World Atlas 2010 (4th edition)

52

ABCD

1

2

4

5

3

ABCD

48

74

48

56

0 km

0 miles 400

400

AFRICA

Northwest Africa

G

ra

n

d

E

rg

O

cc

id

en

t

a

l

Sah

At

la

s^

M

ou

nt

a

in

s

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Tropic

of Ca

ncer

La Palma Tenerife Lanzarote

Gran

Canaria

Fuerte-

ventura

Islas Canarias

(Spain)

Madeira

(Portugal)

Ceuta(Spain)

(disputed territory under

Moroccan occupation)

ALGER

MOROCCO

WESTERN

SAHARA

MALI

MAURITANIA

SPAIN

ALGIERS

RABAT

Sidi Bel

Abbès

Tanger

Tetouan

Fès

Kénitra

Casablanca

Safi

Marrakech

Agadir

Oujda

Oran

Khouribga

Tlemcen

Blida

Tan-Tan

Smara

Ad Dakhla

Lagouira

Essaouira

Er Rachidia

Figuig

Mostaganem

Laghouat

Ghardaïa

Béchar

I-n-Salah

Reggane

Tindouf

LAÂYOUNE

Beni-

Mellal

Melilla

(Spain)

The Sahara Desert is one of the harshest

environments on Earth. With an area of

around 3,500,000 sq miles (9,000,000 sq km),

roughly the same as Europe, it has a population

of only around 2 million people compared to

Europe’s population of 731 million people.

The region of Tidikelt

in Algeria once went

for 10 years without

a drop of rain.

On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s collided

on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport on

Tenerife with the loss of 583 lives, making

this the world’s worst ever air disaster.