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IT IS INTERESTING TO KNOW
Where Is the Biggest Desert in the World?
The Sahara Desert, whose name comes from the Arab word sahra,
meaning "wilderness," is by far the biggest desert on earth. Though the
exact boundaries of the Sahara are hard to define, this African desert
stretches more than 3,000 miles at its longest point, and in most places is
over 1,000 miles wide. The Sahara takes up almost one-third of Africa,
covers parts of ten countries (Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,
Niger, Chad, Sudan, Mali, and Mauritania), and is just about as big as
the entire United States!
The average daytime temperature in this sandy inferno is from 80 to 85
degrees Fahrenheit in most places, but it often gets much hotter in the
summer — 110 degrees.
But the Sahara is not completely flat and sandy. There are mountains
more than 10,000 feet high, and desert plants in most places. The only
completely barren parts of the desert are the ergs, which are vast areas of
shifting sand dunes. Even the tribesmen who live in the Sahara avoid the
ergs!
Can you imagine...
The temperature once hit
136 degrees in part of the
Sahara!
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