The Middle East region represents an area of over 5.0 million square miles. The physical geography of the Middle East is varied. Vast deserts are common in the region. The Sahara Desert runs across North Africa, essentially limiting settlement to along the Mediterranean coastline and in Egypt along the Nile River.

North Africa

Western Sahara

The Sahara is the world’s largest desert; it extends across most of the northern part of Africa.

Months with the lowest average high temperature are January and December (22°C). Months with the highest average low temperature are July and August (23°C). The coldest month (with the lowest average low temperature) is January (12°C).

Do People Live In The Sahara? The population of the Sahara is just two million. People who live in the Sahara are predominantly nomads, who move from place to place depending on the seasons. Whilst others live in permanent communities near water sources.

No, lions are found farther south on the African continent. However, they once roamed the Sahara desert. They were made extinct in this area by…

Among the mammal species still found in the Sahara are the gerbil, jerboa, Cape hare, and desert hedgehog; Barbary sheep and scimitar-horned oryx; dorcas gazelle, dama deer, and Nubian wild ass; anubis baboon; spotted hyena, common jackal, and sand fox; and Libyan striped weasel and slender mongoose.

Precipitation in the Sahara ranges from zero to about 3 inches of rain per year, with some locations not seeing rain for several years at a time. Occasionally, snow falls at higher elevations.

Human Influence – Sahara Desert. The people that live in the Sahara desert consist of the Tuareg and the Bedouin tribes, which mainly herd cattle. People use the Sahara to build homes out of the sand and to create communities in the Sahara.

Deserts are perhaps one of the most difficult places to live. Not only is it difficult for humans to survive in deserts – it is also hard for animals, plants and other forms of life to live. This, in turn, makes it even harder for human life to persist because there is always risk of running out of food.

Human activities such as firewood gathering and the grazing of animals are also converting semiarid regions into deserts, a process known as desertification. Population growth and greater demand for land are serious obstacles in the effort to combat this problem.

If there were no deserts, all of the life (plants and animals) that are adapted to a desert environment would either 1) die, or 2) adapt to a different environment in order to survive. Answer 2: Deserts form because of the location of mountains and because of the way air circulates around the planet.

Cold deserts form at higher latitudes. The Patagonian desert in South America and the Gobi desert in Asia are cold deserts.