Sahara Desert
The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest desert area. The word Sahara comes from the Arabic word sahra’, meaning desert. It extends from the Africa’s Atlantic Ocean side to the Red Sea and consists of the countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. It is about 5,200 miles long. Overall, the Sahara Desert covers 3,500,000 square miles. The geography of the desert is varied. In the west, the Sahara is rocky with varied elevation. It does contain underground rivers, which sometime penetrate the surface, resulting in oases. The central region of the Sahara has more elevation than the other areas, with peaks such as Emi Koussi and Tahat. Even though the area lacks rainfall, these peaks are snowcapped during the winter. The Eastern part of the Sahara, the Libyan Desert, is dry with very few oases.
The Sahara's landscape features include shallow basins, large oasis depressions, gravel-covered plains, plateaus, and mountains, sand sheets, dunes and sand seas. Sand sheets and dunes cover over 25 percent of the Sahara’s surface. The most common types of dunes include tied dunes, blowout dunes, and transverse dunes. Within the Sahara are several pyramidal dunes that reach over 500 feet in height while others reach over 1,000 feet. Researchers have for many years tried to figure out how these dunes were formed, but the case remains unsolved.
The boundaries, however, are not clearly defined and have been shifting for millennia. The Sahara was once a fertile area; millet was cultivated there over 8000 years ago. About 10,000 years ago, the Sahara was used as land for grazing in which elephants, giraffes and other animals thrived. It is estimated that in 4,000 B.C., the climate began to get drier. The fertile landscape dried up and the desert widened, creating the form that appears today. As conditions gradually became drier, however, and desertification set in, farmers abandoned their land and the animals migrated to other areas.
The Sahara’s climate is very hot and dry. Although it is very hot during the day, it does become cold at night. On average, it only has 8 inches of rainfall per year. The Sahara's climate consists of b...
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... whole, the Sahara is one of the harshest environments known to man. The majority of the people living in the Sahara Desert are nomads, which means that these people continuously move from region to region in search of better living conditions. It is believed that the first nomadic peoples came to this region after domestic animals were introduced to the Sahara 7,000 years ago. Evidence suggests that the Sahara accumulated diverse groups that quickly formed dense populations throughout the region. The majority of the groups lived separately, but depended on each other for trade.
One of the main problems that are happening to the Sahara desert is the continuing development of the boundaries of the desert. This is known as desertification. As global warming continues to increase, the probability of more desert regions becoming bigger is more likely.
Bibliography
n.a. http://library.thinkquest.org/10898/sahara.htm. “Sahara Desert” ThinkQuest 1998.
n.a. http://library.advanced.org/~16645/the_land/saha_cl.shtml “People and Places: Sahara Desert” 1998.
"Sahara," Microsoft® Encarta® 97 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation.
The Sahara desert affected the development of North Africa. The Sahara’s large temperature range and small supply of water can make the region difficult to thrive upon. However, it is not impossible. As stated in document 2, temperatures can reach up to 120 degrees fahrenheit and supplies of water are scant. Journeying through the Sahara was very difficult until the camel was introduced for travel. As stated in document 2, the camel could travel long distances
In the southern margins of the Sahara Desert, going southward toward East Africa are tall, rather thin dark skin peoples called the Nuer. To the Nuer horticulture is degrading toil. The Nuer live the pastoral mode of production with their primary dependancy on animal husbandry, cattle. Although the cattle is not raised for the meat, unless they become barren, or injured they eat them under special conditions. Usually adapt in dry grassland with short growing seasons.
The Libyan Bedouin are a pastoral people, moving as needed through the Sahara desert with their sheep, goats, and camels. Their movements depend largely upon the seasons due to lack of vegetation and water in the lowlands during the dry season. They also cultivate small plots of cereal grains during the wet season on the desert plateaus and oases of Libya (Behnke, 1980).
In North China, there is high temperature and low rainfall. High summer temperature is due to continental climate. Also, hot dry winds occasionally blow towards Loess Plateau from Gobi Desert in the north. Summer temperature of Less Plateau is high, e.g. Xian ever reached 42.5℃. High summer temperature causes the high evaporation and lead to dryness. The precipitation reduces. Finally, it causes the expansion of dry areas and drought. Water scarcity becomes worse.
Niger is eighty-percent desert which doesn't provide natural resources or availability of water, even though the Niger River is a huge resource for Niger. With its beautiful, sparkling water flowing southwest in a sort of crescent shape it is a place of relief. Along this river, they have wonderful areas for farming and grazing and one can find the most populous city and the capitol Niger called Niamey. This Sub-Saharan country not only has the Sahara desert to deal with, but the Tener...
This is a pattern due to the cold water climates. The arid climates are existent mostly in the center of a continent or beneath a continents rain shadow of a large mountain range. The rain shadow is land on a said of a mountain that is very dry because the mountain forces warm air higher into the sky, which cools it and it falls as rain, but only on one side of the mountain. Most of the arid areas or regions do not have regular seasons. An example would be the Sahara Desert which is always hot and dry. Some Arid places do have changes in temperature depending on the latitude and the surrounding climates. This would mean they have two seasons, which would be summer and winter. The temperatures of these locations can reach as high as 130 degrees or as negative as 30 degrees. This temperature also depends on the location at which it is located on the planet. These hot deserts have a poor rate of precipitation due to the lack of water to be evaporated. In order to have an Arid climate there must be less than 10 inches of water which most deserts do. Some of these deserts have less than 10 inches of rain a year.The causes of these poor climates would be the cold currents carrying dry air, so these lands are blasted with dry air most of the
The Negev desert is characterized by its lengthy, waterless summer with rain events occurring during the colder months of the year. Hendrik Bruins adds in his article, “Ancient Desert Agriculture in the Negev and Climate-Zone Boundary Changes During Average, Wet and Drought Years”, that:
Africa is the second largest of the earth's seven continents, covering about twenty-two percent of the world's total land area. From its northern most point, to its southern most tip is the distance of nearly five thousand miles. Africa is both north and south of the equator. The Atlantic Ocean is located west of the continent, and the Indian Ocean is on the east. Width of the continent is also nearly five thousand miles. Although Africa is so large, much of it is inhabitable. Desert soils, which have little organic content, cover large areas. The Sahara Desert, in the northern part, covers more than one fourth of Africa, and the Kalahari Desert is in the southern part of the continent. These two deserts are a natural detriment to the African continent because they make it difficult to reach the inland where most of the people live. Although Africa is relatively close to Europe, travel by land over the Sahara desert is very prohibitive. Another topographical feature that also isolates the central region of Africa is the coastline.
There are many countries that are located in dried up areas which are the hottest areas in the world. Some of the countries located on the earth’s equator are surrounded by desert and the majority of the land consists mostly of sand which does not hold water. There are not enough trees to absorb water during rainy season. In some areas, there is no rain for several years. The temperature is very high during the dry season. Jay W. Sharp states in his article The Sahara Desert, the temperature in desert areas are extremely hot. The average temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and it can reach 136 degrees Fahrenheit. For example, Sudan, where Nya lives, is generally extremely hot and dry because the country has no forest and is surrounded by the Sahara Desert, the second largest hot desert in the world and covering many countries that include Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and others. Similarly, in the book A Long Walk to Water, Nya finds water every day for the family. During the summer, there is no water in the pond near her village, so she has to move to the big lake. Even at the lake, it is still dried up, too. Because water is essential, she has to dig into the clay to get the water, but it is unhealthy, and it is the cause of disease and death. Nya’s little sister, Akeer, had stomachaches because of drinking unclean water. There are many people who suffer from the same illness, and many of them have died. In these countries in this area, it is hard to find water. Even if it was found, it is still undrinkable
In Ancient Egypt they use the Nile River and the Sahara Desert in some many ways that benefited them. Ancient Egypt was divided into two land different land, the black land and red land. The black land was the fertile land that the Nile River made and the red land was the desert of Egypt. They use the Nile River for the fertile soil that was left after the river was not flooded, so that they could use that fertile soil for growing crops. They would also use the Nile River for fishing, washing their clothes, and sometimes they would trade with others for resources that they needed. The Sahara Desert was used for protection against other invading armies. The climate was always hot and very dry; this is what made it really hard for farming if you lived in the desert area.
Morocco,is a country in the northwestern corner of Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea on the north and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. The Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, separates Morocco from Spain by only about 8 miles (13 kilometers). Fertile plains lie along Morocco's coasts, and forested mountains stretch across the middle of the country from southwest to northeast. Beyond the mountains lies a sun-baked desert, the Sahara. Rabat is Morocco's capital, and Casablanca is the largest city. Nearly all Moroccans are of mixed Arab and Spanish descent. But the people make up two distinct ethnic groups--Arab and Spanish--depending mainly on whether they speak Arabic or Spanish. Almost all Moroccans are Muslims. Farming is the chief occupation, and more than half the people live in rural areas. France and Spain controlled Morocco from the early 1900's until it won independence in 1956.
The vast desert is treacherous and without mercy. But for travelers willing to battle the harsh climate and brutal winds, the desert can reveal riches unimaginable. In Through the Desert, two to five players each control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. By establishing lines of caravans and taking over oases, the players gain points as their tribes increase in power. Although gameplay appears to be straightforward, Through the Desert actually has many underlying lessons and concepts that players ultimately incorporate into their actions. Through the Desert encourages college-aged individuals to seize limited resources and dominate as much land as possible, which teaches the concepts that territory is power and selfish actions
Livestock grazing or herding is a human activity that has been taking place for thousands of years in Africa. Pastoral lifestyles emerged in Africa about nine thousand years ago with the arrival of domesticated herbivores like goats, sheep, and aurochs from Asia. Pastoralism thrived in its early stages in Africa because these ...
Juma, C. (2009, September 15). Climate Change in Africa. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from The World Bank Blog: http://blogs.worldbank.org
Interestingly, most ancient Zulu tribes practice pastoralist and lives in more arid lands. The reason is natives of the Zulu tribe have always inhabited desert lands to remain traditional because their territory is not much valuable and desired to be confiscated by outsiders.