Deserts
Deserts - shown in yellow on the map - cover almost 40% of the African continent. The Sahara stretches across from the Atlantic seaboard in the west to the Red Sea, creating a natural barrier between tropical Africa and the Mediterranean. This is a land of golden dunes, extraordinary rock sculptures and forbidding mountain fortresses, with some of the most inspiring landscapes on the continent. It is also a land of great fragility, in which ancient rock art and abandoned settlements consumed by sand tell of a bye-gone era of greater plenty. Yet, despite the lessons of history the advancing sands push southwards under the strain of mankind, and the last vestiges of life in the interior struggle for survival, against the odds. Two vast swathes of this wilderness are designated as world heritage sites - the Air and Tenere Natural Reserves in northern Niger and the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park in southern Algeria. Follow the links to learn more about these amazing places!
Iconic Species: The deserts support some very special plants and animals, uniquely adapted to life in extremely dry conditions. In the Sahara there are about 1600 species of plant, 30% of them found only in the Sahara and neighbouring parts of the Arabian peninsula. Sadly, with the advent of modern motorised transport and firearms, the larger mammals of the Sahara have been relentlessly hunted in recent years and species like the addax, scimitar-horned oryx and barbary sheep have been exterminated from most areas, including the two world heritage sites.
The Namib-Karoo deserts of southern Africa, although much smaller, support a much more varied flora with 50% of the 3500 species found nowhere else. The extraordinary Welwitchia plant - with leaves looking like giant tattered ribbons lying in the sand - survives here.
Missing Links: Other outstanding areas in Africa's deserts deserve consideration as additional world heritage sites - including parts of the Namib Desert and the extraordinary Tibetsi mountains in northern Chad.
