DO YOU KNOW?

THE SAHARA DESERT

The Sahara desert is the largest desert on Earth.The word sahara is an Arabic word meaning "desert".Most of the desert is bare rocks or gravel.There are also mountains,and some of them are covered by snow in winter.The highest point in the Sahara is Mount Koussi.About 1,600 species of plants grow in the Sahara.Some must stretch their roots as far as 7 metres into the ground to find water.The plants grow mainly in parts of the Sahara where the most rain falls.In the driest parts of the desert,there are no green plants for 190 km.The animals that live in the Sahara have adapted to the hot and harsh conditions.The small fennec fox has large floppy ears that help it cool off.The addax,an antelope with long,curvy horns,rarely drinks any water.Instead,it sucks moisture from the grasses and bushes that it eats.People brought camels to the Sahara almost 2,000 years ago to replace the horses.That was a good idea because camels are better suited for desert life.A camel can go for as long as 17 days without eating or drinking.It also has soft feet that can move quickly and easily through the sand.Camels' thick coats keep them cool as well as warm.The Sahara gets very little rain,but there is a lot of water under desert.Rain that fell thousands of years ago stays underground in pools called aquifers.People drill wells more than 1,000 feet deep to get it.