Key Facts about Sahara Desert

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About Sahara Desert:

The Sahara, located in Northern Africa, is the world’s largest hot desert and the third most extensive desert after the polar deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.
It spans over 9,200,000 sq. km (8% of the earth’s land area).
The Sahara Desert encompasses a major portion of North Africa, occupying about 31% of the entire African continent.
The countries within the Sahara Desert are Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Chad, the Niger Republic, some parts of Sudan, a small portion of Nigeria, and a small part of Burkina Faso.
The desert is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains on the northern side; the Red Sea on the eastern side; the Atlantic Ocean on the western side and the semiarid Sahel region on the southern side.
The majority of the Sahara is made up of barren, rocky plateaus, as well as salt flats, sand dunes, mountains, and dry valleys.
The large Nile and Niger rivers, along with the seasonal lakes and aquifers, provide the main source of water for the major desert oases.
The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi (3,415m), a volcano located in the Tibesti Mountains, Chad.
The Sahel region serves as a transition zone between the hot desert in the north and the humid savannas of Sub-Saharan Africa in the south.

Q1: What are dunes?

A dune is a mound of sand formed by the wind, usually along the beach or in a desert. Dunes form when wind blows sand into a sheltered area behind an obstacle. Dunes grow as grains of sand accumulate.

Source: NASA shares stunning images of unusual greenery in the Sahara Desert following rainfall