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Mountains & Deserts. Ethiopia – Atlas Mountains – Musandam (Oman)

When people talk about mountains, they usually think of the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, the Andes, or the Himalayas. What many of them do not know is that there are impressive mountains – many of them really high – in other parts of the world, often situated in deserts or by the sea.

The Simien Mountains and the Gheralta Mountains in northern Ethiopia, for instance, consist of more than 4,000-meter-high plateaus separated by rugged valley cuts. Being of volcanic origin, they often feature bizarre, needle-shaped pinnacles. On the lee side (the downwind side) of the mountains lies the Nubian Desert.

The Atlas Mountains, ranging from Morocco via Algeria to Tunisia, also act as a shield for a desert, separating the Sahara from the Mediterranean Sea. The Atlas mountain range consists of fold mountains that were formed in part by the same event as the Alps and the Pyrenees. Gigantic granite and basalt boulders make up massive, snow-covered mountain ranges.

The mountains in Musandam, an Omani exclave at the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, are exceptional in their own right, featuring craggy mountains up to 2,100 meters high falling away sharply toward the sea; sedimentary rocks carrying the traces of oceans past.


Curator: Richard Piock (TAP)