Sudan Desert

Sudan Desert

Bayuda Desert

Fragment of Bayuda Desert seen from space

The Bayuda Desert is located north of modern Khartoum, Sudan, west of Kadabas, and south of the Nubian Desert, together making up part of the Sahara Desert’s eastern flank. It is located at 18°N 33°E. Within the desert can be found the Bayuda Volcanic Field

Eastern Desert

The Eastern Desert is the section of Sahara Desert east of the Nile River, between the river and the Red Sea.It extends from Egypt in the north to Eritrea in the south, and also comprises parts of Sudan and Ethiopia.

Features

The Eastern Desert’s main geographic features are the western Red Sea coastline—with the “Red Sea Riviera”—and the Eastern Desert mountain range that runs along the coast, the highest peak of which is Shaiyb al-Banat (2,187 m). Other notable ecological areas are Wadi Gamal National Park and Gebel Elba. The Eastern Desert is a popular setting for safaris and other excursions.

Libyan Desert

The Libyan Desert forms the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert and covers an area of approximately 1,100,000 square kilometres (420,000 sq mi). The desert extends approximately 1,100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle. The Libyan Desert covers eastern Libya, western Egypt, and northwestern Sudan. Like most of the Sahara, this desert is primarily sand and hamada or stony plain. The Libyan Desert is one of the driest, harshest and most remote parts of the greater Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert. This extended desert country is barren, bone dry and rainless.

Sand plains, dunes, ridges, and some depressions (basins) typify the endorheic region, with no rivers draining into or out of the desert. The Gilf Kebir plateau reaches an altitude of just over 1,000 m, and along with the nearby massif of Jebel Uweinat is an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments, forming a massive sand plain, low plateaus, and dunes.

The desert features a striking diversity of landscapes including mountains such as Jebel Uweinat (1,980 m), the Gilf Kebir plateau, and sand seas (see below). The Libyan Desert is barely populated apart from the modern settlements at oases of the lower Cyrenaica region in southeastern Libya. The Farafra depression which includes the town of Farafra and the White Desert National Park is also located within this desert. The indigenous population are Bisharin tribe, Mahas, and Berber. In most of Upper Egypt, the desert is close to the Nile River, with a seasonal floodplain only a few kilometers wide between river and desert. Where the desert extends into Egypt and no longer in Libya, it is generally known as the “Western Desert“. The term Western Desert contrasts with the Eastern Desert to the east of the Nile River, which lies between the Nile and the Red Sea.

North of the Gilf Kebir plateau, among the shallow peripheral dunes of the southern Great Sand Sea, is a field of Libyan desert glass. A specimen of the desert glass was used in a piece of Tutankhamun’s ancient jewelry.

Nubian Desert

The Nubian Desert (Arabic: صحراء النوبة‎‎, Şaḩrā’ an Nūbyah) is in the eastern region of the Sahara Desert, spanning approximately 400,000 km² of northeastern Sudan between the Nile and the Red Sea. The arid region is rugged and rocky and contains some dunes, it also contains many wadis that die out before reaching the Nile. The average annual rainfall in the Nubian Desert is less than 5 inches (125mm). The native inhabitants of the area are the Nubians. The River Nile goes through most of its cataracts while traveling through the Nubian Desert. This is right before the Great Bend of the Nile. The Nubian Desert affected the civilization in ancient Egypt in many ways.

The town of Abidiya is located nearby.

This desert is the only habitat for the critically endangered palm Medemia argun, which only appears rarely in some oases in the desert.

On October 7, 2008 the meteoroid 2008 TC3 exploded above the Nubian Desert. The sky became so bright, people hundreds of miles away reported seeing the flash

Sudan Facts

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