Ténéré
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The Ténéré is a desert region in the south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger into western Chad, occupying an area of over 154,440 square miles (400,000 km²). Its boundaries are conventionally said to be the Aïr Mountains in the west, the Ahaggar Mountains in the north, the Djado Plateau in the northeast, the Tibesti Mountains in the east and the basin of Lake Chad in the south. The central part of the desert, the Erg du Ténéré, is located at approximately .
The name Ténéré comes from the Tuareg language meaning literally "desert", in much the same way that the Arabic word for "desert", sahara, came to be applied to the region as a whole.
The Ténéré is arid, with an extremely hot and dry climate and virtually no plant life. Temperatures reach as high as 42 °C (108 °F) in the summer, with little more than 25 mm (1 in) of rain annually. Water is notoriously difficult to find, even underground, and wells may be hundreds of miles apart.
The region was not always a desert. During the prehistoric Carboniferous period it was a sea floor and later a tropical forest. A major dinosaur cemetery lies at its western edge; many fossils have been found there, having eroded out from the ground. An almost complete specimen of the crocodile-like reptile Sarcosuchus imperator, nicknamed the SuperCroc, was discovered there by paleontologists.
The desert is also known for the celebrated Tree of Ténéré, once the most remote in the world. The tree was accidentally demolished in 1973 when it was hit by a truck driver, despite being the only tree for several hundred kilometres, and it was replaced by a metal sculpture. Despite this unfortunate mishap, the tree is still often indicated on maps of the region as a notable landmark.
[edit] Population
The Ténéré is very sparsely populated. During early human history, it was a fertile land much more congenial to human life than it is now. The region was inhabited by modern humans as long ago as the Paleolithic period some 60,000 years ago. They hunted wild animals and left evidence of their presence in the form of stone tools. During the Neolithic period about 10,000 years ago, ancient hunters created rock engravings and paintings that can still be found across the region. The human population dwindled as the Sahara dried out, and by 2500 BC it had largely become as dry as it is today.
The modern inhabitants of the Ténéré are largely Tuareg of Ayr and Azawagh. Three Tuareg federations, Kel Ayr, Iwillimidan Kel Denneg and Kel Gres ruled the area until the arrival of the French colonial army, which occupied the land. Other ethnic groups dwelling in the Ténéré are the Hausa, Songhay, Wodaabe, the Moors, and Tebu.
In 1960 the Tuareg territory become part of the independent republic of Niger. It has been divided between seven départments. The central part of the Ténéré is a protected area, under the auspices of the Aïr and Ténéré Natural Reserve.
The "capital" of the Ténéré is the town of Agadez, in the shadow of the Aïr Mountains. There are also various oasis settlements based on salt mining.
Major cities and villages of Ténéré:
