What is the highest peak in the Sahara Desert?

The highest peak in the Sahara Desert is Emi Koussi.

Emi Koussi is a massive volcanic summit in Chad’s Tibesti Mountains, at the southeastern end of the range. It rises to about 3,447 meters (11,309 feet), standing roughly 3 kilometers above the surrounding sandstone plains. Its elevation and isolated volcanic form make it the highest summit in the Sahara.

The mountain is a broad pyroclastic shield volcano about 60 kilometers across. Two overlapping summit calderas dominate its top, including the Era Kohor caldera, which is about 2 kilometers wide and contains deposits of sodium carbonate. Lava domes, cinder cones, maars, and lava flows reveal the area’s complex volcanic history.

Emi Koussi is sometimes confused with famous North African peaks such as Mount Toubkal. Toubkal is higher than many Sahara-adjacent mountains but lies in Morocco’s Atlas range, outside the Sahara proper. Emi Koussi is also part of the Tibesti, a volcanic mountain system whose peaks rise dramatically above the desert.