Terkezi Oasis, Chad A series of rocky outcroppings emerge from a
blanket of sand in this 2000 Landsat 7 image of the Sahara
Desert near the Terkezi Oasis in the country of Chad. As Earth’s
largest band of dry land, the Sahara dominates the northern
third of Africa. Stretching across this immense desert are vast
plains of sand and gravel; seas of sand dunes; and barren, rocky
mountains. Only 10,000 years ago, grasses covered the region and
mammals such as lions and elephants roamed the land. Now only 2
percent of the Sahara hosts oases, patches of land usually
centered on natural water springs where crops will grow and
people live.