Sahara Desert Was Once Lush and Populated. Shares. That said, there are some areas of the Sahara that are entirely sand. 10,000 years ago, this iconic desert was unrecognizable. The adaptations of the wildlife and plants to the treacherous environment are fascinating, and the cultural history of this geographic crossroads complex and involved. Sahara Desert – a vast ocean of sand that quite literally rained down on North Africa only a few thousand years ago. To answer the question about making the desert more fertile, it's not that long since it was fertile. For three … Due to changes in climate that have turned the Sahara into a desert over centuries many of the aquifers underneath were last filled with water over 5,000 years ago. Sahara is Arabic for “Great Desert”, and that name is pretty accurate. MessageToEagle.com – Satellite images reveal intriguing and mysterious structures in the Sahara desert. By Bjorn Carey 20 July 2006. Mysterious Ancient Structures Hidden Under The Sand In The Sahara Desert If all the sand in the Saharan Desert were to be removed, what would the remaining landscape look like? Something is very large is hidden under the sand and we don’t know what it is. Close. Across the desert, the annual average rainfall equals no more than a few inches or less, much less in many locations. I could be mistaken, because whatever I’m remembering was not part of my biology major per se; but I’m of the belief that except in a rare few places like the innards of volcanoes and Old Faithful, everything goes down to bedrock sooner or later. Take a look at it in Google Earth; seriously -- it's interesting terrain. Earth Sciences. Posted by 6 years ago. 2.4k. The Sahara Desert covers much of North Africa and spreads from the Red Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The Sahara Desert is located in the northern portion of Africa and covers over 3,500,000 square miles (9,000,000 sq km) or roughly 10% of the continent. Archived. The Sahara desert covers most of Northern Africa and the Arabic word for desert is Sahara.So the translation is actually desert desert.Wow that's a lot of sand. The Sahara has one of the world's most severe climates. 3. What Really Turned the Sahara Desert From a Green Oasis Into a Wasteland? Kharga Oasis in Egypt is 150 km (93 mi) long and is the largest oasis in the Libyan Desert. The Sahara Desert is the world's largest hot desert, covering much of North Africa. Across the desert, the annual average rainfall equals no more than a … Covering a massive part of the continent and encompassing the recognized legal borders of many countries, the Sahara Desert stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east and stretches south from the Mediterranean Sea. The dromedary camel, one of the Sahara… As the sand fell it ‘choked’ what was previously a verdant green paradise. To the south, the Sahara Desert is bounded by the Sahel, which is a semi-arid savannah of Sudan and … The Nubian aquifer is a major source of water in western Egypt and Libya. Directly under the sand is rock, usually no more than 30m down. View of the Great Sand Sea of Egypt from the Gilf Kebir Plateau. Read more. The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System under the Sahara Desert is the largest known accumulation of fossil water. Most of the Sahara (around 80%) is not covered with sand. If all the sand in the Saharan Desert were to be removed, what would the remaining landscape look like? Filling nearly all of northern Africa, it measures approximately 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from east to west and between 800 to 1,200 miles from north to south and has a total area of some 3,320,000 square miles (8,600,000 square km). The Great Man-Made River is a scheme launched by Libya's Muammar Gadaffi to tap this aquifer and supply water to coastal cities. Typically, the Sahara landscape experiences extremely limited to virtually no rainfall, powerful and capricious winds and wide temperature ranges. The complex gives an impression of a strange labyrinth surrounded by vast walls, located in the middle of the Kara Kum desert of Turkmenistan, one of the most desolated places of the world. Earth Sciences. Typically, the Sahara landscape experiences extremely limited to virtually no rainfall, powerful and capricious winds and wide temperature ranges. A cross section beneath the Sahara Desert from the mountains of Libya in the west to the Nile River in the east unmasks the Nubian aquifer, which extends beneath the Sahara Desert.