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[[File:SilicaGlassArea.jpg|thumb|245px|Stony area of the Great Sand Sea.]] |
[[File:SilicaGlassArea.jpg|thumb|245px|Stony area of the Great Sand Sea.]] |
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[[File:Linear Dunes, Great Sand Sea, Egypt - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg|thumb|245px|Dune pattern in the Great Sand Sea, Egypt. [[NASA Earth Observatory]].]] |
[[File:Linear Dunes, Great Sand Sea, Egypt - NASA Earth Observatory.jpg|thumb|245px|Dune pattern in the Great Sand Sea, Egypt. [[NASA Earth Observatory]].]] |
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The '''Great Sand Sea''' is an approximately 72,000 km² [[desert]] region in [[North Africa]] stretching between western [[Egypt]] and eastern [[Libya]]. Despite its name, only 7% of the Great Sand Sea is covered by [[dune]]s.<ref>Ernst-Michael Steffan, ''Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und Genese der aeolischen Akkumulationsformen der Ostsahara mit Hilfe der Fernerkundung''. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. 1983</ref> |
The '''Great Sand Sea''' is an approximately 72,000 km² [[erg|sand desert]] region in [[North Africa]] stretching between western [[Egypt]] and eastern [[Libya]]. Despite its name, only 7% of the Great Sand Sea is covered by [[dune]]s.<ref>Ernst-Michael Steffan, ''Untersuchungen zur Morphologie und Genese der aeolischen Akkumulationsformen der Ostsahara mit Hilfe der Fernerkundung''. Berliner geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. 1983</ref> |
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==Geography== |
==Geography== |
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Great Sand Sea
البحر رمال الأعظم
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The dunes of the Great Sand Sea near Siwa, Egypt
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Map of the topographic features of the Sahara
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| Country | Egypt and Libya |
| Area | |
| • Total | 72,000 km2 (28,000 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 100 m (300 ft) |
The Great Sand Sea is an approximately 72,000 km² sand desert region in North Africa stretching between western Egypt and eastern Libya. Despite its name, only 7% of the Great Sand Sea is covered by dunes.[1]
The Great Sand Sea stretches for a length of about 650 km from north to south and a width of 300 km from east to west. On satellite images this desert shows a pattern of long sand ridges running in a roughly north-south direction. However, despite the apparent uniformity the Great Sand Sea has two large areas with different types of megadunes. Together with the Calanshio Sand Sea and Ribiana Sand SeaofLibya, the dunes of the Great Sand Sea cover about 25% of the greater Libyan Desert.[2]
Siwa is an oasis located in Egypt, about 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, in the eastern part of the Great Sand Sea or Egyptian Sand Sea.
Although well-known to the Tuareg and traders who traveled with caravans across the Sahara, Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs was the first European to document the Great Sand Sea. He began his Saharan expeditions in 1865, and named the great expanse of dunes the Große Sandmeer, but it was not until 1924 with the maps of Ahmed Hassanein that the full scope of the Great Sand Sea was appreciated by Europeans.[3]
Media related to Great Sand Sea at Wikimedia Commons29°30′N 21°45′E / 29.500°N 21.750°E / 29.500; 21.750
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