Spanning about 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million square kilometers) the Sahara —Arabic for "The Great Desert" — is the largest hot desert on Earth, third in size to the cold deserts in Antarctica and the Arctic. The Sahara stretches across most of North Africa, and plays host to winds that can whip up punishing sand storms. Little grows there, but this harsh environment is home to scorpions, snakes, and more than 40 species of rodents, as well as mammals like hyenas, jackals, antelopes and foxes.
Latest about sahara desert
Spotted hyena found in Egypt for 1st time in 5,000 years — then trackers killed it with a pickup truck
Researchers documented the first spotted hyena in Egypt for 5,000 years after it was hit with a pickup truck for killing goats.
Massive field of ancient lava casts an eerie, gold-specked shadow in the Sahara
Earth from space A stunning composite image, made up of three years' worth of satellite photos, shows the ancient lava of Libya's Haruj volcanic field interspersed with patches of golden sand.
Wandering sand dunes circle a gigantic 'eye' sculpted by an ancient city-killer meteor in the Sahara
Earth from space This 2013 astronaut photo shows a giant eye-shaped impact crater in the Sahara Desert that is slowly being circled by migrating sand dunes, helping researchers track how far these dunes can move over time.
Butterflies cross Atlantic ocean on 2,600-mile non-stop flight never recorded in any insect before
Painted lady butterflies discovered in French Guiana — thousands of miles from their usual habitats — got there through a Herculean transoceanic flight.
Near-lifeless 'Land of Terror' looks like an alien landscape in the Sahara
Earth from space A 2017 satellite image of the Sahara's Tanezrouft Basin shows the abstract beauty in ancient rock folds and colorful salt flats that have been sculpted in this terrifying region over millions of years.
Eye of the Sahara: Mauritania's giant rock dome that towers over the desert
The Eye of the Sahara, also known as the Richat structure, stands out like an oversized ammonite among the sand dunes of the Sahara desert in Mauritania.
Stunning footage captures tiny bird's fight for survival in massive Saharan sandstorm
First of its kind footage captured for National Geographic's "Incredible Animal Journeys" shows a barn swallow caught in a sandstorm as part of its migration through the Sahara Desert.
'The stage was now set for the birth and growth of desert dunes': How the Sahara turned from a vast forest to the arid landscape we see today
"A very remarkable series of events took place during the late Miocene between 5.96 and 5.33 million years ago."
World's 1st 'boomerang meteorite' — a rock that left Earth, spent millennia in space, then returned — possibly discovered in the Sahara Desert
The composition of an unusual meteorite suggests that it formed on Earth, spent thousands of years in space, then reentered the atmosphere. But some experts disagree.
