The Sahara

The Sahara, which covers a huge portion of Morocco, is the world's 3rd largest desert. But it is the largest, at 3.33 million sq miles, of hot, sandy desert. The two largest deserts are Antarctica and the North Artic. For comparison the Sonoran Desert, which included southeastern California, southern Arizona, Baja and the Mexican state of Sonora is 100,000 sq miles and the Great Basin, that area between the Sierra Nevadas, the Wasatch and the Mojave desert, is 190,000 square miles. And like the deserts of the US west, it isn't all sand dunes. Part of the desert is the image we usually have of sand dunes stretching for miles, maybe with a lonely dung beetle or its tracks, or a few grasses in a sea of pale sand. It does conjure up an image of a line of camels along one of the many dune edges. But deserts are defined by aridity and so those hot deserts are defined by water fall, not sand. And so the desert includes rocky-almost barren-mountains, flat gravel stretches, and rocky hills. Here are a selection of desert photos. The first section is in Erg Chebbi, where we "clamped" for two nights. This is the largest of the sand deserts in Morocco. You may wonder at the different colors of the sand. There actually wasn't that much. But some photos were taken before dawn, others as the sun was coming over the horizon (ie other sand dunes), some closer to mid day and some in the evening. Some of the variation is also using the slider to eliminate some of the haze in the air. In one you can clearly see the sand on the edge of a dune being blown by the wind. It was a promise of what was to come. The photos of the group headed out on camels shows sand blowing well ahead. It wasn't long before they sought shelter in a little valley between dunes. The headscarf worn by the Berbers is perfect. It keeps hot sun off the head and neck. In a sandstorm it can cover the face except for a slit for the eyes. And if it is really blowing, you can hunker down and cover the entire face. They can also be used as hot pads, wraps for wounds, place to dry your hands.

The next images show other sides of the desert. Here are rocky, flat areas and rocky hills, steep and almost vegetation free mountains. In the first photo, below,  you can see remains of snow in the High Atlas Mountains.

The nomadic people of the desert, move from place to place to find fodder for their sheep, goats, donkeys and camels. Sometimes you will find more permanent adobe style buildings along with tents. Thick adobe walls keep out some of the heat and keep in the heat on cold nights. The first photo shows caves which are also used by the Berber nomads. If you are wondering about the difference between "Berber" and "Bedouin" they are both desert nomadic people who use camels and similar styled tents. But Bedouin is the term used in the middle eastern areas. Berbers are the original peoples of northern Africa, including Morocco.

We had mint tea in the one of the tents shown here. The women brought the tray with the glasses and tea pot and then made sure our guide, Hamid, did a good job of of pouring it to create the aeration and bubbles which are the standard of good tea.

Close up of tent top with Hamid signally.