- published: 12 Oct 2014
- views: 181594
The Ténéré (Berber: Tiniri, literally: desert, wilderness) 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 said to be the Aïr Mountains in the west, the Hoggar 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 Bilma, is centered at approximately 17°35′N 10°55′E / 17.583°N 10.917°E / 17.583; 10.917.
The name Ténéré comes from the Tuareg language, meaning "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.