Ninva Desert

Erg Awakar in central Ninva

The Ninva Desert, also known as the Great Scipian Desert or simply the Great Desert, is a desert covering the center of the continent of Scipia. It is the largest hot desert in the world, spanning large portions of several countries including the State of the Ninva and Talahara, as well as parts of M'biruna, Kembesa, Fahran, Alanahr, Tyreseia, Talakh, and southern Yisrael. The geographic extent of the desert is disputed by some sources, but is generally defined as the contiguous desert region across the center of Scipian continent. The desert covers a significant portion of the Scipian interior, bounded in the north by the fertile coastal plains along the Periclean, in the east by the spine of highlands in Alanahr, Fahran and M'Biruna, and to the south by the southern Ninvite grasslands abutting the Agala highlands. The Ninva features numerous mountain ranges and landforms which divide it into several regions and have been used historically and in the present to demarcate national borders spanning the often desolate expanse. Major regions within the Ninva include the Ramlat Abu al-Dhiyb Desert in Fahran, the Zahra Desert in eastern Ninva and the Tenere Desert in central and western Ninva. Due to the Ninva's geographic expanse, it borders and encompasses the homelands of many diverse peoples and cultures. Generally, however, the western Ninva is home to predominantly Amaziɣ cultures while the eastern regions are inhabited primarily by Gharbaic peoples.

Geography

The Ninva desert constitutes a massive geographical barrier consisting of millions of square kilometers of hyperarid desert. It consists of ergs or "dune seas" covered by an expanse of shifting sand dunes, as well as regions of rocky regs consisting of exposed rock and gravel where lighter sand grains have been blown away through aeolian processes. These flat plains are interupted by mountain ranges such as the Adjer mountains in eastern Ninva. Mountains in the Ninva are typically older volcanic formations, subject to significant erosion over time. In many areas, parts of these protrusions from the desert landscape have been eroded to almost nothing, leaving behind ventifacts (wind carved rock formations) of various sizes. The lack of vegetation and heavily eroded surface leaves underlying rock formations exposed, such as the Zana crater left behind by a major asteroid impact more than 100 million years ago. The Ninva fluctuates between desert and grassland over a 25,000 years cycle, and was the site of several major rivers and other bodies of fresh water as recently as 7,000 years ago. This history has left many landforms hinting at the past presence of water, such as alluvial fans, dry lakes such what is now the South Awakar Basin, and canyons some of which still play host to ephemeral rivers and streams fed by springs. Such springs also allow the formation of oases, which sustain plant and animal life in the desert and have historically served as important centers of human habitation in the Ninva.