Grand Erg Occidental The mean elevation of the Grand Erg Occidental is about 500 m, on average higher than the elevation of the Grand Erg Oriental, but not as high as the neighboring Tademaït to the southwest. This desolate region is a practically uninhabited area; there are no permanent villages and there are no roads crossing it. Grand Erg Occidental The Grand Erg Occidental (, al-ʿIrq al-Gharbī al-Kabīr), (also known as the Western Sand Sea) is the second largest erg in northern Algeria after the Grand Erg Oriental. It covers an area of approximately . The sand dunes in the erg are formed
Geography of Algeria Geography of Algeria Algeria comprises 2,381,741 square kilometers of land, more than four-fifths of which is desert, in northern Africa, between Morocco and Tunisia. It is the largest country in Africa. Its Arabic name, Al Jazair (the islands), derives from the name of the capital Algiers ("Al Jazair" in Arabic), after the small islands formerly found in its harbor. It has a long Mediterranean coastline, most of which is more properly termed the Alboran Sea, which is the westernmost element of the Mediterranean Sea. The northern portion, an area of mountains, valleys, and plateaus between the Mediterranean Sea and the