The Sahara/North Africa

LABEL Directions:

Label the countries within the Sahara desert (fill in the boxes). Mauritania has been done for you.

THEN draw the border line of the Sahara desert (the green line).

Geography

The Sahara Desert is the worlds largest (non-polar) desert, covering 3.3 million square miles which is about the size of the South American country of Brazil. The Sahara defines Africa's northern region. The Sahara makes up 25% of the continent and has number of distinct physical features. These include ergs, regs, hamadas and limited water sources such as oases, rivers and aquifers.

Ergs, which cover 20% percent of the Sahara, are those iconic sand dunes that people think about when they think of a "desert..." and especially the Sahara Desert. Ergs stretch for as far as the eye can see sometimes pile as high as 1,000 feet! Ergs cover most of Algeria and Libya and parts of Mali and Nigeria. Ergs can contain large quantities of salt, which is sold for industrial and food use.

Regs are plains of sand and gravel that make up 70% of the Sahara. The gravel can be black, red, or white. Regs are the remains of prehistoric seabeds and riverbeds, but are now nearly water-less.

Hamadas are elevated plateaus of rock and stone that reach heights of 11,000 feet. They include the Atlas Mountains, which stretch from southwestern Morocco to northeastern Tunisia; the Tibesti Mountains of southern Libya and northern Chad; and the Ahaggar Mountains in southern Algeria.

Water sources, especially permanent ones, are scarce in the Sahara nations. An oasis is a body of water in the desert, often in the form of springs/aquifers. About 75% of the Sahara's population lives in oases, which make up only 800 square miles of the deserts vast area. Other settlements and urban areas have thrived next to other water sources such as rivers. The only two permanent rivers in the Sahara are the Nile River and Niger River. The country of Chad is the only nation that has a lake with drinkable water.

Economy

Watch the video below to answer questions about the economy in North Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

LABEL Directions:

C. Label some of the countries below the Sahara desert (fill in the boxes). The Democratic Republic (DR) of Congo has been done for you.

Geography

The geography of the land and nations below the Sahara desert is very diverse. Most of sub-Saharan Africa is characterized as tropical rainforest, however, there are areas of grassland and savannas. A savanna is an area land with scattered trees and both short and tall grass.

Sub-Saharan Africa nations have massive amounts of resources that can be used and/or exported to help grow nation's economies. The climate and physical geography provide bountiful mineral and other natural resources. The physical geography of sub-Saharan Africa, however, has both benefits and negative impacts on the people living there and nation's economies. Let's take a look at a couple countries and see how some have been positively and others negatively been impacted by physical geography and natural resources. ​

Economy