Sahel

The Sahel (from Arabic ساحل, sahil, shore, border or coast of the Sahara desert) is the boundary zone in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the more fertile region to the south, known as the Sudan (not to be confused with the country of the same name).

The Sahel is primarily savanna and runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Horn of Africa, changing from semi-arid grasslands to thorn savanna. Over the history of Africa the region has been home to some of the most advanced kingdoms benefiting from trade across the desert. Collectively these states are known as the Sahelian kingdoms.

For centuries, the Sahel boasted some of Africa's most influential civilizations. Anarrow band of semi-arid land south of the Sahara, the Sahel attracted both Arabs looking for gold from Sudan and Europeans looking for slaves from West Africa. The two influences merged with native ones, creating a culturally complex area. The Sahel is widely French-speaking, Islamic and takes its name ("shore") from Arabic.

The climate of the Sahel area is typically an arid and unstable environment. This is a most problematic environmental zone because it is hard to operate agriculture with very little precipitation. The Sahel area is a predominately sparse savanna vegetation of grasses and shrubs. It only receives between four and eight inches of rainfall a year, which is slowly decreasing. The rainfall that it does receive falls mostly between the months of June and September.