Linear Dunes, Great Sand Sea, Egypt - NASA Earth Observatory

The Great Sand Sea is an approximately sand desert (erg) in the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

between western

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and eastern

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. Some 74% of the area is covered by sand dunes.

Geography

The Great Sand Sea stretches about from north to south and from east to west. On satellite images this desert shows a pattern of long sand ridges running in a roughly north-south direction. However, despite the apparent uniformity the Great Sand Sea has two large areas with different types of megadunes.Besler, Helga (2008) ''The Great Sand Sea in Egypt: Formation, Dynamics and Environmental Change: A Sediment-Analytical Approach'' Elsevier, Amsterdam
page 1 - 3
The Egyptian sand sea lies parallel to the

Calanshio Sand Sea The Calanshio Sand Sea (Sarīr Kalanshiyū ar Ramlī al Kabīr) is a sand desert region located in the Libyan Desert, of the Kufra District in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya. It has a surface of approximately 62,000 km².Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

, with which it is contiguous in the north. The

dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

s of the Great Sand Sea cover about 10 % of the total area of the Egyptian Western Desert. Siwa is an

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

located in Egypt, about east of the Libyan

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

, in the eastern part of the Great Sand Sea or Egyptian Sand Sea. Although well-known to the

Tuareg The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern A ...

and traders who traveled with

caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

s across the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs (14 April 1831 – 2 June 1896) was a German geographer, explorer, author and adventurer. Biography Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs was born at Bremen-Vegesack, Vegesack, now part of Bremen. His father was a physician, and t ...

was the first European to document the Great Sand Sea. He began his Saharan expeditions in 1865, and named the great expanse of dunes the ''Große Sandmeer'', but it was not until 1924 with the maps of

Ahmed Hassanein Ahmed Hassanein Pasha, KCVO, MBE () (31 October 1889 – 19 February 1946) or Aḥmad Moḥammad Makhlūf Ḥasanēn al-Būlākī () was an Egyptian courtier, diplomat, politician, and geographic explorer. Hassanein was the tutor, Chief of th ...

that the full scope of the Great Sand Sea was appreciated by Europeans.

References

External links

*
Egypt Travel - The Great Sand SeaDesert GeomorphologyThe Great Sand Sea - Rough Guides
Deserts of Egypt Deserts of Libya Dunes of Egypt Ergs of Africa Western Desert (Egypt) {{Libya-geo-stub

Geography

See also

References

External links