Sahara

Geography

Climate

History

The Sahara is a vast desert in northern Africa extending east from the Atlantic coast to the Nile Valley and south from the Atlas Mountains to the region of the Sudan. It is the world's largest desert, at approximately 3.5 million square miles in size. During the Ice Age (around 50,000-100,000 years ago), the Sahara desert was a region of extensive shallow lakes and large areas of vegetation. Most of this had disappeared by Roman times, and the introduction of the camel (around first century A.D.) led to the Sahara's occupation by nomadic tribes who moved from oasis to oasis in search of water.