A
hamada (
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
, حمادة
ḥammāda) is a type of
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
landscape consisting of largely barren, hard, rocky plateaus, with very little
sandSand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain...
. A hamada may sometimes also be called a
reg (pronounced "rej"), though this more properly refers to a stony plain rather than a highland.
Hamadas exist in contrast to
ergsAn erg is a large, relatively flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover. The term takes its name from the Arabic word erg , meaning "dune field"...
, which are large areas of shifting sand dunes.
The world's largest hamada is the
Hamada du DraaThe Draa is Morocco's longest river . It is formed by the confluence of the Dadès River and Imini River. It flows from the High Atlas mountains south-ward to Tagounit and from Tagounit mostly westwards to the Atlantic Ocean somewhat north of Tan-Tan...
, in the northwest Sahara desert, between
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
,
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
and
Western SaharaWestern Sahara is a territory of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of...
.
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A
hamada (
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
, حمادة
ḥammāda) is a type of
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
landscape consisting of largely barren, hard, rocky plateaus, with very little
sandSand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain...
. A hamada may sometimes also be called a
reg (pronounced "rej"), though this more properly refers to a stony plain rather than a highland.
Hamadas exist in contrast to
ergsAn erg is a large, relatively flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover. The term takes its name from the Arabic word erg , meaning "dune field"...
, which are large areas of shifting sand dunes.
The world's largest hamada is the
Hamada du DraaThe Draa is Morocco's longest river . It is formed by the confluence of the Dadès River and Imini River. It flows from the High Atlas mountains south-ward to Tagounit and from Tagounit mostly westwards to the Atlantic Ocean somewhat north of Tan-Tan...
, in the northwest Sahara desert, between
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
,
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country located in North Africa. It is the largest country on the Mediterranean sea, the second largest on the African continent and the eleventh-largest country in the world in terms of land area.It is bordered by Tunisia in...
and
Western SaharaWestern Sahara is a territory of North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly consisting of...
. Hamada areas form 70% of the Sahara desert.