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The Sahara (, ''aṣ-ṣaḥrā´ al-koubra'', "The Great Desert", ()) is technically the world's second largest .'' Douglas Harper, Historian. Accessed on June 25 , 2007 . English-Arabic online dictionary GEOGRAPHY ]] The Sahara desert covers huge parts of Algeria , Burkina Faso , Chad , Egypt , Libya , Mali , Mauritania , Morocco , Niger , Senegal , Sudan and Tunisia . The Sahara includes many Landform s 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 ).
CLIMATE HISTORY 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 2006 . 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 "Geophysical Research Letters" Simulation of an abrupt change in Saharan vegetation in the mid-Holocene - July 15th, 1999. By around 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 . Temperatures 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 Egyptians By 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 Cataract s, 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 are overt examples of probably the world's first known Archaeoastronomy devices, out dating Stonehenge by some 1000 years.http://www.planetquest.org/learn/nabta.html 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. Late Neolithic megalithic structures at Nabta Playa - by Fred Wendorf (1998) 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 . A-Group peoples were ethnically and culturally very similar to the polities in predynastic Naqada n Upper Egypt.Bruce Williams, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Jan., 1987), pp. 15-26S.O.Y. Keita, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 87: 245-254 (1992) 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 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 Assyria ns, in which they moved further south, establishing their capital at Meroe . , under King Ezana . Phoenicians ]] 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 Nomad ic Berber people of the desert were a constant concern of those living on the edge of the desert. man]] Urban civilization An urban civilization, the 2006 . 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 Horse s. 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 Phosphate s in Morocco and Western Sahara . FAUNA
There exist other animals in the Sahara (birds in particular) such as African Silverbill and Black-throated Firefinch among others. SEE ALSO
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