Cyclists crossing hamada, approaching Erg Chebbi sand dunes, Morocco

A hamada (Arabic, حمادة ḥammāda) is a type of desert landscape consisting of largely barren, hard, rocky plateaus, with very little sand.^[1] A hamada may sometimes also be called a reg, though this more properly refers to a stony plain rather than a highland.^[2]

Hamadas exist in contrast to ergs, which are large areas of shifting sand dunes.^[3]

The world's largest hamada is the Hamada du Draa^{citation needed}, in the north-west Sahara desert, between Morocco, Algeria and Western Sahara. Hamada areas forms 70% of the Sahara desert.^{citation needed}

References

McKnight, Tom L. and Darrel Hess. Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation, 8th ed., pp. 495-6. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 2005. (ISBN 0-13-145139-1)

1. ^ Geological dictionary, definition of a hamada.
2. ^ Geological dictionary, definition of reg.
3. ^ Geological dictionary, definition of erg.

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