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Sahara: A Natural History

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This masterful account of the Sahara is hard to surpass. Few books detail the Sahara and when they do they usually take the form of either purely scientific accounts or purely historical accounts. This book is one part history, one part geography, one part travel journal and one part science. The authors detail separate sections on the history of the Sahara, the peoples of the Sahara, the winds, the water, the geography and the wildlife. A special chapter covers the lifestyle of the Taureg tribesman. Special mention is made of the Islamic slave trade and the salt trade. Maps cover the many tribal groups, the amazing geography made up of Massifs and a map dedicated to the underground aquifers. Many wonderful photographs detail everything from a desert Hilton to the beautiful sand dunes to the people and wildlife of the Sahara. The Sahara is as large as the United States and includes a vast array of cultures and landscapes including the Qattara depression, and has over 2 million inhabitants. A must read for anyone interested in Africa, geography or extreme places.

_Sahara_ by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle is an interesting and thorough book on the natural and human history of the Sahara. Very informative and comprehensive in scope, the authors tackled a variety of subjects relating to a land known also as the Endless Emptiness or the Great Nothingness.

The Sahara is vast, stretching from the "dried-blood-red cliffs" of Mauritania on the Atlantic coast to the "bleached bone" of Egypt's Eastern Desert on the Red Sea, from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the Sahel in the south, a desert that covers 3,320,000 square miles. The Sahara one learns is not one vast sand sea (only about 15% is sand covered), though the dune fields (called ergs) can stretch for hundreds of miles. The desert also contains a nearly invisible network of watercourses, wadis, and riverbeds, as "faint and elusive as Martian canals" when seen in satellite photos, some that haven't born water on the surface for thousands of years; salt flats; dried lake beds; immense, grim gravel plains, utterly without feature; and massive mountain ranges, often the refuge of nomad groups, not unlike islands in the sea that is the Sahara.

The authors point to the ample evidence that the Sahara was not always desert, notably the stands of petrified wood in Algeria, Niger, and Chad and the curious calcified reeds that once grew around now extinct lakes, odd glasslike structures that mark long vanished shorelines. In actuality the region in the last several tens of thousands of years has alternated between desert and moister climes, changing back and forth due to the complex mechanics of global climate and changes in the Earth's orbit. The writers discussed the waxing and waning of the desert (apparently some areas were always arid) over the millennia as well as debates about whether or not the desert is expanding south.

Sand itself is well covered in this book, the authors providing vivid examples of ruins, buildings, and entire towns lost to migrating dunes. The origins of Saharan sand, the physics of dune formation, the various types of dunes, and how one travels through these areas are all discussed.

The chapter on Saharan weather was especially interesting. The most powerful wind is the harmattan, known as the sirocco in Algeria, called by some Tuareg and Tubu clans the shahali or shai-halad or mother of storms, a wind so powerful it has been known to send powdery fine sand up to 500 miles distant, as far as England and northern Germany. In the desert its effects can be quite devastating; ninety-plus mile an hour winds, huge electrical disturbances, drops in humidity to 10 percent, and of course massive, frightening sandstorms.

Saharan wind systems are so strong that their effects are global; fully grown grasshoppers have been deposited in Antigua. Between 60 million and a billion tons of iron-rich sand blows across the ocean each year, in some cases beneficial (important for the nourishment of upper canopy orchids in the Amazon) but more often troublesome (it has been linked to the declining health of coral in the Caribbean and creating huge blooms of toxic red tide in Florida waters).

As dry as the Sahara is, water still exists. In addition to the mighty Nile and the Niger, massive deposits of "fossil water," laid down when the region was moister, would rival the American Great Lakes if they were on the surface. Yields from wells in some areas can be quite high - up to 25,000 cubic feet of water per hour - but there is considerable debate over whether this is a renewable resource or not. Some believe that these ancient aquifers are being renewed more frequently and at a greater volume than previously estimated, a theory that is discussed.

As noted mountains exist; the enormous Ahaggar Mountains cover an area as big as France, while the spectacular Air mountains cover an area the size of Switzerland. The mountains are fascinating regions, home to intricately carved rock, secretive mountain people, and in the Tibesti Mountains, still active volcanoes.

There is an overview of some of the animals of this harsh realm. Some of the more spectacular have vanished thanks to man - elephants were found near Timbuktu as late as 1787, but were since hunted out, while ostriches vanished from Algeria early in the 20th century and hartebeests from Morocco in World War II. Ostriches - and leopards - still survive in some areas, as well as dwarf crocodiles in remote oases, the striped hyena, huge tortoises in the Sudan, monitor lizards, jerboas, fennec foxes, caracals, sand vipers, addax (the desert's largest mammal), and scorpions (much more hazardous and common than any desert snake).

Early history of man in the Sahara is covered, including the famous rock art. Also, the rise and fall of the various empires of the region are discussed, including the Garamantes, Mali, and Songhai. I will have to say this was probably the driest part of the book, as some of the intrigue and various dynasties got a bit confusing at times.

There is excellent coverage of the various nomadic groups present today; the Bedouin, the Moors, the Tubu, the Chaamba, the Berbers, and in particular the fascinating Tuareg.

The final parts of the book look at Saharan commerce and travel, examining the routes taken by caravans, the nature of caravans themselves, and the chief commodities that are bought and sold. Also great information on the all-important camel, an animal that arguably without which there would have been no Saharan civilization. The long vital salt and gold trades are well examined (the salt trade is particularly interesting), but regrettably the most profitable element of Saharan commerce was the slave trade. Until well into the 19th century half the value of Saharan traffic was in slaves. Even more unfortunately, slavery still exists; in many areas slaves weren't officially freed until the late 1960s, though unofficially they are still kept. Slavery was outlawed in Mauritania in 1980 but upwards of one hundred thousand are still slaves.

"Sahara" describes an area as large as the United States -- the people, the culture, history and the natural environment -- in little more than 300 pages. That could be as dull as a textbook, but the authors enliven "Sahara" with folklore tales, personal travel ancedotes, and fascinating little facts. The desert is "as rich in story, as the Tuareg say, as a (...) is of milk."

"Sahara" is divided into two parts. The first deals with "the place itself" and the second with "the people." The most interesting chapter is, of course, the one dealing with water -- the constant preoccupation of anyone who travels in the Sahara. And one of the fascinating little facts in this chapter is a story about the blind, edible fish that live in some wells in the desert. A fish dinner in the Sahara! That's worthy of Ripley's "Believe it or Not." Other ancedotes tell about the crocodiles that inhabited the one running stream of the deep Sahara and an actual waterfall in the Air Massif.

The Sahara is one of the most austere environments on earth and the most accomplished of the Sahara-dwellers are the romantic, blue-robed nomadic Tuareg who penetrate the deep desert in search of grazing for their animals, salt, and loot. Tuareg lore is a large and interesting part of the book. How they make their way unerringly across the constantly-changing dune fields and featureless rocky flats of the desert and find a single well in an infinity of wasteland remains, however, a mystery to the authors and the readers.

The few black and white photos in the book are too small to be of much consequence and maps are similarly small and unsatisfying, but the text is colorful and the story is fascinating. "Sahara" rises above the level of the travelogue to become a natural history of the Sahara. If you like to read about lonely places and the few people who inhabit them, this is an excellent book.

Smallchief

Join de Villiers and Hirtle in their caravans in time and space in an excursion through the world's mightiest desert. The authors guide us with accounts of their own and the people who live and roam in this vast, dry world. You will find adventure, politics, geography, economics and no little despair. What they offer you is a window into understanding what desert life means. Paradoxically, that understanding means water - where is it available? how can it be obtained? how much is there to be found? Water permeates almost every page of this narrative of the driest land in the world. While this book may seem only of limited interest, something potential adventurers would read, anyone interested in our world will find it rewarding.

Among other myths this book demolishes, the concept of the "empty desert" is quickly dispelled. It opens in a remote site, seemingly beyond human ken. Yet, the opening words reveal three desert men, silently riding camels, passing through a camp. From this opening, the authors introduce us to writers on the desert. They guide you along the ancient history of this vast, dry land. It wasn't always a desert, as fossil testify. The Sahara has been grassland, desert, forest and desert again. These cycles indicate the movement of the continents, the shifts of climate and irregularities of topography. Changes in the Sahara stimulate and reflect variations in oceanic currents, air movements, and, of course weather patterns and rainfall. Even today, as the authors stress repeatedly "the Sahara is closer than one might think." Dust storms send detritus across the Atlantic, conveying organisms that can lead to novel diseases.

European visitors have left indelible impressions of a land they poorly understood. The many stereotypical desert images, such as vast expanses of sand dunes, are misleading. The desert, as the authors stress often, is a land of rocks and stones. And, if you know how to find it, reserves of water. Many have perished seeking water's benefits. Modern research has pointed to "fossil water" lying beneath the rocks. This is being tapped and de Villiers and Hirtle note the impact of this withdrawal remains in dispute. Although the subterranean water table is lowering, there is evidence that replenishment is occurring. Whether it's enough remains to be determined.

Outstanding in this work is the depiction of the various civilizations that arose in the Sahara. Comprising nearly half the book, the authors point out that the Sahara has been home to more than just the Dynasties of the Nile Valley. From Neolithic times, when stone circles matching any in Europe were erected, mighty empires have risen and flourished here. Mali, the Old Ghana and the Almoravid are but examples. Trade, culture, science, arts and crafts developed and were exchanged among diverse peoples. The tragedy of European invasion is not only slavery, but the erasure of memory of these complex societies.

The authors have an novel technique in recounting their desert travels. Camel caravans, 4WD trucks and even walking conditions are brought to view with illuminating clarity. At no time, however, do they resort to personal description. You are with them, but they aren't directly apparent. It's an interesting style, one which more authors should emulate. Photographs and excellent maps are scattered throughout the book, although the quality sometimes leaves something to be desired. In short, this is a valuable and captivating book The authors' sympathy and interest in the full range of desert topics enlightens every page. The bibliography is good but the Index needs a review. A small price to pay for this fine survey of a vital topic. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Here is a very intriguing travel book about a land that few Westerners have ever traveled through. The Sahara has a fearsome reputation as a sterile deathtrap that lasts for thousands of miles, and some areas really do live up to that stereotype. But as this book unfolds we learn that the Sahara is far from just never-ending sand dunes without a trace of vegetation or water to be found over entire nations. In fact the dunes alternate with fascinating and unexpected landscapes - like vast plains as hard and featureless as a parking lot, dry riverbeds where water obviously flowed not long ago, huge and imposing mountain ranges, large fields of bizarre rock formations, and even the occasional trickling waterfall or scraggly forest. We also learn of the curious people who inhabit the Sahara, many of whom are still nomads and even continue the caravan tradition in this day and age. The authors take a clinical approach to describing this eerie region, giving a chapter-by-chapter dissertation on natural features, and then people and politics. This research-oriented approach to writing leads to a plethora of fascinating facts and anecdotes, but prose that is about as dry as the landscape itself, with the authors never peeking out from behind their reporting to add a little humanity to their work. This trend is alleviated a little toward the end of the book, especially during the study of the enigmatic Tuareg people. While this book is definitely high on surprises and fascinating facts on the true nature of the Sahara, it's a little low on personality too.

Knowing very little of the history of the area of Africa now covered by the vast Sahara desert I found this an extremely fascinating journey as a novice on an area of the planet vaster than the US. Commencing with a brief glance to see if it was worth progressing I found the authors opening with a geographical account of the history of the Sahara, moving rapidly from West to East, spending time on the littoral, touching on the major empires that influenced it over the past two thousand years. Despite the fact that even this novice spotted the glaring error of George Washington's posthumous invasion it proved sufficiently interesting after a first skim through to sit down and read it avidly.
The book moved on in Part One to discuss some of the sources of Saharan history and geography, heavily referencing Leo Africanus and Ibn Battuta as it attempts to give a geographical definition to the vast desert. It was interesting to find the desert is only 15percent sand. There are reflections on the ever-changing nature of the sands giving examples where it has swallowed towns whole (there is an interesting anecdote on the Arawan Hilton) and latest theories on the epochal history of the Sahara and its current movement. We hear stories of legendary armies swallowed by the sands (Cambyses being prominent) learn of the Grand Dune over 400 feet high and thirty miles long, discover that dunes come in all sizes and types, of their dancing movement (saltation and impact creep). We meet some Sahara travellers, namely, A'Yoba and come across bones whom the sands have claimed. Moving through the border of Cameroon to Chad the winds follow and we learn of the terrible hamrattan north-west wind, then the great aquifers and how under the desert satellite imaging reveals ancient riverbeds. We hear that Lake Chad is the Sahara's largest lake yet it is shrinking fast. We are taught the rainfall cycles and of rivers such as the Nile, the Niger, the Idrisi (the only perennial being the Iherir in Algeria) and oases such as Timia. As the book progresses the Massifs of Central Sahrara come into play and how life itself has survived in the Sahara from humans to plants, to the sad end of the `Arbre de Tenere.' to the animals that roam.
Part Two dealt with the people who lived in the Sahara, from the first neolithic hunter-gathers to the first culture of the Aterians through to Pharanoic Eygpt. We are shown rock art, the stirrings of language, and how adversity shaped the population centres as the deserts came. Details on the ancient Saharan Empires: Eygpt, Mali, Tekrur, Old Ghana, Almohad, Almoravid, Hausa, Kanem-Bornu, Songhai and Garamantes are given and explored, their key known histories related. We move on through the various invasions of the Romans, Alexander, Arabian, Phoenician, Vandals, Byzantines and many more. From this the authors touch on more recent political wars, the Fulani theocracies, before narrowing down onto routes, mainly created trade routes for trading salt, gold and slavery. From here we focus on the nomadic peoples of the Sahara, notably the Tuareg.. We hear of the resourceful Tubu who can live for three days on a single date and are taken to the wedding feast of the Tuareg, Ahmed before setting off with a camel caravan across the Erg de Tenere. Stories of the great 52-day crossings from Morocco to Timbuktu, of the Air-Bilma-Zinder triangle abound and on the trip we see the infamous mirages caused by dehydration. We end with the centuries old question of how these peoples who have resided here for so long are able to navigate across the empty expanses and touch, at the last, on how the modern world has begun its intrusion.
As this is the first book on the Sahara I have read I cannot comment too much on its historical and geographical validity. However, the narrative skips from geography to sociology, from north to south, from past to future like the shifting sands themselves. The sheer scale of information packed into the pages is impressive. There is a sense of being with a narrator, but the narrator never intrudes. It is more a set of paragraphs, loosely collected under each chapter, but presented in a factual or anecdotal manner that makes for easy and cetainly interesting reading.

"Sahara" by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle: sub-titled "A Natural History" Copyright 2002 by Jacobus Communications Corp.

This book opens with a major error. On page 13, the authors say, "In 1803 George Washington made war against the beys". ("Bey" being a Turkish or Egyptian title.) Of course, this is impossible since George Washington died in 1799. I believe the authors wanted Thomas Jefferson.

On page 12, "Many of these countries are, qua countries with national governments and seats in the United Nations"....
"qua countries"? Forgive me, but is this some South African usage of English/Latin?

On page 14, they speak about the French overrunning Algeria with "...European protectorate" being called "...a nice imperial euphemism", which is okay in today's politically correct jargon. But, then, in the next two pages the authors describe the French, Italians and Spanish all moving into "...provinces of the decaying Ottoman Empire"... without sensing the illogic of not defining the Ottoman's imperial aspirations as being as bad as those of the Europeans. Page 16: "In 1835 the Ottoman Turks sent a fleet to assert a rather more direct control..." in what was later called Libya. What? Italian Europeans in Libya are imperialists and Ottoman Turks do not deserve the same label? Too Much. Too politically correct.
On page 15: "...Tunisia was called Ifriqiyah, from the Roman word for Africa..."; now the Romans spoke Roman. Or was it Latin? It would have been interesting for the authors to show how "Africanius" metamorphosed into "Ifriqiyah".

Too much. Too many. The authors should submit their manuscript (it is not yet a book) to a competent historian and to a person competent in geography for fact checking and screening. While the manuscript is there, perhaps they can do a global change and replace the many contractions, "it's" and "don't" with "it is" and "do not" respectively. If such contractions are not permitted in an MA thesis why allow them in a formal book?

The Sahara, one of the world's great deserts - in vastness as well as mystique - has had a fascination for travelers since the Middle Ages. De Villiers and Hirtle have criss-crossed this vast expanse and its surrounding regions extensively over many years. Their intimate knowledge of land and people permeates the book. Exposing the reader to a multitude of colours, smells, shapes, sounds - they relate all facets of the landscape and its inhabitants. Readers with any knowledge or interest in this geographic region will find SAHARA a treasure trove. Having followed some of the desert tracks and visiting quite a few of the places portrayed, I was quickly drawn back into the magic of it all: the white sand dunes of Ouargla, the palm oases of the M'zab and the complex rich history of Timbuktu and the Niger river.

In conveying the richness and diversity of the landscapes in their historical evolution, the authors combine travel descriptions from the Middle Ages with those written by explorers in more recent times. De Villiers and Hirtle ground themselves on famous travel writers, starting with Ibn Battuta who recorded his travels in the region in the mid-fourteenth century, Leo Africanus in the early 15th and the accounts of early European explorers since the late eighteenth century, such as Heinrich Barth, who spent six years among the Tuareg in the deep Sahara. Their own experiences mix seamlessly with that of the other travellers and all in all build a comprehensive picture. At times, one would have preferred to be able to distinguish between de Villiers' and Hirtle's travels and that of the others.

SAHARA is, however, not a 'travelogue' and even though travels in many directions are vividly described, the emphasis of the book is, as the subtitle suggests, the natural history of the Sahara. The overriding perspective is historical, to the point that the reader is taken on a journey through time as well as place. The authors succeed in evoking the intricate bond between the land, its scarce resources and the Saharan peoples who have managed to survive there for at least a thousand years.

In the first part of the book - the Place Itself - De Villiers and Hirtle approach the Sahara from various angles: the sand seas, the winds, the water and the massifs. Each aspect is vital for our understanding of the progression of the Sahara as a desert. They also explain why and how life continues to thrive despite the many adversities. A particularly fascinating chapter is the one on water: the description of unexpected springs, surprising waterfalls in hidden valleys as well as huge aquifers underground. The authors follow the Tuareg and other desert wanderers in search of water and remark on the intricate knowledge systems related to this source of life. They address the impact of global climate change on the Sahara's desert expansion as well as the reciprocal impact of Saharan landmass on the global climate. For example, indications are accumulating that suggest a direct link between the rain patterns in the Sahara and the development of hurricanes that batter the East coast of the USA.

The second part of the book - The People who live there - describes the historical roots of today's societies. The reader discovers the highly developed civilizations of West and Central Africa, going back some 900 years, their culture and commerce. The acceptance of or confrontation with Islam played an important role in their societies' development. Their commerce and trade was based on salt and gold and it explains the economic wealth of these ancient empires. The early trading routes established regular contacts between peoples from Morocco via the ancient Ghana (with the capital in what is now Mauritania) via Mali, Niger and Lake Chad to Egypt. Although no longer as important, the trading routes continue to move goods and people today. De Villiers and Hirtle offer us insights into a fascinating mosaic of cultures, peoples and personalities of rulers and leaders. Many of the earlier ethnic groups and tribes have disappeared, most likely absorbed by conquering peoples. The Tuareg are among the best-known surviving groups today. They are the proud and mysterious traditional rulers (or bandits) of the deep Sahara who continue to play an important political and cultural role across the borders of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

Among the few weaknesses of the book are the endnotes, which are somewhat too short providing only a brief overview of sources and reference materials. There is a certain amount of duplication in the description of aspects of life and history of the Saharan peoples between chapters and the index is important for checking the cross-references.

Some reviewers have argued that the description is too "dry". This is not a book for the novice or unappreciative visitor of deserts. But for anybody interested in drylands in general and deserts in particular (or fascinated by them), SAHARA is a fascinating journey into the depth of the continent, its history and the life of the people in the arid lands.

This is a very readable overview of the physical environment of the Sahara, the nature of the Sahara, and the people and history. Of necessity, to make the book a reasonable length, much must be only skimmed, and even more must be left out. The book is a reasonable compromise between comprehensive coverage and unwieldiness. I found the material interesting, and the things that were covered were appropriately chosen.

On the other hand, there are some factual errors (admittedly most not directly relevant to the main subject) that concern me. If I can spot errors in things I know about, how much weight should I give the things where I am not knowledgeable and have to trust the book?

One more solid concern is that the maps in the book are inadequate. Many places were discussed that I couldn't find on the minimal maps provided. The illustrations certainly aren't a strong point in the book, but they are far better than the maps.

The writing style is adequately lively and interesting, and I feel like I learned quite a bit, even though I am a bit queasy on everything I learned being 100% reliable. Worth it as an introduction to this subject, but I suggest you do as I am doing and find other resources to supplement your education about this fascinating place. The DVD listed by Amazon as "Sahara (History Channel)" follows this book closely, so probably isn't a good independent verification, but it does a good job of showing visually many of the things discussed in this book.

The book starts out with several surprising historical errors in the first 20 or so pages, making you suspect of the remainder. The authors attribute America's early response to North African brigandry to the wrong President and the wrong year, then ascribe the "most perfect architectural monuments (of Moorish Spain)" to the Almohads and Almoravids (p. 13), fanatic fundamentalist Islamic movements that were in fact central to the decline of the great society that built these places. They move on to delicately describe the tyrant and terror monger Muammar Qadafi of Libya as, "mercurial...whatever his politics and his quirks and his erratic ambitions". How nice. Perhaps a book on the 'mercurial' Qadafi is in the works by authors de Villiers & Hirtle? In any event, the narratives are indeed vivid but they attempt to re-create the mood of 19th century travel guides with minimalist maps and black and white photos. These photos, without anything to measure the scale of the places they describe and often from archival sources, do these unique and remote places few of us will ever lay eyes upon a great injustice. All the more unfortunate because the topic is quite fascinating.