In the parched and seemingly lifeless heart of the Sahara desert, earthworms find enough moisture to survive. Four major mountain ranges interrupt the flow of dunes and gravel plains and at certain times waterfalls cascade from their peaks. Even the sand amazes: Massive dunes can appear almost overnight, and be gone just as quickly. We think we know the Sahara, the largest and most austere desert on Earth--yet it is full of surprises, as Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle reveal in this brilliant and evocative biography of the land and its people.
Record details
ISBN:0802713726 (alk. paper)
Physical Description:326 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm. print
Publisher:New York : Walker & Co., 2002.
Content descriptions
General Note:
Map on lining papers.
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-309)
Formatted Contents Note:
Ideas of the desert -- Place itself: In a geographer's eye -- From the distant past -- Sand seas -- Winds -- Surprising matter of water -- Massifs -- Tenacity of life -- And the people who live there: First people -- Empires of the sun -- Route maps -- White gold, yellow gold, black gold -- Adepts of the uttermost desert -- Life on the road -- Sahara as home.
Book
