The Sahara Desert extends into 11 African countries.
The desert stretches across almost all of North Africa, from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The 11 countries commonly counted are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.
The Sahara is not a single uniform landscape. It includes rocky plateaus, gravel plains, mountain ranges, salt flats, and large dune fields. Political borders cross these natural regions, so the desert’s country count describes where its geographic area occurs rather than a formal international boundary.
Some maps also discuss the Sahel, the semi-arid belt south of the Sahara. The Sahel is a neighboring transition zone, not an additional Sahara country, which explains why different summaries can appear to use slightly different wording.