Nubian Desert

• Category: Desert Biomes.
• Geographic Location: Africa.
• Summary: This large desert, once home to much wildlife, has a small amount of flora and fauna striving to survive.

The Nubian Desert covers some 154,441 square miles (400,000 square kilometers) of the eastern Sahara Desert. It has extremely limited rainfall and very few permanent water sources. In northeastern Sudan and southern Egypt, it is a very arid region, made up largely of sandstone plateaus and wadis, or seasonal streams, that flow toward the Nile River during some wet periods.

In spite of this seemingly very hostile environment, it is clear that there were many animals and plants in the region in ancient times, and it seems probable that the environment must have been different, probably more akin to the savanna areas of central Sudan. As such, the transformation of the landscape and the ecosystems in the Nubian Desert may be an ominous portent of what can happen in an environment after the destruction of the flora and fauna of a region.

Ancient Settlement

Reliefs on temples at Thebes in Egypt show Nubians bringing tribute of ivory, skins, fruit, fish, and amulets. The Egyptians of the First Dynasty (2920 to 2770 BCE) regarded Nubia as important; they were involved in fighting there for more than 1,000 years as they sought to control it and exploit its resources, which included ivory, ebony, gum resins from trees, cattle, dogs, and a range of exotic animals. A scene in the Temple of Beit el-Wali in Nubia, dating from the reign of Ramses II (1279 to 1213 BCE), shows tribute including ebony logs, elephant tusks, ostrich eggs, feathers, and live animals: a giraffe, a gazelle, a leopard, and some monkeys. Some of the Nubians are shown wearing leopard skins as loincloths.

Nubia was also a source of amethyst and copper for ancient Egypt. Soon, it became vital when significant deposits of gold were found there; the gold from Nubia was shown on a wall painting in the tomb of Treasurer Sebekhotep at Thebes.

It has been suggested that the importance of copper and gold to ancient Egypt may have been the cause of the overexploitation of the region. To maintain their civilizations in ancient times, the Egyptians and Nubians would have needed access to wood for housing and for the construction of mines. Nubia was a source of some precious woods that are no longer found there. Coupled with the decline in the number of trees, the gradual degradation of agricultural land would have contributed to the destruction of the environment.

Ancient Biodiversity

One tree species that has survived since ancient times is the date palm Medemia argun, found only in Egypt and Sudan, and listed as critically endangered. Dried dates from these palm trees found in tombs in ancient Egypt suggest that the dates were delicacies brought from Nubia to Egypt in ancient times, under environmental conditions that no longer exist.

The loss of the trees in Nubia may have led to the gradual destruction of the ancient ecosystem and also its civilization there. Although giraffes were there as late as medieval times, there are none in the Nubian Desert. Many giraffes, however, feed on acacia trees, which grow to the south and west of the Nubian Desert biome.

Two other species that were known to be in Nubia are no longer there. One of these is the Nubian lion. The Barbary lion is believed to have become extinct in the wild in the early twentieth century, although the exact period remains uncertain. Also originally found in the Nubian Desert was the Nubian bustard (Neotis nuba). Its habitat is the Sahelian Acacia savanna, in the grasslands south of the desert and in countries to the west of Sudan. Even in its new environment, it has been affected by hunting and overgrazing of its habitat.

Current Biodiversity

Wildlife ekes out a precarious existence in the Nubian Desert. Animals have historically shifted southward as the desert has become steadily more hostile. Several mammals inhabit parts of the Nubian Desert and surrounding regions, including antelope, Barbary sheep, Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), and some species of monkeys.

Also in the desert are a range of small lizards, and the Nubian flapshell turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans), found in parts of northeastern and central Africa, which is classified as Critically Endangered. There are also some insects, including a range of butterflies.

Effects of Human Activity

The transformation of the landscape by humankind continued in the twentieth century, with the construction of the Aswan Low Dam in 1902 and the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s.

These projects resulted in the need to move many ancient monuments and sites, including the famous Great Temple at Abu Simbel and the temple of Beit el-Wali. The moves transformed the nearby landscape, allowing more land to be used for cultivation.

There were many other environmental changes, one of the first being the reduction in river sediment, which led to an increase in aquatic weeds and a decline in fish further down the Nile. These changes, however, affected only the area of the desert in the immediate vicinity of the river; the rest of the desert remained desperately parched. Climate change impacts on this harsh desert environment may reduce rainfall further, something which the remaining flora and fauna living in the Nubian Desert can ill afford. Conservation efforts in the region are focused primarily on some of the threatened species that dwell in the region, such as the Nubian ibex, which is classified as vulnerable, with conservation efforts focusing on habitat protection and reducing hunting pressures.

Bibliography

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Friedman, Renée, editor. Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Desert. British Museum Press, 2002.

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