Sahara

For other uses, see Sahara (disambiguation).

Satellite image

A natural rock arch in south western Libya

The Sahara (Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى, aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-koubra, "The Great Desert", ()) is technically the world's second largest desert after Antarctica. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most parts of northern Africa; an area stretching from the Red sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic ocean. It is almost as large as the United States, and is larger than Australia. Its name derives from an Arabic word meaning "desert": "ṣaḥrā´" (صحراء); to refer to the Sahara as the "Sahara Desert" can be considered a pleonasm.

Geography

The Sahara meets the Mediterranean sea in Egypt

The Sahara covers huge parts of Algeria, Burkina Faso, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sudan and Tunisia.

The Sahara includes many landforms such as rivers (Nile River, Sénégal River), mountain ranges (Aïr Mountains, Ahaggar Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains), smaller deserts and ergs (Libyan Desert, Ténéré, Egyptian Sand Sea, Qattara Depression, Erg of Bilma, Erg Chebbi), lakes (Lake Chad) and oases (Bahariya, Ghardaïa, Timimoun).

According to a botanical criteria of Cap-Rey, the Sahara is comprised between the following:

• at north: limits of the maturity of Phoenix dactylifera (date palm trees)
• at south: southern limit of Cornucala monacantha (a Chenopodiaceae) or northern limit of the Cencrus biflorus (a Poaceae of the Sahel region).

According to climatic criteria:

• at north: an isohyet of 100 mm annual precipitation.
• at south: a limit described by an isohyet of 150 mm annual precipitation (keeping in mind that precipitation varies strongly from one year to another).

Climate history

An oasis in the Ahaggar Mountains

The climate of the Sahara has undergone enormous variation between wet and dry over the last few hundred thousand years. During the last ice age, the Sahara was bigger than it is today, extending south beyond its current boundaries. The end of the ice age brought better times to the Sahara, from about 8000 BC to 6000 BC, perhaps due to low pressure areas over the collapsing ice sheets to the north. Once the ice sheets were gone, the northern part of the Sahara dried out. However, not long after the end of the ice sheets, the monsoon which currently brings rain to the Sahara came further north and counteracted the drying trend in the southern Sahara. The monsoon in Africa (and elsewhere) is due to heating during the summer. Air over land becomes warmer and rises, pulling in cool wet air from the ocean. This causes rain. Paradoxically, the Sahara was wetter when it received more solar insolation in the summer. In turn, changes in solar insolation are caused by changes in the Earth's orbital parameters.

By around 2500 BC, the monsoon retreated south to approximately where it is today, leading to the desertification of the Sahara. The Sahara is currently as dry as it was about 13,000 years ago. These conditions are responsible for what has been called the Sahara Pump Theory.

The Sahara has one of the harshest climates in the world. It has many strong winds that blow from the north-east. Sometimes on the border zones of the north and south, the desert will receive about 25 cm (10 in.) of rain a year. The rainfall happens very rarely, but when it does it is usually torrential when it occurs after long dry periods, which can last for years.

History

Historic image of the Sahara.

Egyptians

By 6000 BC predynastic Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and constructing large buildings. Subsistence in organized and permanent settlements in predynastic Egypt by the middle of the 6th millennium BC centered predominantly on cereal and animal agriculture: cattle, goats, pigs and sheep. Metal objects replaced prior ones of stone. Tanning of animal skins, pottery and weaving are commonplace in this era also. There are indications of seasonal or only temporary occupation of the Al Fayyum in the 6th millennium BC, with food activities centering on fishing, hunting and food-gathering. Stone arrowheads, knives and scrapers are common. Burial items include pottery, jewelry, farming and hunting equipment, and assorted foods including dried meat and fruit. The dead are buried facing due west. By 2500 BC the Sahara was as dry as it is today, and it became a largely impenetrable barrier to humans, with only scattered settlements around the oases, but little trade or commerce through the desert. The one major exception was the Nile Valley. The Nile, however, was impassable at several cataracts, making trade and contact difficult.

Nubians

During the Neolithic, before the onset of desertification, the central Sudan had been a rich environment supporting a large population ranging across what is now barren desert, like the Wadi el-Qa'ab. By the 5th millennium BC, the peoples who inhabited what is now called Nubia, were full participants in the "agricultural revolution," living a settled lifestyle with domesticated plants and animals. Saharan rock art of cattle and herdsmen found suggest the presence of a cattle cult like those found in Sudan and other pastoral societies in Africa today. Megaliths found at Nabta Playa are overt examples of probably the world's first known Archaeoastronomy devices, out dating Stonehenge by some 1000 years. This complexity, as observed at Nabta Playa, and as expressed by different levels of authority within the society there, likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt.

The earliest known kingdom in Nubia is possibly older than Egypt and was known to the Egyptians as Ta-Seti, meaning "Land of the Bow", indicative of their efficiency with the Bow and Arrow. The culture is referred to as the A-group. A-Group peoples were ethnically and culturally very similar to the polities in predynastic Naqadan Upper Egypt. The A-Group peoples settled mostly in Lower Nubia and parts of southern Egypt (in the North to el-Kubaniya, north of Aswan); they were also found in the south as far as the Second Cataract. They were distinguished from other Sudanese cultures mainly by pottery. Many seemed to live a semi-nomadic lifestyle. During the era of Ta-Seti, there are some elite cemeteries known and royal tombs (notably at Qustul), suggesting a more complex social structure than before. The A-Group seems to have disappeared with the Old Kingdom (in Egypt) from Lower Nubia; however, some A-Group pottery at Buhen indicates continuing population on at least a small scale.

In the 2nd millennium BC, the kingdom of Kerma rose to prominence with its capital at Kerma, which encompassed much of upper Nubia. Closely related to the A-Group, the civilization thrived between 2500 BC to about 1520 BC. Close trade contacts with Egypt are observed during the Middle and Classical Kerma phases. Reisner excavated sites at Kerma and found large tombs and a palace-like structure ('Deffufa'), alluding to the early stability in the region. At one point, Kerma came very close to conquering Egypt, with Egypt suffering a "humiliating defeat" by the hands of the Kushites. According to Davies, head of the joint British Museum and Egyptian archaeological team, the attack was so devastating that had the Kerma forces chose to stay and occupy Egypt, they might have eliminated it for good and brought the great nation under extinction. Kerma hegemony however, was not to last as the kingdom soon saw its down fall with the rise of Egypt's New Kingdom and the conquests of Thutmosis I.

Nubia regrouped during the Napatan period (about 700 - 300 BC). Archaeologists have found several burials which seem to belong to local leaders, buried here after the Egyptians decolonized the Nubian frontier. The Kushites of this period were influenced heavily by Egyptian customs, intertwined with local customs. With the blessing of the high priests of Amun at Thebes, the Kushites marched north into Egypt under the leadership of king Piye. He initiated the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, which held sway over its northern neighbors for nearly 100 years, until they were eventually repelled by the invading Assyrians, in which they moved further south, establishing their capital at Meroe.

Meroe (800 BC - c. AD 350) lay on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, ca. 200 km north-east of Khartoum. The people there preserved many ancient Egyptian customs but was unique in many respects. They developed their own form of writing, first utilizing Egyptian hieroglyphs, and later using an alphabetic script with 23 signs. Many pyramids were built in Meroe during this period and the kingdom consisted of an impressive standing military force. A famous episode in the history of Meroe is the coming of Alexander the Great with his forces. According to legend, confronted with the the brilliant military formation of the army led by Candace of Meroe, he concluded it would be best to withdraw his forces. Strabo also describes a clash with the Romans in which the Romans were defeated by Nubian archers under the leadership of a "one-eyed" (blind in one eye) queen. Meroe however, would eventually meet defeat by a new rising kingdom to their south, Askum, under King Ezana.

Phoenicians

A Saharan village in Mali

The peoples of Phoenicia, who flourished between 1200-800 BC, created a confederation of kingdoms across the entire Sahara to Egypt. They generally settled along the Mediterranean coast, as well as the Sahara, among the peoples of Ancient Libya, who were the ancestors of peoples who speak Berber languages in North Africa and the Sahara today, including the Tuareg of the central Sahara.

The Phoenician alphabet seems to have been adopted by the ancient Libyans of north Africa, and Tifinagh is still used today by Berber-speaking Tuareg camel herders of the central Sahara.

Sometime between 633 BC and 530 BC, Hanno the Navigator either established or reinforced Phoenician colonies in Western Sahara, but all ancient remains have vanished with virtually no trace. (See History of Western Sahara.)

Greeks

By 500 BC a new influence arrived in the form of the Greeks. Greek traders spread along the eastern coast of the desert, establishing trading colonies along the Red Sea coast. The Carthaginians explored the Atlantic coast of the desert. The turbulence of the waters and the lack of markets never led to an extensive presence further south than modern Morocco. Centralized states thus surrounded the desert on the north and east; it remained outside of the control of these states. Raids from the nomadic Berber people of the desert were a constant concern of those living on the edge of the desert.

A Tuareg man

Urban civilization

An urban civilization, the Garamantes, arose around this time in the heart of the Sahara, in a valley that is now called the Wadi al-Ajal in Fazzan, Libya. The Garamantes achieved this development by digging tunnels far into the mountains flanking the valley to tap fossil water and bring it to their fields. The Garamantes grew populous and strong, conquering their neighbors and capturing many slaves (which were put to work extending the tunnels). The ancient Greeks and the Romans knew of the Garamantes and regarded them as uncivilized nomads. However, they traded with the Garamantes, and a Roman bath has been found in the Garamantes capital of Garama. Archaeologists have found eight major towns and many other important settlements in the Garamantes territory. The Garamantes civilization eventually collapsed after they had depleted available water in the aquifers, and could no longer sustain the effort to extend the tunnels still further into the mountains.

Trans-Saharan Trade

Following the Islamic conquest of North Africa in the seventh century CE, trade across the desert intensified. The kingdoms of the Sahel, especially the Ghana Empire and the later Mali Empire, grew rich and powerful exporting gold and salt to North Africa. The emirates along the Mediterranean Sea sent south manufactured goods and horses. From the Sahara itself, salt was exported. This process turned the scattered oasis communities into trading centres, and brought them under the control of the empires on the edge of the desert.

This trade persisted for several centuries until the development in Europe of the caravel allowed ships, first from Portugal but soon from all Western Europe, to sail around the desert and gather the resources from the source in Guinea. The Sahara was rapidly remarginalized.

Modern days

Throughout the Sahara, Berbers, Arabs, and sub-Saharan Africans are significantly represented genetically.

The modern era has seen a number of mines and communities develop to exploit the desert's natural resources. These include large deposits of oil and natural gas in Algeria and Libya and large deposits of phosphates in Morocco and Western Sahara.

Fauna

• Dromedaries and goats are the most domesticated animals found in the Sahara. Because of its qualities of sobriety, endurance and speed, the dromedary is the favorite animal used by nomads.
• The Leiurus quinquestriatus (aka Deathstalker) scorpion which can be 10 cm long. Its Agitoxin and Scyllatoxin, toxins contained within the venom, are fatal in the majority of cases.
• The monitor lizard. It has been suggested that the occasional habit of varanids to stand on their two hind legs and to appear to "monitor" their surroundings led to the original Arabic name waral ورل, which is translated to English as "monitor".
• Sand vipers, which average less than 50 cm in length. Many have a pair of horns, one over each eye. Active at night, they usually lie buried in the sand with only their eyes visible. Bites are painful, but rarely fatal.
• The fennec, an omnivore.
• The hyrax. It first appears in the fossil record over 40 million years ago, and for many millions of years hyraxes were the primary terrestrial herbivore in Africa.
• The ostrich which is a flightless bird native to Africa. They became rare because they have been driven out.
• The addax, a large white antelope, is a threatened species. Adapted to the desert, there can remain months without drinking, even a whole year.
• The Saharan cheetah lives in Niger, Mali and Chad. There remain only a few hundreds of cheetahs. Very emotive, avoiding any human presence, the cheetah flees the sun from April to October. It then seeks the shelter of shrubs such as balanites and acacias. They are unusually pale.

There exist other animals in the Sahara (birds in particular) such as African Silverbill and Black-throated Firefinch among others.

See also

• Arabian-Nubian Shield
• List of deserts by area
• Richat Structure
• Sahara Desert (ecoregion)
• Trans-Saharan trade
• Trans-Sahara Highway
• Zaar
• Western Sahara

References

• Michael Brett and Elizabeth Frentess. The Berbers. Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
• Charles-Andre Julien. History of North Africa: From the Arab Conquest to 1830. Praeger, 1970.
• Abdallah Laroui. The History of the Maghrib: An Interpretive Essay. Princeton, 1977.
• Hugh Kennedy. Muslim Spain and Portugal: A Political History of al-Andalus. Longman, 1996.
• Richard W. Bulliet. The Camel and the Wheel. Harvard University Press, 1975. Republished with a new preface Columbia University Press, 1990.

External links

• Trans-Sahara routes
• Sahara pictures from Algerian UN Permanent Mission website
• Flora and Fauna of the Sahara, in French
• About Sahara subsurface hydrology and planned usage of the aquifers