Deserts Could Power the Whole African Continent
	The incredible amount of energy released by the Sun on a daily basis in the African deserts, if harnessed, could not only provide the whole African continent with electrical energy but might also be enough to power some parts of the European continent as well. Calculations show that the Sun produces about 1.5 barrels of petrol worth of energy for every square kilometer of desert. And as it turns out, Africa has plenty of desert areas. [ ... [read more >>]
	06 June 2008, 06:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Sahara Took 3,000 Years to Form
	Today, Sahara is a huge desert area, with erratic dunes (ergs) and plains covered by rugged rocks (hamada), punctuated by mountains with heights of up to 3,400 m (11,000 ft), covering 8.8 million square kilometers (3.3 million square miles), a surface bigger than that of Australia. At great distances one from another, one can find modest bursts of life, the oases. This desert is supposed to be at least 2.5 million years old. During the las ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2008, 05:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

A Wonder of Sahara: Mzab
	At the beginning of the 17th century, a Berber tribe took refuge in a totally arid area in the heart of Sahara, 400 mi (640 km) south of Alger. The oued (temporary desert river) called Mzab, which irrigates the plateau and the dry valleys once a year, gave its name to the region and the people established here[A ... [read more >>]
	11 April 2008, 09:23GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Namib Desert: The Tallest Dunes
	In the local Nama language, "Namib" means vast. Vastness, besides its age (20 million years), and the amount of precipitations (50 ml per year) define the Namib Desert (southwestern Africa). It stretches on a land stripe about 1,930 km (1,200 mi) long and 100-160 km (60-100 mi) wide, representing the coastal plain of Namibia and being one of the most arid and barren deserts on Earth. Several years can pass without a single rain d ... [read more >>]
	18 March 2008, 09:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

4 Desert Records
	1. World's largest desert is Sahara, covering most of northern Africa, from the Red Sea and the Mediterranean coasts to the outskirts of the Atlantic ocean. Sahara has an intermittent history of 3 million years. Erratic dunes (called ergs) can vary in height with 180 m (160 ft). The ergs may be punctuated by rugged rocks (hamada) and mountains up to 3,400 m (11,000 feet) high, all in 8.8 million square km (3.3 million square mi) ( ... [read more >>]
	11 March 2008, 09:55GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

10 Facts About Cacti
	1.There are over 2,000 species of cacti, with various shapes and forms. Caldera cacti in southwestern US can overcome 20 m (66 ft) on height, while Rebutia cacti from Bolivia and Argentina are just several centimeters tall. Some cacti look like chandeliers or columns, others are flattened or oval, looking like ears (Opuntia). There are cacti looking like curled snakes. Some look like a barrel or a small boar, perfectly rounded. Other cacti ... [read more >>]
	08 February 2008, 02:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Records and Facts of the Bighorn Sheep
	1. The bighorn sheep originates in Siberia. It reached North America 100,000 years ago. Sheep's genus, Ovis, has common origin with the goat's genus, Capra. 20,000 years ago, in the southern Rocky Mountains lived Ovis catclawensis, a ship 12-20 % longer than the bighorn (Ovis canadensis) and 50-70 % heavier. This large sheep resembling the snow sheep (Ovis nivicola) of Siberia had crossed the Behring land bridge 100,000 years ago ... [read more >>]
	25 January 2008, 16:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Poison of the Desert
	In the scorching deserts of southern and eastern Africa and Arabia, where rainfall is a miracle, grows a jewel: the Desert-rose (Adenium obesum), also called Sabi Star or Kudu. It is closely related to the oleander from the Mediterranean area. With a delicate shape and contorted branches, this evergreen succulent shrub grows slowly up to 1-3 m (3.3 to 10 ft) tall and lives, as it is said, hundreds of years. The cambered stem ... [read more >>]
	21 December 2007, 06:25GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Petra, the Ancient City Built in Stone
	Ancient cities were usually located on main rivers whose waters were a source of food and sometimes protection. But on the northwestern extremity of the Arabian Desert there was a city renowned for its lack of water: Petra. In the arid areas of the Middle East the caravan routes connected cities located at great distances from each other. But camels, despite their extraordinary resistance, require halts for drinking. 2,000 years ago, Petra ... [read more >>]
	12 December 2007, 08:38GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

5 Things about Donkeys
	1. Donkeys are, let's say, a desert horse or zebra. In fact, a zebra species from northwestern Africa, Grevy's zebra, is something intermediary between a donkey and a zebra, whereas a species of Asian wild ass from Tibet, kiang, is something intermediary between horses and donkeys. 2. In comparison to a horse, a donkey has increased stamina, stands with worse food and sheltering, and lives longer. Smaller size is an advantage ... [read more >>]
	08 December 2007, 09:09GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Driest, Lowest and Hottest Land in North America: the Death Valley
	With a length of 225 km (140 mi) and a width of 8-24 km (5-15 mi), the Death Valley, located in eastern California and western Nevada, is the driest, lowest and hottest land in North America. At Furnace Creek, the air temperature reached 57°C and that of the soil 94°C, with just 6°C under the water boiling point. This value was overcome just in Libya (58oC), still, the average summer temperature is the highest in the Death Valley, turning ... [read more >>]
	01 December 2007, 07:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

10 Amazing Facts About Camels
	1. The oldest known camel is Protylopus, appeared 40-50 million years ago (Eocene) in North America. It had the size of a rabbit and lived in forests. Later, camels spread to the savanna and increased their size. In Oligocene, 35 million years ago, Poebrotherium had the size of a roe deer, but already resembled a camel. Between 24 and 12 million years ago, various types of camels evolved. Stenomylus was a gazelle like camel. Alticamel ... [read more >>]
	19 October 2007, 15:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Largest Inland Delta in the World
	This is a geographic accident located in the desert sands of the Kalahari (Botswana) like the mouth of a large river: a lot of streams and small lakes forming a wet labyrinth where you can see herds of buffaloes and elephants and lions stalking their prey. But the peculiarity of the Okavango is the way it dies. The river springs from the central Angola and after running 1,400 km (880 mi), it literally evaporates in the Kalahari desert, ... [read more >>]
	14 September 2007, 14:07GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Nature's Amazing Plumbing System
	While you waste hundreds of liters of water daily, as it flows continuously through the faucet (the question is for how long will we be able to afford this?), others struggle for any water droplet they can get. In some desert lizards, their entire body surface turned into an engineering miracle, a type of water sponge. These reptiles have a network of tiny channels in the spaces between their scales that absorb water from the ground (o ... [read more >>]
	21 August 2007, 06:28GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Salt Hotel
	You may have heard about temporary snow hotels built in winter in some mountain resorts. But what about a ... salt hotel!? A snow hotel requires temperatures below zero; a salt hotel requires the (almost total) lack of rainfall. This weird and remote accommodation, built just from salt blocks, is located on the white plains on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni in southwestern Bolivia. The Salt Hotel has most of the furniture ma ... [read more >>]
	26 July 2007, 02:54GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Tuareg: the Blue People
	The Tuareg makes you think about freedom, power and the vastness of the desert; Wolkswagen found its inspiration in the qualities of the proud nation of the Sahara. The Berbers, together with the ancient Egyptians, are the oldest group which settled in North Africa, coming about 10,000 years ago from southwestern Asia. The word "Berber" comes from Latin "barbarus" (barbarian), as most of them were never part of the ... [read more >>]
	26 June 2007, 16:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Most Grotesque Plant on Earth
	This plant seems to be born from the imagination of the science fiction movie makers. Welwitschia mirabilis is just a snag with only two leaves and it has been called officially the most hideous plant on Earth at Chelsea Flower Show. This plant grows just on the dunes of Namibia's and Angola's Skeleton Coast, in the middle of one of the most arid and barren deserts on Earth. Even so, the plant is fast disappearing from the gr ... [read more >>]
	04 June 2007, 09:26GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Driest Place on Earth: the Atacama Desert
	The Atacama Desert is located in northern Chile and reaches a small part of southern Peru (South America), climbing up to 3,200 m (10,670 ft) altitude on an area of 181,300 square km (72,500 square mi). It spreads like a rather narrow stretch between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains over a distance of 960 km (600 mi) off the both sides of the Tropic of Capricorn, presenting strong contrasts: stony hills, volcanic rocks and sand du ... [read more >>]
	23 May 2007, 11:33GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia