The Sahel

This is a geographic region of Africa that separates the deserts of the north with the jungles of the south.

It’s a horizontal band, several hundred miles from north to south, that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Senegal and Mauritania in the west, all the way to Eritrea, Djibouti, and Ethiopia on the coast of the Red Sea in the east.

This is not an official, governed area or country. It’s simply an informal designation for the region where the African climate and biodiversity changes. Area above The Sahel is often referred to as “North Africa” and is dominated by the Sahara Desert.

The etymology is disputed. It’s from Arabic, and could mean either “coast” or “plain.”