Karoo were very large and the family group moved from one part to the other. Their only domestic animals were dogs. The Bantu people to the east of the Great Karoo did not occupy this arid region due to the scarce rainfall which prevented the farming of cattle. In 1854, Daniel Halladay invented the multibladed windpump (windmill) in the USA. It was perfected in 1883, and soon South Africa (and elsewhere) produced them in large numbers. These windpumps transformed the Great Karoo, making permanent settlement and stock farming (predominantly sheep) possible over large parts of the Karoo for the first time.
Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert of mangroves at Khor Kalba Nature Reserve on the Gulf of Oman in the UAE near the border with Oman. Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert The Gulf of Oman desert and semi-desert is a coastal ecoregion on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman in Oman and the United Arab Emirates at the northeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The climate is hot and dry; the ecoregion contains a mixture of habitats including mangrove swamps, lagoons and mudflats on the coast, and gravelly plains and savanna with thorny acacia trees inland. The mangrove areas are dominated by "Avicennia