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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 the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic. [1][2][3]
People have lived in the Sahara long before recorded history, at certain times in regions that are now too arid for human inhabitance. Archaeological findings indicate that there were once ancient Saharan lakes, upon the shores of which humans lived, hunted, and fished.
Covering a massive area of 9,200,000 sq. km, the Sahara Desert is considered the world’s largest hot desert and the third most extensive desert after the polar deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic. The Sahara Desert encompasses a major portion of North Africa, occupying about 31% of the entire African continent.
Classical accounts describe the Sahara much as it is today—a vast and formidable barrier. The Egyptians controlled only their neighbouring oases and, occasionally, lands to the south; the Carthaginians apparently continued the commercial relationships with the interior that had been established during the Bronze Age.
One of the harshest environments on Earth, the Sahara is most famous for its sprawling sand dune fields. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s...
Although as large as the United States, the Sahara (excluding the Nile valley) is estimated to contain only some 2.5 million inhabitants—less than 1 person per square mile (0.4 per square kilometre).
The Sahara divides the continent into North and Sub-Saharan Africa. The southern border of the Sahara is marked by a band of semiarid savannas called the Sahel; south of the Sahel lies lusher Sudan and the Congo River Basin.
world's largest desert. The Sahara (in Arabic, desert) encompasses an area of 3.32 million square miles (8.6 million sq km), stretching across eleven countries and Western Sahara, and covering nearly the entire northern region of Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea hills.
Since the Sahara Desert makes up nearly 10% of the African continent, the Sahara is often cited as the world's largest desert. This is not entirely true, however, as it is only the world's largest hot desert.
When most people imagine an archetypal desert landscape—with its relentless sun, rippling sand and hidden oases—they often picture the Sahara. But 11,000 years ago, what we know today as the...