The Libyan Desert, a northeastern portion of the Sahara, extends from eastern Libya through southwestern Egypt into the extreme northwest of Sudan. This geographical region fills the northeastern Sahara Desert, from eastern Libya to the Western Desert of Egypt and far northwestern Sudan.
On medieval maps, its use predates today's Sahara, and parts of the Libyan Desert include the Sahara's most arid and least populated regions; this is chiefly what sets the Libyan Desert apart from the greater Sahara. The term Libyan Desert began to appear widely on European maps in the last decades of the 19th century, typically identified as straddling the borders of present-day Egypt and Libya. This name derived from a territory known as Ancient Libya.
It was not until 1934 that former Ottoman Tripolitania became known as Libya. Where the desert extends into Egypt and no longer in Libya, it is generally known as the "Western Desert".
Explore the harsh yet fascinating landscape of the Libyan Desert, from its ancient depictions to its modern significance.
Satellite view of the Sahara Desert, showing the expanse of the Libyan Desert within it.
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Geography and Characteristics
The desert’s bare rocky plateaus and stony or sandy plains are harsh, arid, and inhospitable. The highest point is Mount Al-ʿUwaynāt (6,345 feet [1,934 metres]), located where the three countries meet. The Qattara Depression (Munkhafaḍ al-Qaṭṭārah) of Egypt descends to 436 feet (133 metres) below sea level.
The Libyan Desert covers an area of approximately 1,300,000 km2 (500,000 square miles), and extends approximately 1,100 km (680 miles) from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle slanting to the south-east. Sand plains, dunes, ridges, and some depressions (basins) typify the endorheic region, with no rivers draining into or out of the desert.
The sand seas lie in a ring around the border of Libya. To the east lies the Calanshio Sand Sea, the western lobe of the Great Sand Sea straddling the Libya-Egypt border, and stretches 800 km (500 miles) from Jaghbub and Jalo in the north to Kufra in the south. To the south-east lies the Rebiana Sand Sea, near the border with Sudan. To the south west is the Idehan Murzuq, bordering Chad, and to west lies the Idehan Ubari, bordering Algeria.
Other features are the Aswad al Haruj (the "Black Desert"), a large circular region of black volcanic shield in the centre of the country, and the Hamada al Hamra [de] (the "Red Desert") a rocky plateau to the west, on the Tunisian border, coloured by iron oxide deposits. To the southeast, between Kufra and the Libya-Egypt-Sudan border, lies the Jebel Arkenu, with the associated Arkenu structures, thought to be caused by meteorite strikes.
North of the Gilf Kebir plateau, among the shallow peripheral dunes of the southern Great Sand Sea, is a field of Libyan desert glass. This is thought to be associated with a meteorite impact, marked by the Kebira crater, on the Libya-Egypt border.
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The Libyan Desert is one of the most arid places on Earth, with some areas having gone decades without a single drop of rain. Its landscape is a mixture of endless sand dunes, rocky plateaus, and ancient meteorite impact craters. Unlike other deserts with at least some vegetation, large portions of the Libyan Desert are completely lifeless, with only a few scattered oases providing a rare respite from the heat.
The Libyan desert is said to be one of the least hospitable regions on Earth. Its climate is surprisingly variable, being hot in summer, with average daytime temperatures of 50 °C (122 °F) and above, though this drops rapidly at night. In winter, days are cool, with temperatures averaging 27 °C (81 °F), but at night this can drop below freezing, with temperatures of −9 °C (16 °F) recorded. At these times the formation of hoar frost is not uncommon, and they are known as "White Nights". In the north, along the Mediterranean shore, cool onshore winds blow inland, while further south, hot, dry winds, known as Ghibli, blow from the interior, creating blinding sand-storms.
Despite the extreme conditions, a variety of wildlife species have adapted to the desert environment. These include mammals like the Fennec Fox, Gerbils, Dorcas Gazelle, and reptiles such as the Desert Monitor.
Ancient Depictions and Historical Significance
This stone slab, part of a larger monument of uncertain provenance, is one of the earliest depictions of the world as a spherical framework; a complete version of a similar circular map appears on a Thirtieth Dynasty sarcophagus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA 14.7.1B), and from this parallel one may restore elements missing or damaged on the Yale fragment.
In keeping with their orientation towards the south-right and west were synonymous for the Egyptians as were left and east-the Yale fragment depicts the northwest portion of the Egyptian world. The Egyptian theologians who designed the map were also able to transform the linear geography of the Nile Valley into a circular form.
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In religious and cult-topographical terms, theirs was a heliocentric cosmos; the center of the map, of which only a small portion remains, contains the tips of two pairs of wings, which belong to the sun god Re as a winged sun disk. Surrounding the divine world is Egypt, represented by the standards of its 42 administrative districts, often called after their later Greek designation, nomes.
The next portion of the ancient map, the ring beyond the borders of Egypt, depicts foreign countries, in this case the Libyan tribes who dwelt west of the Delta. Standing enshrined in a rectangular hieroglyph that “temple,” is Ha, tutelary deity of the Western Desert. Below Ha are members of the Libyan tribes who populated the eastern portion of the Sahara Desert, and the line separating the Libyans from Egypt is actually composed of loops of rope binding them to the districts of the Nile Valley.
Beyond the Libyan desert and separated by a double line is the final region of the Egyptian cosmos: the primeval, chaotic waters from which all life originated. In the hieroglyphic signs on the map, this outer region is called “the cool waters of Horus;” Horus often appears as a falcon or falcon-headed deity and was worshipped as a sky god closely associated with kingship. The waters of Horus are separated from Egypt and foreign territories, but the boundary between order and chaos is not impermeable.
The region was divided during Roman times into four main regions: Mauretania, Numidia, Africa Preconsularis and Libya which retained the original name. In contrast, the areas of Sub-Saharan Africa were known as Aethiopia.
Historically, "Libya" referred to an ill-defined area to the west of Ancient Egypt, whose boundary traditionally was the lake of Mareotis, outside Alexandria. The ancient Greeks, such as Herodotus, regarded the whole of the North African littoral, to Cape Spartel in Morocco, as "Libya". Later, the Romans organized the region the provinces of Libya Inferior and Libya Superior, which covered western Egypt and Cyrenaica. Thus the "Libyan Desert" was the desert to the south of Ancient Libya.
With the organization of the Italian colony of Libya in the 20th century the term "Libyan Desert" for this region became a misnomer, and the area of desert within Egypt became known as the "Western Desert".
Fragment of an ancient Egyptian map depicting the Egyptian world and surrounding regions.
The Inhabitants and Oases
The very few inhabitants are mainly concentrated in the Egyptian oases of Siwa, Al-Baḥriyyah, Al-Farāfirah, Al-Dākhilah, and Al-Khārijah and the Libyan oasis of Al-Kufrah. The main oases are Jaghbub and Jalo in east, in Cyrenaica, Kufra in the southeast, and Murzuk in the south, in Fezzan.
The Libyan Desert is barely populated apart from the modern settlements at oases of the lower Cyrenaica region in southeastern Libya. The indigenous population are Bisharin tribe, Mahas, and Berber.
Egypt today contains the Siwa Oasis, which borders Libya at the Western Desert. The Siwi language, one of the Berber languages, is still spoken in the area by around 21,000 people. Their ancient Egyptian neighbors referred to the various Libyan tribes as the Temehu, Tehenu, Rebu and Meshwesh.
The oasis in the most feared desert of Egypt | SLICE
Historical Context and Exploration
Following the conquest of the territory by Italy during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-12, the desert became the scene of a two-decade struggle between the Italians and the Senussi starting from 1915, who were centred on the Jebel Akhdar in Cyrenaica and on the Kufra oasis.
During the 1930s the Libyan desert was the scene of exploration and mapping by the Italian Army and Air Force. Others, such as Ralph Bagnold and László Almásy also travelled in south-eastern Libya and southern Egypt, searching for the lost oasis of Zerzura.
During the Second World War the north-eastern desert between El Agheila and the Egyptian border was the scene of heavy fighting between the Axis powers and the Western Allies, a period known as the Western Desert Campaign. The deep desert saw operations by the Italian Auto-Saharan Companies, in combat with the Allied Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and the Free French Régiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais du Tchad (RTST).
The Calanshio Sand Sea is the site of the missing World War II aircraft Lady Be Good.
Jean-Raymond Pacho (1794-1829) was a French explorer who in 1827 published his book (followed by a second atlas volume in 1829) Relation d’un Voyage dans La Marmarique, La Cyrénaïque, et les Oasis d’Audjelah et de Maradèh [Relation of a Journey through Marmarica, Cyrenaica, and the Oases of Audjelah and Maradeh], at Paris. The book was ‘published under the auspices of the Minster of the Interior’, and hence was viewed with considerable official favour. Marmarica is an ancient name for the Mediterranean coastal regions between Cyrene and Egypt.
Locations of springs are carefully mapped along desert routes.
Maps of the Libyan Desert
The Foundation has an original of Pacho’s map of Eastern Libya and Western Egypt, reaching as far as Alexandria and Rosetta in the Egyptian Delta, and extending as far west as the bottom of the eastern side of the Gulf of Sirte. The map includes rare maps of four Libyan oases in considerable detail. The region of the Oasis of Siwa is also shown in detail, under the name of Syouah. Interesting details emerge from this early map, such as an indication of the Mataleb Ruins east of the Oasis of Bahariyah.
Here's a summary of historical maps related to the Libyan Desert:
| Map | Description |
|---|---|
| Pacho’s Map | Map of Eastern Libya and Western Egypt, reaching as far as Alexandria and Rosetta in the Egyptian Delta. Includes rare maps of four Libyan oases in considerable detail. |
| CIA Map of Egypt | A color map of Egypt drawn and engraved by I. Dower. |
| Méhier de Mathuisieulx’s Map | Map of his travels round Libya, late 19th century. |
| Leake’s Map of the Nile | Reproduction of Leakes’ map of the Nile by Giovanni Belzoni, 1821. |
Ancient Greek division of the world, showing Libya as the region west of the Nile River.
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