History of the sahara desert

Sahara desert temperature

The sahara desert plants...

Sahara

Desert on the African continent

For other uses, see Sahara (disambiguation).

Sahara

The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972

Geographical map of the Sahara

Length4,800 km (3,000 mi)
Width1,800 km (1,100 mi)
Area9,200,000 km2 (3,600,000 sq mi)
Native name
  • Arabic: الصحراء الكبرى
  • aṣ-ṣaḥrā' al-kubrá
  • "The greatest desert"
Countries
Coordinates23°N13°E / 23°N 13°E / 23; 13 

The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa.

With an area of 9,200,000 square kilometres (3,600,000 sq mi), it is the largest hot desert in the world and the third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.[1][2][3]

The name "Sahara" is derived from Arabic: صَحَارَى, romanized: ṣaḥārā/sˤaħaːraː/, a broken plural form of ṣaḥrā' (صَحْرَاء/sˤaħraːʔ/), meaning "desert".&