The largest hot desert in the world

The Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world. Only the Antarctica and Arctic deserts, which are cold deserts, are bigger than the Sahara. The desert’s name means “great desert” in Arabic.
Where is it?
The Sahara Desert is located in North Africa, and consists of parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan and Tunisia. The Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains border the Sahara Desert to the north and the Sudan and the Niger River valley make up its southern borders. To the west, the Sahara is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by the Red Sea.
History of the Sahara
The Sahara Desert’s climate hasn’t always been arid . It is thought that between 5,000 and 11,000 years ago there was green vegetation, rich wildlife and large bodies of water in the area. Scientists call this period the African Humid Period. Rock paintings from the time, which were found by explorers in the mid-1800s, show animals such as elephants, giraffes and hippos.
Sahara Desert Climate
The Sahara Desert is the hottest large area on Earth, and the hottest place on Earth in some spots during the summer. The Sahara Desert has extremely long daylight hours, very little cloud formation, and very low humidity. It doesn’t often rain in the Sahara Desert. Annual rainfall is very low, on average between 25 and 75 millimetres a year.
Visiting the Sahara
Travel in many regions of the Sahara is potentially dangerous. People going to the Sahara often start in one of the region’s big cities like Cairo, Egypt, Tripoli, Libya, and Timbuktu, Mali. The best time to travel to the Sahara Desert is between October and April, when the daytime temperatures are lower.