The Sahara' by Michael Laniyan

“THE SAHARA”.

An ancient citadel of isolation, “the Sahara”, named the world’s vastest tropical desert known to man. It’s very physiognomies seem to combine against life, yet its menacing attributes belies hidden secrets that even deserts hold water, thus life, the Sahara stretches from the west coast to the east across the entire length of the northern part of the African continent. Africa’s nomadic tribes have dwelled in the deserts for ages embracing change and continue to do so even as the topography of the landscape is being added to and subtracted from. With every land, arid or not comes customs, myths and conflicting histories passed down from one generation to another most times. Sahara Desert, a hostile and less known region stretches from the Atlantic coastal desert region to the lower point of the Eritrean coastal desert close to the Gulf of Aden to its highest point at the eastern desert bordering the Sinai by the red sea. From the Atlantic coast in the west this arid landscape boasts of reddish rock steep mountains and sand dunes, the western Sahara stretches for 3,000 miles to the eastern Sahara, volcanic eruptions left behind solidified black coloured rocks that rises into the heavens.

Views of a chains of gigantic red dunes and an array of endless mystically shaped red rocks and clusters of solid black rock mountains dominate the landscape, demanding the traveller’s minds consider seriously their undertaking that is as bizarre as the land formations unveiling, giving credence to a hail of legend, and myths with superstitious mysteries. The fractured red soil, solid at the outer rings of the desert before giving way to simmering sandy terrain, and hostile sand storms with a merciless sun overhead. Only the valiant venture into such unreceptive habitat, despite the occasional remembrance of life by a darting lizard that soon disappears into the boiling sand it emerged from. How does one draw a written observation of such an unwilling land and to what purpose? Nomadic natives never venture beyond certain points guided by invincible myths and legends, and for the exploring spirit the strange high pitch howling sounds of varying ghostly ancient tales serves as a caution to such souls who travel beyond the last clusters of makeshift huts dwellers with malnourished herds and a few camels for possession.

The pitiless heat emanating from centuries of baked layers of red soil rises with puffs of eerie doubt in the traveller’s mind as one journeys deeper into the unknown and unfriendly landscape of red and black Rocky Mountains with incredible shapes that suggest they were moulded into shape by mystical hands with centuries of magical prowess, impresses upon the traveller through the fiery air available to breathe in the African Sahara. A few kilometres into the unknown and mirages of water pools seem to appear out of nowhere re-enacting centuries of legendary illusions on the unwearied, as mirages of distant dwellers appear and quickly disappear as the distance is breached through sheer will and an insatiable desire to account for one of the world’s most inhospitable land mass. The clear skies array’s scanty small light clouds speeding along in a hurry made obvious by the fleeting shadows they momentarily cast on the desert floor, occasional darts by heat shy reptiles across the blistering surface compounds the doubt in the mind of the weary tourist.

The Sahara is no walk in the park, gruelling thousands of miles without trees, then the mindboggling few are so scorched they offer no respite to anyone in a prevailing scorching sandstorm that changes direction at will shaping new and reshaping old observations, imposing upon the traveller an illusionary landscape. This characteristic of the prevailing windy storm renders the hope of an artist hopeless, for no sooner did one note an observation that at the next gust it is altered. Distinguishing dominant landscapes that aren’t susceptible to modern layering from disappearing ones or rather the easily altered. Hostilities prevalent here defies conditions essential for human existence, our camel’s grunts increased with their burden of equipment taking its toll, inflicting pains in leg muscles trekking slowly become unbearable, so our native guide suggest we pitch our tent for the night. The howling of the wind increased bringing with harrowing promises of ancient wraths,