The Sahara remains the most sparsely inhabited place on the planet, with the exception of the frozen wastes of Antarctica. Most of the herders and traders who once made a living here have vanished, their cultures crushed by contact with outsiders and shifts in trade routes that no longer require goods to cross the harsh […]

Today, the vast, hostile Sahara remains the mother of all deserts. High points like 11,204-foot (3,415 m) Mount Koussi in Chad rise like stone fortresses in a great battlefield of sand. A series of ridges and mountain ranges are separated by great, stretched, low-lying depressions, like the Quyattara Depression of Egypt that lies 436 feet […]

It is important to note that even after taking into account the effects of the Earth's wobble and the shift in summer temperatures, climate experts cannot account for the speed with which the grasses withered and the Sahara expanded. Blame the plants, concluded a team of German scientists led by Martin Claussen, which published its […]

Something happened. Something bad. Something strange. Some 6,000 years ago, the region of North Africa that today constitutes the world's greatest desert was a lush grassland studded with scrubby trees, lakes, and streams. Antelope, rhinos, hippos, lions, jackals, giraffes, clams, fish, and human beings wandered about in well-hydrated content. That hospitable grassland habitat dated back […]

POPULATION: 261,794 (2014) AREA: 97,000 sq. mi. (252,000 sq. km) LANGUAGES: Arabic (official); Berber dialects NATIONAL CURRENCY: Moroccan dirham PRINCIPAL RELIGION: Muslim CITIES: El-Aaiun (Laayoune), Cabo Bojador, Bu Craa, Smara (Semara), Ad Dakhla ANNUAL RAINFALL: Less than 2 in. (50 mm) ECONOMY: GDP per capita: N/A PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS AND EXPORTS: Agricultural: fish Manufacturing: handicrafts Mining: phosphates GOVERNMENT: Claimed and administered by Morocco since 1979, […]

Stretching across northern Africa from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, the Sahara is the world's largest desert. It forms a natural barrier between two very different geographic and cultural regions: NORTH AFRICA, with its Arab-influenced Mediterranean culture; and sub-Saharan Africa, where indigenous African culture is dominant. Yet for centuries people have […]

Area 102,703 square mi (266,000 square km) Population 261,794 (2014) Capital None; occupied by Morocco Highest Point 2,700 ft (823 m) Lowest Point -180 ft (-55 m) GDP per capita na Primary Natural Resources phosphate. AS OF 2005, WESTERN SAHARA, formerly called Spanish Sahara, was officially occupied by MOROCCO. Western Sahara is one of the most inhospitable […]

THE SAHARA IS THE world's largest desert. Covering about 3,320,000 square mi (8,600,000 square km) it is roughly the size of the UNITED STATES. It extends across the whole of North Africa from the ATLANTIC OCEAN to the RED SEA, a distance of more than 3,500 mi (5,630 km). It stretches south for at least 1,200 mi (1,930 km). The Sahara […]