The Sahara (Arabic: al-As-Sahara Kobra, الصحراء الكبرى, listening, or the Great Desert sis a vast desert ecoregion located in the northern part of the African continent. It stretches over 5,000 kilometers from the Atlantic to the Red Sea and covers nearly 8 million square kilometers [1], an area the size of Australia. It extends beyond the Red Sea and geographers speak of a large Saharan-Arabian desert. The Sahara is the western part of a broad dry diagonally extending edge of the Senegal River to Mongolia.

Considered the largest hot desert in the world (see the list of major deserts by area), it divides the continent from north to south. It covers vast expanses of territory and extends the territory of ten countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Contrary to popular belief, the sandy desert covers only 20% of the area of ​​the Sahara. Most travelers know the images of sandy deserts (Grand Erg Oriental and the Grand Erg Occidental) but neglect those mountains (Hoggar Tassili, Tibesti) hamadas, regs (Tanezrouft) and huge regions covered webs sand like Majabat al Kubra