What is the name of the largest desert in the world?

Sahara desert (located in northern Africa)

Sahara desert tourism is another important part of Tunisia's tourism, and its market is booming in recent years. Tozer and Duz in the south are the centers of desert tourism. The two towns are nearly a hundred miles apart, and both are located on desert oases. Nearly a million tall date palms are their green barriers, providing important food for residents. The Sahara Festival named after two cities is held once a year, attracting more and more foreign tourists.

The Sahara desert is the largest desert in the world. Sahara means "big desert" in Arabic. Located in the south of Atlas Mountains and Mediterranean Sea, it is about 14(250mm isohyet) north latitude, starting from the Atlantic coast in the west and the Red Sea coast in the east. Spanning the northern part of the African continent, it is 5,600 kilometers long from east to west and 1.600 kilometers wide from north to south, covering an area of about 9.6 million square kilometers, accounting for about 32% of the total area of Africa. Between Atlas Mountain and Sudan Plain, Atlantic Ocean and Red Sea, it is1300 ~ 2,200 kilometers wide and 4,800 kilometers long, covering an area of 7.7 million square kilometers.

The surface of the Sahara fluctuates gently, generally between 250 and 500 meters above sea level. As long as the ground is Gobi, quicksand or sand dunes, there are some intermittent valleys in the desert. The whole environment is extremely dry and hot, with few plants and animals. There are mainly three-awn grass, acacia and other shrubs, and the main animals are ostriches, antelopes and dromedaries.

There are many types of arid landforms in the Sahara desert. It consists of rocky desert (rocky desert), gravel desert and desert. Rocky deserts are mostly distributed in the high-lying areas in the central and eastern Sahara, and the Nubian desert east of the Nile River is dominated by rocky deserts. Gravel desert is more common between rocky desert and desert, mainly distributed in the rocky area of Libyan desert, Atlas Mountain, Kuxi Mountain and other piedmont alluvial fan areas. Desert is the most extensive, except for a few mountains and plateaus, which are widely distributed everywhere.

The famous deserts are Libyan Desert, Leibuyanai Desert, Obari Desert, Eastern and Western Algerian Desert, Shesh Desert, Zhu Fu Desert, Alvana Desert and Bilma Desert. The larger area is called "sand sea", which consists of complex and regular sand dunes with complex and diverse shapes, including tall fixed sand dunes, low flowing sand dunes and large areas of fixed and semi-fixed sand dunes. Fixed dunes are mainly distributed in the south near grasslands and Atlantic coast. From Libya to Algeria, it is a quicksand area. The flowing sand dunes are constantly moving with the wind. In the Sahara desert, it is observed that mobile sand dunes move 9 meters every year.

The Sahara region is vast and sparsely populated, with an average of less than 1 person per square kilometer. Mainly Arabs, followed by Berbers, etc. Residents and agricultural production are mainly distributed in the Nile valley and oasis, and some are mainly nomadic. Since 1950s, abundant minerals have been found in the desert, such as oil, natural gas, uranium, iron, manganese and phosphate. With the large-scale exploitation of mineral resources, the economic outlook of some countries in this region has changed. For example, Libya and Algeria have become the world's major oil producers, and Niger has become a famous uranium producer. Road networks, air lines and new settlements have also appeared in the desert.

The climate in the Sahara desert is hot and dry. However, it is puzzling that there was a prosperous ancient civilization in this extremely arid and water-deficient mining area with cracked land and few plants. Many exquisite large-scale murals in the desert are the crystallization of this ancient civilization. People are not only puzzled by the drawing date of these murals, but also ignorant of the strange shapes in them, which has become a mystery in the history of human civilization.

65,438+0,000 years ago, the Sahara, now the largest desert in the world, was once full of weeds and bushes. But later, the temperature rose in summer and there was almost no rain. This climate change has destroyed many ancient creatures and forced those who survived to migrate to other areas.

Researchers say that another less serious climate change in the Sahara desert occurred between 6700 and 5000 years ago.

According to these scientists from the Potsdam Institute of Meteorology, desertification in the Sahara Desert is one of the most drastic climate changes since 1. 1.000 years ago. This meteorological model shows that human land use is not an important factor affecting the formation of the Sahara desert.

The Sahara desert is the largest desert in the world. It covers an area of more than 8 million square kilometers between Egypt, Sudan, Libya and other countries. The climate here is various, and the temperature is abnormal. In some areas, sometimes it doesn't rain for several years. The highest temperature in a year can sometimes reach 58℃ and the lowest can reach-15℃. I have traveled thousands of miles without seeing a family, and it is difficult to see a grass and a tree. What is even more amazing is that this big desert is moving southward at an average speed of 0.8 kilometers per month, and the speed of moving southward in some areas even reaches 3.2 kilometers per month.

Is the true nature of the Sahara desert that terrible? Was it originally inhabited? When did it come into being? How did it become so disgusting? This problem has aroused great interest of many scientists. From the beginning, we scientists were not allowed to try to find out its true image one by one.