The Sea of Sand: In ancient times, Egypt and Kush did very little trade with West Africa. They had heard that West Africa had wonderful things – gold, salt, ivory.  They knew that West Africa needed iron. They wanted to trade with West Africa, but the Sahara Desert was in the way. 

The Sahara Desert is huge! Can you imagine a desert that stretches all the way from New York to California? Or one that runs all the way from Maine to Mexico? The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world! 

The Sahara Desert is hot! It's one of the hottest places on earth. During the day, the temperature can be 130 degrees. 

The Sahara Desert is dry! As miserable as you would be from the heat, it’s the dryness that makes it a desert. There is so little water. It hardly ever rains. The Sahara perhaps enjoys three inches of rain a year, and even that is speckled. It might rain in one place and not rain again in the same place for years. It’s no wonder that the Sahara Desert is called the Sea of Sand.

Oasis: An oasis is a wet rest stop. It’s a small section of desert that is fed by underground streams of water. In these tiny sections of the desert, there are green plants and cool water. Even though there are many oases in the Sahara, the Sahara is so big that you might have to travel a day or even weeks to reach one. In the meantime, you are exposed to hot, very hot shifting sand dunes that seem to run forever.

Desert Life: There are many animals and plants in the desert, including poisonous snakes and poisonous spiders. But the Sahara is not a geographically friendly place for humans.  

You can see why people were a bit reluctant to cross the Sahara in search of anything, including trading partners.