# Great Sand Sea > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Great_Sand_Sea > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Great_Sand_Sea.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sand_Sea > Source revision: 1343586162 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Desert in Egypt and Libya Great Sand Sea بحر الرمال العظيم Desert The dunes of the Great Sand Sea near Siwa, Egypt Map of the topographic features of the Sahara Great Sand Sea Coordinates: 26°54′0″N 26°2′0″E / 26.90000°N 26.03333°E / 26.90000; 26.03333 Country Egypt and Libya Area • Total 72,000 km2 (28,000 sq mi) Elevation 100 m (330 ft) Stony area of the Great Sand Sea. Dune pattern in the Great Sand Sea, Egypt. [NASA Earth Observatory](/source/NASA_Earth_Observatory). The **Great Sand Sea** is an approximately 72,000 km2 (28,000 mi2) [sand desert (erg)](/source/Erg_(landform)) in the [Sahara](/source/Sahara) that stretches from western [Egypt](/source/Egypt) to eastern [Libya](/source/Libya), in [North Africa](/source/North_Africa). Most of the area is covered by sand [dunes](/source/Dune).[1] ## Geography The Great Sand Sea stretches about 650 km (400 mi) from north to south and 300 km (190 mi) from east to west. On satellite images, this desert shows a pattern of long sand ridges running in a roughly north-south direction. However, despite the apparent uniformity, the Great Sand Sea has two large areas with different types of megadunes.[1] The Egyptian sand sea lies parallel to the [Calanshio Sand Sea](/source/Calanshio_Sand_Sea) of [Libya](/source/Libya), with which it is contiguous in the north. The [dunes](/source/Dune) of the Great Sand Sea cover about 10% of the total area of the Egyptian [Western Desert](/source/Western_Desert_(Egypt)). [Siwa](/source/Siwa_Oasis) is an [oasis](/source/Oasis) located in Egypt, about 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan [border](/source/Egypt%E2%80%93Libya_border), in the eastern part of the Great Sand Sea or Egyptian Sand Sea. Although well-known to the [Tuareg](/source/Tuareg_people) and traders who traveled with [caravans](/source/Caravan_(travellers)) across the [Sahara](/source/Sahara), [Friedrich Gerhard Rohlfs](/source/Friedrich_Gerhard_Rohlfs) was the first European to document the Great Sand Sea. He began his Saharan expeditions in 1865, and named the great expanse of dunes the *Große Sandmeer* (Great Sand Sea), but it was not until 1924 with the maps of Egyptian courtier [Ahmed Hassanein](/source/Ahmed_Hassanein) that the full scope of the Great Sand Sea was appreciated by Europeans.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] ## In popular culture - In the 2017 Ubisoft game *[Assassin's Creed Origins](/source/Assassin's_Creed_Origins)*, the Great Sand Sea is featured as one of the [nomes](/source/Nome_(Egypt)), or regions. ## See also - [Great Sand Sea Glass](/source/Libyan_desert_glass) – Desert glass found in Libya and Egypt - [Libyan Desert](/source/Libyan_Desert) – North-eastern part of the Sahara Desert - [Sahara](/source/Sahara) – Desert on the African continent ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Besler_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Besler_1-1) Besler, Helga (2008) *The Great Sand Sea in Egypt: Formation, Dynamics and Environmental Change: A Sediment-Analytical Approach* Elsevier, Amsterdam, [page 1 - 3](https://books.google.com/books?id=N25fU_qdrv8C&pg=PA1), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-444-52941-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-444-52941-1) ## External links - Media related to [Great Sand Sea](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Great_Sand_Sea) at Wikimedia Commons - [Egypt Travel - The Great Sand Sea](https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223650/http://www.egypt.travel/attraction/index/safari-into-the-great-sand-sea) - [Desert Geomorphology](https://books.google.com/books?id=WOcUNbRUGtwC&pg=PA403) - [The Great Sand Sea - Rough Guides](http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/africa/egypt/western-desert-oases/great-sand-sea/) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160203211629/http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/africa/egypt/western-desert-oases/great-sand-sea/) 2016-02-03 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) [29°30′N 21°45′E / 29.500°N 21.750°E / 29.500; 21.750](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Great_Sand_Sea¶ms=29_30_N_21_45_E_region:MR_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki) This geography of Egypt article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Egypt-geo-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AEgypt-geo-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Egypt-geo-stub) This Libya location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Libya-geo-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3ALibya-geo-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Libya-geo-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Great Sand Sea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sand_Sea) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sand_Sea?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.