1. The Sahara, which is known in Arabic as aṣ-ṣaḥra´ al-kubra and means “The Great Desert”, is the largest hot desert in the world.
2. With a total area of more than 9,400,000 km², it is almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe.
3. Over-all, when hot and cold deserts are combined, Sahara is the 2nd largest desert on Earth. It is next only to Antarctica which is classified as desert due to very low precipitation rates.
4. Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus, where you’ll find drawings of animals on the cave’s wall, is declared a UNESCO World
5. The countries within the Sahara Desert are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.
6. Emi Koussi is the highest peak in the Sahara. It is 3,415 m tall and is located in the Tibesti Mountains in the northern part of Chad.
7. The Berbers, together with the Tuaregs, are the dominant ethnic groups in the Sahara.
8. Richat Structure is an unusual landform located in Mauritania. This prominent circular feature in the Sahara has attracted the attention of many due to its conspicuous bull’s eye form. This unique landform has a diameter of about 50 km.
9. Sahara has one of the world’s harshest climates. The prevailing north-easterly wind often causes the sand to form dust devils and sand storms.
10. Sahara is so dry that half of it receives less than 20 mm of rain per year while the reminder has up to 10 cm per year.
11. Rainfall in the Sahara is extremely rare but when it does it is usually torrential when it occurs after long dry periods.
12. Its quite surprising but there is about 500 species of plants that grow in the Sahara Desert.
