The Sahara desert is located in Northern Africa, spanning 11 countries, and is home to over 200 million people. It’s the largest desert in the world, dominating over 3.6 million sq. km. of land. It’s also one of the hottest, driest, and most inhospitable-looking places on the planet.

People have lived in the Sahara desert for thousands of years, but it took some time to figure out how. The earliest people were nomadic tribes that survived by herding livestock like sheep or cattle, which provided meat, milk, and leather. Eventually, these early humans learned to farm their food, which was sparse and hard to grow. As people settled down, they started relying on cisterns to capture rainwater for drinking and irrigation.

However, this cistern technology never became widespread due to its unique climate within the Sahara desert. Unlike most deserts, the Sahara is very dry during all seasons, but especially the summer season. When it’s hot outside, it’s even hotter inside a metal cistern that has absorbed the heat all day long.

Since groundwater was scarce and temperature extremes didn’t make farming easy, people began to rely on harvesting wild plants for food instead of growing their crops. These early humans learned to identify hardy, edible plants that bore fruit every year and avoided poisonous ones. In this way, they survived on a diet of primarily wild greens for as long as 200,000 years!

Sahara’s territory has changed hands many times. It’s been ruled by the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Ottomans. The glory days for this dessert came in the 5th century when its name became synonymous with gold – referred to as “the golden kingdom” or simply “The Golden.”

At one point, the continent of Africa was connected to Europe via the Sinai Peninsula. Still, glaciers in the mountains slowly pushed back until they formed a barrier between North Africa and the rest of the world. The Sahara’s arid environment was one reason why it wasn’t overrun by humans or wildlife for centuries. Aside from its extreme heat and lack of resources, this desert had some brutal wildlife living in it.

The Sahara was home to several deadly, venomous snakes, including the horned viper and carpet viper. It also had a few different scorpions, probably responsible for more human fatalities than any other desert creature. Children who wandered off from their parents would sometimes turn up dead, stung to death by scorpions hiding in their sandals.

Despite the Sahara’s reputation for being a creepy, dangerous place full of weird animals and nightmarish weather, it’s also home to some beautiful scenery that inspired countless works of art and literature. Sunsets and sunrises in this desert were said to be so bright and rich that they put those in other, wetter climates to shame. The desert was also known for its gorgeous night sky – filled with thousands of stars and a dazzling array of planets and constellations.