Which desert covers much of northern Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea?

The Sahara Desert covers much of northern Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

The Sahara is the largest hot desert on Earth, extending across much of North Africa. It reaches from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Red Sea in the east and spans portions of more than ten countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, and Tunisia.

Its landscape is more varied than the image of endless dunes suggests. Rocky plateaus, gravel plains, mountains, salt flats, and sand seas all occur there. The highest mountains include the Tibesti range, while the Ahaggar range rises in southern Algeria. Rainfall is generally very low and highly irregular, although some oases support settled communities.

The Sahara was not always as dry as it is today. During the African Humid Period, roughly between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, lakes, grasslands, and human communities occupied areas now dominated by desert. Climate shifts gradually produced the modern arid environment.