Mountain Ranges, Deserts and Landforms of Niger

Geography

The Sahara covers large parts of Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Western Sahara and Sudan, and parts of southern Morocco and Tunisia. It covers 9 million square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi), 31% of the African continent. If all areas with a mean annual precipitation of less than 250 mm (9.8 in) were included, the Sahara would be 11 million square kilometres (4,200,000 sq mi). It is one of three distinct physiographic provinces of the African massive physiographic division. The Sahara is so large and bright that, in theory, it could be detected from other stars as a surface feature of Earth, with near-current technology.

Climate

The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. It is located in the horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge, a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from the upper troposphere usually descends, warming and drying the lower troposphere and preventing cloud formation.

The permanent absence of clouds allows unhindered light and thermal radiation. The stability of the atmosphere above the desert prevents any convective overturning, thus making rainfall virtually non-existent. As a consequence, the weather tends to be sunny, dry and stable with a minimal chance of rainfall. Subsiding, diverging, dry air masses associated with subtropical high-pressure systems are extremely unfavorable for the development of convectional showers.

History

Scientists have identified more than 230 humid periods in North Africa over the past eight million years, recurring at intervals of approximately 21,000 years.

A modern laboratory examination of the Uan Muhuggiag child mummy and Tin Hanakaten child have suggested that the Central Saharan peoples from the Epipaleolithic, Mesolithic, and Pastoral periods possessed dark skin complexions. The creators of the Round Head rock art possessed dark skin.

A 2025 study sequenced individuals from Takarkori (7,000 YBP) and discovered that most of their ancestry was from an unknown ancestral North African lineage, related to the African admixture component found in Iberomaurusians.

Geography

The Sahel spans 5,900 km (3,670 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east, in a belt several hundred to a thousand kilometers (c. 600 miles) wide. It covers an area of 3,053,200 square kilometers (1,178,850 sq mi).

Representing a climatic and ecological transition zone with hot semi-desert and steppe conditions, the region borders the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the dry Sahara desert to the north. This ecoregion is also called the Sahelian acacia savanna in honour of its most prominent and very drought tolerant genus of tree.

The topography is mainly flat; most of the region lies between 200 and 400 meters (660 and 1,310 ft) in elevation.

History

Around 4000 BC, the climate of the Sahara and the Sahel started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification. This in turn decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and caused migrations of farming communities to the more humid climate of West Africa.

The larger Sahelian kingdoms emerged from 750 AD and founded several large cities in the Niger valley region, including Timbuktu, Gao and Djenné.

The kingdom of Alodia was a Christian Nubian Kingdom in the eastern Sahel that reached its zenith from the 9th to 12th century. It was first mentioned in 569, its capital Soba located near modern-day Khartoum.

Climate

The Ténéré has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh), typical of the large Sahara Desert. The climate is hyper-arid, extremely hot, sunny and dry year-round and there is virtually no plant life. The average high temperatures are above 40 °C (104 °F) for about 5 months and more in the hottest regions, and record high temperatures as high as 50 °C (122 °F) are highly possible during summer. The annual average high temperature is around 35 °C (95 °F). During "winter" months, the average high temperatures stay above 25 °C (77 °F) and generally hover around 30 °C (86 °F).

History

During the Carboniferous period, the region was beneath the sea; later it was a tropical forest. A major dinosaur cemetery lies southeast of Agadez at Gadoufaoua; many fossils have been found there, having eroded out from the ground. An almost complete specimen of the crocodile-like reptile Sarcosuchus imperator, nicknamed the SuperCroc, was discovered there by paleontologists.

During early human history, this was a fertile land much more congenial to human life than it is now. The region was inhabited by modern humans as long ago as the Paleolithic period some 60,000 years ago. They hunted wild animals and left evidence of their presence in the form of stone tools including tiny, finely carved arrow heads.

Geography and Boundaries

A sharp distinction exists between the natural, cultural Niger Delta and the administrative boundaries utilized by the Nigerian federal government. Geographically and ecologically, the authentic Niger Delta does not conform to modern state lines; it spans a continuous, water-bound coastal belt running from the riverine fringes of western Ondo State (such as the Arogbo kingdom) through the southern coastal tip of Edo State, encompassing roughly two-thirds of Delta State, the entirety of Bayelsa State, the riverine southern halves of Rivers State and Akwa Ibom State, and terminating at the southern maritime border of Cross River State at Bakassi.

History

During the pre-colonial and early colonial eras, the maritime delta operated as a vital commercial arena for the palm oil trade and earlier transatlantic exchanges. The British Empire established the Oil Rivers Protectorate in 1885, later expanding it into the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1893.

Following the amalgamation of Nigeria, the core riverine Niger Delta was administratively placed within the former Eastern Region in 1951. During the late colonial transition, minority ethnic groups within the delta's coastal divisions expressed deep political anxieties regarding marginalisation by larger interior ethnic groups.