ° C. Temperatures above 50 ° C are noted in many places in the Sahara. The nights in the Sahara are cool, the temperature drops to 10 -15 ° C. On the plains, the temperature rarely reaches minus 5 ° C. In the mountains, frosts are frequent. The daily amplitudes of air temperatures are very large - up to 30 ° C, and on the soil surface - up to 70 ° C. At the beginning of summer, hot sirocco winds blow in the north of the Sahara, which come from the central part of the desert. strong winds cause dust and sand storms, the wind speed during the storm reaches 50 m/s. Masses of sand and small stones rise into the air, which greatly affect people and animals. Storms arise as suddenly as they end, leaving behind clouds of slowly settling dry dusty "fog". Tornadoes are also frequent in the Sahara.

The Sahara desert consists of one quarter volcanic mountains, one quarter of sand, rocks and gravel plains, and small areas of permanent vegetation. Vegetation includes shrubs, grasses and trees in the highlands and in the oases along the riverbeds. Some of the plants are well adapted to this climate and grow within three days of rain, and sow their seeds within two weeks after that. Only a small part of the Sahara desert is fertile - these areas take moisture from underground rivers and oases.

The Great Sahara Desert is located in North Africa and partially or completely covers the territory of almost eleven countries. This largest desert in the world covers an area of more than 9,000,000 square meters. km, comparable to the area of the United States. It stretches 1600 km wide and about 5000 km long from east to west. It is said that a thousand years ago the climate in the desert was more humid. The fact is that in the distant past, the territory of the Sahara underwent various atmospheric changes, which led to a change in climatic conditions. The desert divides the African continent into two parts - North and Sub-Saharan Africa. By reading the interesting facts below, you will learn more about this desert.

The Sahara Desert is the second largest desert in the world (after Antaktida) and the largest hot desert on the planet.

It covers almost all parts of North Africa. It stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coast, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean. In the southern region, its border is the semi-arid Sahel savannah region (Sahel), separating the desert from Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the boundaries of the desert are not clearly defined; moreover, over the past thousand years they have undergone significant changes.

The Sahara passes through the territory of the following countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara.

The history of the desert goes back at least 3 million years.

The climate of the Sahara is combined: in the north it is subtropical, and in the south - tropical.

The relief is quite diverse, but in general it is a plateau lying at an altitude of 400-500 m above sea level. There is underground rivers, which sometimes flow to the surface, forming oases. Vegetation develops well in such natural oases. The soil of such regions of the Sahara is very fertile, so where irrigation is possible, an excellent crop grows.

Part of the desert is occupied by sand dunes, which reach a height of 180 meters.

The central region is more elevated above sea level compared to the rest of its regions. The central plateau stretches for 1600 km from the northwest to the southeast. Its height varies from 600 to 750 m, some peaks reach the level of 1800 m and even 3400 m. high points- Emi Koussi peaks with a height of 3415 m, Tahat - 3003 m, the Tibetsi massif and the Ahaggar highlands.

It may seem strange, but in winter time snow caps lie on the mountain peaks. In the eastern part of the Sahara - the Libyan desert - the climate is the driest, so there are very few oases. In this part, sandy areas with large dunes are concentrated, the height of which reaches 122 meters or more.

The climate of the Sahara Desert is very hot and dry. During the day it is very hot here, and at night it is cool.

The Sahara receives only 20 cm of precipitation per year. It is for this reason that a very small number of people live here, only 2 million people.

Previously, the desert was a fertile land where elephants, giraffes and other animals grazed. Gradually, it became more and more arid, and the fertile landscape turned into the barren region as we know it today.

The central part of the Sahara is exceptionally dry, with little or no vegetation. In places where moisture accumulates, meadows, desert shrubs, trees and tall shrubs are sometimes found here.

During the last ice age, the desert was larger than it is now, extending south beyond its current borders.

Climatic conditions here are considered the toughest in the world. The prevailing northeasterly winds often cause sandstorms and dust devils micro-tornadoes.

Arabic is the most widely spoken language in the Sahara, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.

The Sahara is divided into several regions: Western Sahara, the Central Ahaggar Highlands, the Tibesti Mountains, the Aïr Mountains (a region of desert mountains and high plateaus), the Tenere Desert and the Libyan Desert (the driest region).

Valley of the Nile and mountainous areas The Nubian Desert east of the Nile are geographically part of the Sahara Desert. However, the waters of the Nile turned this territory of Egypt from a barren desert into a fertile agricultural area.

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

The Sahara is the most famous desert. No wonder, because it 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 sand, stone and clay scorched by the sun, enlivened only by rare green spots of oases and one the only river That's what the Sahara is.

"Sahara" or "Sahra" is an Arabic word, it means a monotonous brown desert plain. Say this word aloud: do not you hear in it the wheezing of a man choking with thirst and sizzling 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 area on Earth (the city of Tripoli recorded an air temperature of +58°C). There is no rain in the Sahara for years, and if it does, the drops often do not reach the ground - they dry up in the air.

But what are the feelings of a person who first found himself in the Sahara. In the morning, a huge fireball 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 a terrible "song of the sands", and then a terrible whirlwind - simum - will sweep over the desert. At night, the unbearable heat is replaced by piercing coolness. Even stones cannot withstand such sharp drops - they burst with a loud crack. Such stones were called "shooting" stones in the Sahara, and the inhabitants of the desert say: "the sun in our country makes even stones scream",

The Tuareg, forever roaming the most remote and uninhabited regions of the Sahara, are called "blue ghosts". A blue veil that covers the face so that only a strip for the eyes remains, the young man receives at a family holiday when he turns eighteen years old. From that moment on, he becomes a man, and never again in his life, day or night, does he remove the veil from his face and will only move it a little 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 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 larger than Australia and only slightly smaller than Brazil. In terms of its size, the Sahara is not inferior to Europe with all its islands.

Climate of the Sahara

The climate of the Sahara is extra-arid (tropical, dry and hot, in the north - subtropical). The wet factor is the broad position of the Sahara north and south of the Tropic of the North. This explains the fact that most of the desert is under the influence of the northeast trade wind, which dominates most of the Sahara throughout the year.

An additional influence on the climate is exerted by the Atlas mountain barrier located in the north, elongated from west to east and preventing the main mass of humid Mediterranean air from penetrating into the desert. In the south, from the side of the Gulf of Guinea, wet masses freely enter the Sahara in summer, which, gradually drying up, reach its central parts.

The extreme dryness of the air, the enormous deficit of humidity, and, accordingly, the exceptionally high evapotranspiration are characteristic of the entire Sahara. According to the precipitation regime in the Sahara, three zones can be distinguished: northern, central and southern.

The aridity of the Sahara also varies in the latitudinal direction, from west to east. On the Atlantic coast, heavy precipitation does not fall, since rare westerly winds are cooled by the Canary Current passing along the coast. Fogs are frequent here.

Air dryness (relative humidity 30-50%), a huge lack of humidity and high evaporation (potential evaporation 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 predominantly winter, in Southern Sahara - summer; the average annual precipitation in the marginal regions is 100-200 mm, in most of the Sahara plains it is less than 50 mm (usually less than 100 mm in mountain ranges), and in the interior it may not rain for several years in a row. There are several places where rains have never been recorded at all. During rains, usually torrential, dry channels (wadis) quickly turn into turbulent streams and cause floods in the 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 as a whole is poorly supplied with water, but compared to other deserts of the world, it is rich in groundwater.

Most of the Sahara is characterized by abundant morning dews (condensation due to low night temperatures), which contribute to the formation of superficial silty crusts. On the peaks of Ahaggar and Tibesti, snow falls 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 ° C (Adrar), the average January temperatures range from 16 to 27 ° C. In winter, frosts on the soil are widespread in the Sahara at night, and night temperatures down to -18 ° C are recorded in the central mountain ranges .

Long winds and multi-day dust (sand) storms are frequent. Storms in the Sahara have extraordinary strength. The 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!). Caravaneers say that sometimes heavy camel saddles are carried away by the wind for two hundred meters, and stones, the size of a chicken egg, roll along the ground like peas. The "Desert Genie" is the name given to the tornado by the Bedouins.

And when there is calm in the Sahara and the air is filled with dust, a “dry fog” known to all travelers arises. 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 bearings 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 carry dust and sand far beyond Africa, into the Atlantic Ocean or into Europe.

Story

The Sahara has not always been a lifeless land.

As further studies confirmed, even during 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 steppe-savannah. 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 parts of the desert.

In many parts of the Sahara, ancient cities were buried under a layer of sand; this may be indicative of a comparatively recent desiccation of the climate.

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

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

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

At present, scientists cannot accurately determine the age of the lake, but state another fact that the size of the Megalake indicates constant rains, due to which the volume of the reservoir was regularly replenished. The find once again confirms that before the territory of the Sahara was not always a desert. It lay within the temperate zone and was covered with plants.

Scientists led by El-Baz also suggest that most of the Megalake has 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 increased, the surface of the Sahara lost moisture more and more, the grass dried up. Gradually, herbivores began to leave the Sahara, predators followed them. The animals had to retreat to the distant forests and savannahs of Central Africa, where all these representatives of the so-called Ethiopian fauna still live. Almost all people left the Sahara for animals, and only a few were able to survive where there was still some water left. They became nomads wandering in the desert. They are called Berbers or Tuareg, and the "father of history" Herodotus called this tribe the Garamantes - after the main city of Garama (modern Germa).

By this time, scientists also attribute the appearance of most of the famous frescoes of Tas-sili-Adzher, a plateau located in the center great desert. The name itself means "plateau of many rivers" and reminds of 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". Much has been written about the latter. The mystery of their origin still excites the minds: either they represent a scene of shamans' rituals, or aliens abducting people.

Relief

Sahara is, in fact, not the name of one particular desert, but the collective name of 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 extends, to the south of which, entering the territory of Sudan, the Nubian Desert is located. There are other, smaller deserts. Often they are separated by mountain ranges with fairly high peaks.

There are powerful mountains with peaks up to 2500 thousand meters in the Sahara, and the extinct crater of the Emi-Kusi volcano, whose diameter is 12 km, and plains covered with sand dunes, basins with clay soil, salt lakes and salt marshes, blooming oases. All of them replace and complement each other. There are also giant cavities. 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, a table, the flat character of which is broken only by the depressions of the Nile and Niger valleys and Lake Chad. On this plain, only in three places do truly 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, gorge-cut, absolutely dry landscapes of Ahaggar are often compared to 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 Dzherid in Tunisia).

The surface of the Sahara is quite varied; vast expanses are covered with loose sand dunes, rocky surfaces carved into bedrock and covered with rubble (hamada) and gravel or pebbles (regi) are widespread.

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

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

It is assumed that the groundwater that feeds these oases comes from the slopes of the Atlas, located 300–500 km to the north. All life is concentrated mainly in the marginal parts 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 development of oil, several highways were built, but along with them, camel caravans continue to run.

In the east the desert is cut 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-Messaoud 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, but did not displace the time-honored camel caravans.

Mirages

Few people dare to travel in 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 made on the location of mirages. These maps even mark 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 the sunset in the desert. Perhaps only the aurora borealis makes a greater impression on the traveler. The sky in the rays of the setting sun each time strikes with a new combination of shades - it is both blood-red and pink-pearl, imperceptibly merging with pale blue. All this is piled up on the horizon in several floors, it burns and sparkles, growing into some kind of bizarre, fabulous forms, and then gradually fades away. Then, almost instantly, an absolutely black night sets in, the darkness of which even the bright southern stars cannot dispel.

These days, the Sahara is not so difficult to access. From the city of Algiers on a good highway to the desert can be reached in one day. Through the picturesque gorge El Kantara - "Gateway to the Sahara" - the traveler finds himself in amazing places. To the left and right of the road, which runs along a rocky and clay plain, small rocks rise, to which the wind and sand have given the intricate outlines of fairy-tale castles and towers.

Flora

In the Northern Sahara, the influence of the Mediterranean flora is significant, and in the south, species of the Paleotropical Sudanese flora widely penetrate into the desert. About 30 endemic genera of plants are known in the flora of the Sahara, belonging mainly to the families of cruciferous, haze and Compositae. In the most arid, extra-arid regions of the Central Sahara, the flora is especially poor.

So, in the south-west 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 the Central Sahara that are distinguished by comparative floristic richness. These are the desert highlands of Tibesti and Ahaggar. In the Tibesti highlands, near water sources, willow-leaved ficus and even venus hair fern grow. On the Tassini-Adgenre plateau, northeast of Ahanar, there are relic plants: individual specimens of the Mediterranean cypress.

The Sahara is dominated by ephemera, appearing for a short time after rare rains. Perennial xerophytes are common. The most extensive in terms of area are grass-shrub desert plant formations (various types of Aristide grass). The tree-shrub layer is represented by free-standing acacias, low-growing xerophytic shrubs - cornulaca, randonia, etc.). In the northern belt of grass and shrub communities, jujube is often found.

In the extreme west of the desert, in the Atlantic Sahara, special plant groups are formed with the dominance of large succulents. Cactus euphorbia, acacia, dereza, sumac grow here. An Afghan tree grows near the ocean coast. At altitudes of more than 1700 m, here (highlands and plateaus of the Central Sahara) begin to dominate: cereals, feather grass, bonfire, ragwort, 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 black beetles, and 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.

Of the mammals, rodents are the most numerous. Representatives of the family of hamsters, mice, jerboas, squirrels live here. Gerbils are diverse in the Sahara (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 the long-term persecution of them by man. The largest antelope in the Sahara, the aryx, is slightly smaller than 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 predators there are: a miniature fox, a striped jackal, an Egyptian mongoose, a dune cat. Birds in the Sahara are not numerous. Larks, hazel grouse, desert sparrow are common. In addition, there are: oystercatcher, desert raven, eagle owl. Lizards are numerous (crest-toed lizards, gray monitor lizard, agamas). Some snakes are excellently adapted to life in the sands - sand efa, horned viper

The one-humped camel, whose appearance symbolizes the Sahara desert, deserves special attention.

Museum of Man

The Great Desert is full of human footprints left on purpose. Some drawings and engravings of the Sahara are more than 10 thousand years old. On the most ancient - wild animals: elephants, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, ostriches, antelopes, often gigantic. Sometimes the opposite is true: following the guide, you crouch down under a rock ledge - and find yourself among a herd of palm-sized red cows.

The yellowish-brown and yellow-red background of the rocks and sandstones of Tassili turned out to be an ideal material that preserved the archive of several eras. Hundreds of images of Tassili N "Ajer, discovered, described and copied by the French explorer Henri Lot in the 50s of the XX century, show the life of various peoples who inhabited the massif at different times.

“We were struck,” A. Lot wrote, “with the variety of styles and subjects that we discovered in the study of numerous layers of paintings ... Some drawings were located in isolation, others were complex compositions. We found ourselves, as it were, 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 on arrows directed exactly to the four cardinal points. Who created them, when and for what, while there is no clear answer to these questions!

Structure Guell Er Richat, Mauritania

This structure is located on the territory of 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 no traces of the impact were found along the edges of the structure itself. Therefore, today most researchers believe that the structure is the result of erosion, but they don’t even try to explain its almost perfectly round shape - this is a mystery.

Tourism

Excursions are offered in the Sahara. This small trips for 2-3 days in the deadly desert. You can ride a camel, but only under the supervision of an overseer. Otherwise, you may find yourself on a beast among the boundless sands. The bravest ones can cross the desert themselves (it is possible, although it seems unrealistic!). But before the trip, you need to consult with a specialist.

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Romantic, hot and limitless, this desert has always captivated the hearts of people. She tends to be beautiful and captivating and at the same time terrible and dangerous, so she will always be of great interest. This is the real miracle of nature, which hides many secrets and mysteries in its sands. So let's find out in more detail the most interesting facts about this wonderful place.

It is amazing how people, animals and plants could adapt so well to such conditions, sultry heat, which is simply crazy, sandstorms, night cold, and lack of water.

Surely many people know that this is the largest desert on Earth. It is located in northern Africa, and occupies 30% of its total area that can almost be compared with the entire territory of the United States. The total area of the desert is 8.6 million km. The length of the desert from west to east is 4900 km, from north to south to 900-1300 km. In the west, the Sahara is in contact with the Atlas Mountains and is washed by the Mediterranean Sea, in the east it is the Red Sea, in the south is the Sahel.

The desert extends through countries such as: Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Chad, Mauritania and others, in total 13 countries.

The local population calls this place the “Sea without Water”, since earlier there was a huge lake and many tropical forests on the territory of this place, and all this is due to the fact that the Sahara desert is rocky, so many underground rivers pass under the sand, which, going out, form oasis. Moreover, such underground rivers are comparable in area to Lake Baikal, for the most part they are used for irrigation, such systems were known in ancient Egypt. They deliberately dug out canals, perpendicular to the river, some of which converged into one reservoir, and only then distributed on the soil.

But even now, in the middle of the desert, you can find oases that are surrounded by unique vegetation, and people settle here, building entire settlements and even cities. But year after year, such places are becoming less and less.

Even despite the fact that there is actually no water here, they live here over 3 million people. Most of them, of course, lead a nomadic lifestyle, moving from one place to another, usually near the Nile and Niger rivers, where at least some plants are present. Mostly Tuareg and Berbers live here.

This place for us is primarily sands and dunes. But what is most interesting is that the sands make up only a fifth of the entire area, the thickness of the sands is almost 160 meters. The sands are constantly swept into dunes, thereby forming dunes that can reach a height of up to 180 meters, and this is actually the height of the Eiffel Tower.

There is so much sand in the Sahara that all the people who live on Earth would have to scoop sand with the help of ordinary wind, then more than 3 million buckets would have to be moved.

Most of the desert is Mountain peaks, although it’s hard to call them peaks, it’s about 70%, the rest falls on pebble wastelands, where nothing can grow at all, because it’s stony soil and also salt marshes.

Previously, it was assumed that the Sahara arose several million years ago, but the latest findings of scientists indicate the opposite and its age is only 2.7 thousand years.

As for the temperature, it's just a real hell here, average temperature air ranges from 55 to 60 degrees Celsius, in winter the temperature drops to 30 and below, which is quite typical for a change in time. We have such a temperature in the summer, and they have in the winter.

The climate here is completely focused on northeast trade wind, so there are often sandstorms that can reach the territory of Europe. In the north, the climate is dry subtropical, in the south, tropical and also dry.

Back in the last century, they created here huge reservoir under the name, due to the spill of one nearby lake.

Rain in the Sahara is a real holiday, but this is not enough, because raindrops do not even have time to irrigate the ground and evaporate before reaching the ground. Here, evaporation is several times higher than precipitation, and that's all, because no more than 20 millimeters of precipitation falls here.

But even so, it may not rain for several years, and then at one fine moment there will be a brutal downpour that will last for several days. Once, more precisely in 1879 and 2013, snow fell on the territory of Algeria.

One of the truly unique and mysterious anomalies of this place - mirages, almost everyone who wandered around the Sahara observed unexpected oases with a reservoir and plants, visually it seemed from 2-3 kilometers from the observer. All this is due to the refraction of the flow of light on the verge between layers of air of different density and temperature.

In total, more than 150 thousand mirages were seen in sugar, and special maps were even created where places where such anomalies were observed were plotted.

And finally, let's talk about the animal world, in total there are almost 4000 different kinds of animals. Such as camels, which can go without water for two weeks and, without food, for up to a month at all, but at a time they can drink almost 80 liters of water.

This is the smallest representative of the cat family, only 50 to 80 cm in length, and then half the length is the tail.

Which is able to do without food for 2 months.

Tiny fox.

Very fast and hardy animals that can do without water for a long time, but now this species is threatened with complete extinction.

Well, the vegetation here has no more than 1200 species, almost all of them are xerophytes and ephemera. In particular, rocky areas seem completely lifeless, but even here the plants manage to adapt to such a harsh environment.

The Jericho rose looks like the branches of the plant are fingers that squeeze the seeds, when it rains the branches straighten and the seeds fall out and the raw bud, where they immediately take root.

In fact, for any plants in this desert, one drop of water is enough to sprout.