English: Egypt’s Western Desert is dry, which is not surprising; it is, after all, a desert. But this part of the eastern Sahara (west of the Nile River) is so dry—receiving just centimeters of rainfall per year—that researchers describe it as “hyper-arid.” As such, it seems unlikely that much would grow there.

Greenery, however, has been cropping up in the area in recent decades. On February 26, 2017, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured these natural-color images of East Oweinat, one of Egypt’s land reclamation projects aimed at making some desert areas suitable for agriculture.

Read more: go.nasa.gov/2Exzc6s

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory NASA image use policy.

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