The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert. But if you look at cold and hot deserts, it is the third largest desert after Antarctica and the Arctic worldwide.
It’s often known as the largest desert as many associate desert with hot conditions and thus discount both the Arctic and Antarctica.
*Do research and find out more about the two types of deserts, when is an area classified as a desert etc.
The suface of the Sahara desert is 9,400,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi).
This is a hot desert and the temperatures can reach 136 Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius) so you better make sure that you have your sunblock and enough water if you ever want to visit this area.
This desert is found in North Africa and covers a huge are in eleven countries.
These are: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Sudan.
If they would ever decide to declare this desert as a country, it would be the 5th largest country in the world. Think about that for a minute. Now you have an idea of how big this desert is.
Because it is a desert and has very high temperatures through the day, the rainfall is also very scarce. The Sahara desert gets less than 3 inches rain per year. There are areas that goes without rain for many years and it is very difficult conditions for animals, humans and plants to live in.
Believe it or not, more than 500 species of plants and 70 species of animals and a 1000 species of trees(which are mostly found at an oasis) have adapted to survive in these conditions.
*What does it mean if something have adapted to certain conditions?*Find pictures of different animals and plants living in the desert and find out how they survive these harsh conditions.
There are areas where water sources are found and this comes from Lake Chad and the River Nile.
There are also more than 2 million people living in the desert and they will live close to the water resources. Some of these people are nomads which means they move around and do not have a fixed location where they live.
Most people speak Arabic here,
The climate of the Sahara has changed significantly through the Earth’s history. It’s suggested that the Sahara was once a green, lush region ripe for habitation. This began to change over 4000 years ago due to the change in the tilt of the earth’s orbit.
The highest point of the Sahara desert is the volcano Emi Koussi and it is more than 11 000 feet above sea level at some places.
It is not always hot in the desert. Between December and February the temperature will fall and there have been some snow on some of the sand dunes during this time. It also get very cold during ghe night and some nights can be below freezing. Can you imagine how difficult it must be to live hear and decide what clothes to wear?
The most well known animal found here is the camel and it is used to travel with since this animal can travel for days without water or food.
*Learn more about the camel here.
A Sandstorm is something that can occur often and this is when the wind blows at a high speed an it lifts the sand off the ground and blow it in all directions. The people that live here have special precautions to survive a sand storm.
*Do research and find out what you can do if you get caught in a sandstorm.
It’s suggested that these strong winds and dust have sent the particles as far as the US from the Sahara desert.
*Make a list of things that you would take with you if you ever had to go to the desert.
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