Chad - Tibesti Expedition 2015
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I’ve put together some video for you of my recent expedition to one of the Sahara’s most remote corners. Only one previous expedition has reached the Ouri plain. That was about 15 years ago. And given the difficulties, I can’t see anyone else trying it anytime soon.
The Lakes of Ounianga in the Sahara Desert, Chad
The Lakes of Ounianga in the Sahara Desert, Chad
Lakes of Ounianga are a series of 18 lakes in the Sahara Desert, in North-Eastern Chad, occupying a basin in the mountains of West Tibesti and Ennedi East. The names of the lake groups are derived from the name of a village nearby. It was added as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2012, the lakes are in a hot and hyper-arid desert that features a rainfall of less than 2 millimeters a year. The lakes are situated in a shallow basin below sandstone cliffs and hills, from where the ancient water flows. Remarkably, this unique hydro-logical system is able to sustain the largest permanent freshwater lakes to be found in such an arid desert environment anywhere in the world. The lakes are remnants of a single large lake, probably tens of kilometers long, that once occupied this remote area approximately 14,800 to 5,500 years ago. As the climate dried out during the subsequent millennia, the lake shrank, and large, wind-driven sand dunes invaded the original depression, dividing it into several smaller basins.
The 18 lakes altogether, in two groups about 40 km apart. They vary greatly in chemical composition, some being so salty that they can only support the most basic forms of life, while others are fresh enough to provide habitat for aquatic plants, fish and a diversity of other species. The largest and most biologically important lake is Lake Teli and it has a surface area of 4.4km2 and a maximum depth of 10 meters. Its water is fresh, and supports an abundance of life. The sandy substrate is highly porous, so water flows freely underground between Lake Teli and 13 other smaller lakes in the eastern group. Further west, across the dunes and sandstone ridges that characterise this part of the Sahara, the second group of four lakes (known as Ounianga Kebir) is found, dominated by Lake Yoan (3.6 km2 and 27 m deep). This is a hyper saline lake which supports only algae and a few other micro-organisms. Rocks around its shores are encrusted in white salt deposits, and a sprawling village of some 9,000 people is spread amongst the nearby hills and dunes. There is a customs post, as this is the last habitable place on the main trans-Sahara truck route through to Libya.
The lakes’ dark surfaces are almost completely segregated by linear, orange sand dunes that stream into the depression from the northeast. The almost-year-round northeast winds and cloudless skies make for very high evaporation rates; an evaporation rate of more than 6 meters per year has been measured in one of the nearby lakes. Despite this, only one of the ten lakes is saline.
The reason for the apparent paradox—fresh water lakes in the heart of the desert—is that fresh water from a very large aquifer reaches the surface in the Ounianga Depression. The aquifer is large enough to keep supplying the small lakes with water despite the high evaporation rate. Mats of floating reeds also reduce the evaporation in places. The lakes form a hydrological system that is unique in the Sahara Desert.
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Chad Roads
The main road from NdJamena to Abeche.
Sahara Desert, Egypt on quad bikes trip to the village to baboons (PARK ZOO)Part 4
Sahara Desert, Egypt on quad bikes trip to the village to baboons (PARK ZOO)Part 4
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The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the planet. It is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold deserts.
At 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers), the Sahara, which is Arabic for The Great Desert, engulfs most of North Africa. The desert covers large sections of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the western edge, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea on the east, and the Sudan and the valley of the Niger River on the south. The Sahara is divided into western Sahara, the central Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Air Mountains, an area of desert mountains and high plateaus, Ténéré desert and the Libyan desert, which is the most arid region.
In the north, the Sahara reaches to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya. In Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara experiences a more Mediterranean climate with a winter rainy season.
Major cities located in the Sahara include Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bechar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaia, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.
Climate and geography of the Sahara
The Sahara’s northeasterly winds can reach hurricane level and often give rise to sand storms and dust devils. Half of the Sahara receives less than an inch of rain per year, and the rest receives up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) per year. The infrequent rain is usually torrential.
The highest peak in the Sahara is the volcano Emi Koussi (11,204 feet or 3,415 meters) in the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. The desert’s other mountains and mountain ranges include the Aïr Mountains, Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas and the Red Sea hills.
Sahara Desert, Egypt riding on quad bikes trip to the village to baboons Part 3
Sahara Desert, Egypt riding on quad bikes trip to the village to baboons Part 3
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3 -
Part 4 -
Part 5 -
The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the planet. It is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold deserts.
At 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers), the Sahara, which is Arabic for The Great Desert, engulfs most of North Africa. The desert covers large sections of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the western edge, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea on the east, and the Sudan and the valley of the Niger River on the south. The Sahara is divided into western Sahara, the central Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Air Mountains, an area of desert mountains and high plateaus, Ténéré desert and the Libyan desert, which is the most arid region.
In the north, the Sahara reaches to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya. In Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara experiences a more Mediterranean climate with a winter rainy season.
Major cities located in the Sahara include Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bechar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaia, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.
Climate and geography of the Sahara
The Sahara’s northeasterly winds can reach hurricane level and often give rise to sand storms and dust devils. Half of the Sahara receives less than an inch of rain per year, and the rest receives up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) per year. The infrequent rain is usually torrential.
The highest peak in the Sahara is the volcano Emi Koussi (11,204 feet or 3,415 meters) in the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. The desert’s other mountains and mountain ranges include the Aïr Mountains, Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas and the Red Sea hills.
Sahara Desert, Egypt quad biking Part 5
Sahara Desert, Egypt quad biking Part 5
Part 1 -
Part 2 -
Part 3 -
Part 4 -
Part 5 -
The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the planet. It is third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic, which are cold deserts.
At 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers), the Sahara, which is Arabic for The Great Desert, engulfs most of North Africa. The desert covers large sections of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia.
The Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the western edge, the Atlas Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea on the east, and the Sudan and the valley of the Niger River on the south. The Sahara is divided into western Sahara, the central Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, the Tibesti Mountains, the Air Mountains, an area of desert mountains and high plateaus, Ténéré desert and the Libyan desert, which is the most arid region.
In the north, the Sahara reaches to the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt and portions of Libya. In Cyrenaica and the Maghreb, the Sahara experiences a more Mediterranean climate with a winter rainy season.
Major cities located in the Sahara include Cairo, Egypt; Tripoli, Libya; Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania; Tamanrasset, Ouargla, Bechar, Hassi Messaoud, Ghardaia, and El Oued in Algeria; Timbuktu in Mali; Agadez in Niger; and Faya-Largeau in Chad.
Climate and geography of the Sahara
The Sahara’s northeasterly winds can reach hurricane level and often give rise to sand storms and dust devils. Half of the Sahara receives less than an inch of rain per year, and the rest receives up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) per year. The infrequent rain is usually torrential.
The highest peak in the Sahara is the volcano Emi Koussi (11,204 feet or 3,415 meters) in the Tibesti Mountains in northern Chad. The desert’s other mountains and mountain ranges include the Aïr Mountains, Hoggar (Ahaggar) Mountains, Saharan Atlas, Tibesti Mountains, Adrar des Iforas and the Red Sea hills.
The Sahara : Here Is What You Should Know About This Amazing Desert of Africa
The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world. Only Antarctica is larger than the Sahara. The vastness of the Sahara is sometimes hard to comprehend. It is as large as Europe or the entire
United States. The region is hot and dry and even though the landscape looks barren it is inhabited by the nomads.
What is a Desert?
Deserts are classified according to the amount of precipitation that occurs over land. Vegetation is usually sparse and few species of animals are adapted to live in a desert environment.
Many of the world’s deserts are formed by rain shadows; mountains that block the path of precipitation.
The terrain is composed of sand and rocks. Eolian processes, processes pertaining to the activity of the wind to shape the Earth, are the major factors in shaping up a desert landscape.
Water is very limited and the environment is devoid of rainfall for long periods. Water from ground aquifers reaches the surface forming oases in some regions of the desert.
A desert is a good place to look for mineral resources as they are formed due to the geologic processes of the desert. Lake beds known as playas are good sources of mineral deposits in a desert. As far as human population goes, many people have made a home in the desert regions of the world for thousands of years. Usually, these are nomadic tribes traveling from place to place.
The camel is one of the most important domesticated animals used by the nomads and it is aptly known as the ‘Ship of the desert’.
The Geography of the Sahara
The name Sahara comes from the Arabic word for desert. Stretching from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.This desert covers large parts of many African nations including Algeria, Morocco, Chad, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan and Tunisia. Only a fifth of the desert is covered in sand, sand dunes and sand seas (erg). The rest of it has a varying landscape ranging from stone plateaus (hamada), gravel plains (reg), dry valleys (wadi), salt flats (shatt) and mountain ranges.
The tallest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi in the Tibesti mountain range. To the south of the Sahara, is a region known as Sahel. Sahel is a belt of dry tropical savanna with a rainy season that occurs in the summer. There are several different ecoregions in the Sahara. The Tanezrouft is one such region which is the driest and harshest of all containing no vegetation and very little life.
Life in the Sahara
The dromedary camel and goats are the most domesticated animals in this region . Other species of animals found include the monitor lizard, the deathstalker scorpion, sand vipers, foxes,
African wild dog, the Saharan cheetah and 350 species of beetles. In all, there are some 1400 species of plants and animals found in this region.
People of the Sahara
Berbers are the oldest known inhabitants of the Sahara. Among them are the Tuareg, a Berber nomadic people, who are the principal inhabitants of the Sahara. Found mostly across North Africa and West Africa, the Tuareg people have slowly moved south over the past 2000 years. They are a diverse culture encompassing many aspects from music to dance. The Tuareg travel across this desert in salt caravans and at one point in history controlled trading in the region. Their religion is Islam, however, most have a very sketchy knowledge of it. Women are respected very highly and are not required to wear a veil to cover themselves. The Tuareg are a pastoral people whose lifestyle centers around livestock breeding, trading and agriculture.
Languages of the Sahara
Arabic is the most widely spoken language in the Sahara. Various groups of nomads that live throughout are fluent in Arabic. The Beja people, for instance, speak their native tongue but are also
versed with Arabic making communication easy for traders.
Chad Ennedi
Ennedi people (goran tribe) and landscapes in a trip to Sahara dssert at Norheast of Tchad