The Sahara desert is known as the desert of extremes. It is one of Earth's wildest places, and represents 8% of our planet total land mass and 10% of the African continent. One can have many different images of the Sahara desert since it has got a range of distinct ecoregions. It is the largest desert in the world and its limits are: the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea in the north, the Red Sea and Egypt in the east, and Sudan and the Niger River in the South.



One of the reasons why you can have different images of the Sahara desert is its many unique ecoregions. Central Sahara is the driest and hottest part of the desert. It is in the centre that you will find the Ahaggar Mountains and the Tibesti plateau. The main part of it is covered of rocks, sand and sporadic vegetation. It is defined by sand dunes, stone plateaus, gravel plains, dry valleys, salt flats, and mountain massifs. Rainfall is quite rare and, what is worse, its irregularity here means that some regions may have a lack of rain for many years. Temperature varies immensely: in the hottest months it can be over 50˚C, and during the winter it can have below freezing temperatures. Also, the central part of the Sahara desert is extremely windy and arid, so its rare vegetation is adapted to incredibly harsh conditions.

In addition, its borders also show very distinct images of the Sahara desert due to its better conditions. The western part has moisture from fogs produced by the Canary current. The northern part is next to the Mediterranean forests and is characterized by winter rain. There is also a narrow portion of land that stretches from west to east between the hyper-arid central Sahara and the Sahel savannas in the South which show a different picture. This portion has summer rain to make the whole area less arid. Mountains and highlands are also a different ecoregion, being cooler and moister, some even displaying snow tops. Moreover, there are the oases, which are formed by underground rivers that surface in some parts of the desert supporting an entire ecosystem.

The Sahara fauna holds an exotic beauty. Spread all around the desert, there are about 100 species of reptiles, 90 of resident birds, and 70 of mammals. Some examples are the scimitar-horned Oryx, eagle owls, the scarab beetle, dromedary camels, goats, deadly scorpions, lizards, sand vipers - which have a painful bite but are rarely fatal, the fennec fox with its large ears, the hyrax, the addax - a large white antelope that can spend months in a row without having any water, the Saharan cheetah, etc., all of them representing precious images of the Sahara desert.

Last we have its population, which can be very different due to the amount of nations that are part of the desert. These nations are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. The majority of the population are nomads, and the main tribes are the Berber, who live in western Egypt and Morocco, the Tuareg, who live in central Sahara, and the Beja, who inhabit the Red Sea Hills. So, if you intend to focus on the population, once again you will have very distinct images of the Sahara desert.