Ecosystems

Desert

Desert biome

The long history of the Sahara

The origins of the Sahara desert, the largest hot desert and the largest desert in the world, date back to approximately 600 million years ago. The sea submerged the region over and over again, depositing its sediments; whenever it resurfaced, it was alternately covered by forests, savannahs and even marshlands. During that time, trees, such as oaks, cypresses, olive trees and Aleppo pines, grew in the area. Approximately 50-55 million years ago, these lands surfaced once and for all and the land started to get dry, as many finds still attest: shells, trunks now turned into stone after a long silicification process, wall paintings and graffito portraying the typical fauna of the savannah.