The Sahara desert is the largest desert on earth. It covers over 9,000,000 kilometers squared. The countries Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Chad, Niger and Mali have at least some land within the Sahara Desert. These countries collectively harbor the 1.5 million people that live in the Sahara desert. Primarily, the Sahrawis (with roughly 750,000 people) and the Tuareg (with around 500,000 people). The largest city is Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, in which live around 600,000 people. All of these people eat from the fewer than 200,000 square kilometers of oases, where vegetation can successfully grow. Up to 1/4 of the Sahara is mountainous, containing the mountain ranges are the Hajjar Mountains in Algeria, Aïr/Azbine in Niger, and the Tibesti in Chad.