The
Sahara divides the continent into North
and Sub-Saharan Africa. The southern border
of the Sahara is marked by a band of semiarid
savanna called the Sahel; south of the
Sahel lies the lusher Sudan. Humans have
lived on the edge of the desert for almost
500,000 years. During the last ice age,
the Sahara was a much wetter place, much
like East Africa, than it is today. Over
30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such
as crocodiles survive in total with half
found in the Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast
Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs have also
been found here. The modern Sahara, though,
is generally devoid of vegetation, except
in the Nile Valley and at a few oases
and in some scattered mountains and has
been this way since about 3000 BC. 2.5
million people live in the Sahara, most
of these in Mauritania, Morocco and Algeria.
Dominant groups of people are the Tuareg-Berber,
the Sahrawis, Moors, and different black
African ethnicities including the Tubu,
the Nubians, the Zaghawas and the Kanuri.
The largest city is Nouakchott, Mauritania's
capital. Other important cities are Tamanrasset,
Algeria; Timbuktu, Mali; Agadez, Niger;
Ghat, Libya; and Faya, Chad.
|
|
