physiographic region of the Sahara extending from northeastern Niger into western Chad. Comprising the northwestern part of the Central Sudan depression, this vast level plain of sand extends over approximately 154,440 square miles (400,000 square km). It is bounded by the Aïr massif (west), the Ahaggar (Hoggar) mountains (northwest), the Djado Plateau (northeast), the Tibesti mountains (east), and the Lake Chad basin (south). Ténéré is one of the most forbidding regions of the Sahara, with an extremely hot and dry climate and virtually no plant life. Vast expanses of sand and sand dunes in the southeast are known as ergs (erg), and the gravel-covered plains of the northwest are called regs. Bilma oasis, near the centre of the Ténéré, has maximum and minimum July temperatures (summer average) of 108° F (42° C) and 75° F (24° C). Hot, dusty east or northeast winds (the harmattan) blow across the Ténéré generally year-round; irregular annual rainfall is about 1 inch (25 mm). Often there are no wells in the area for hundreds of miles.

Fossils confirm that this arid desert was, in the Late Carboniferous Period (320 to 286 million years ago), a seafloor and later became a humid tropical forest. Middle Paleolithic (about 60,000 BC) human habitation is indicated in this region by flint axes, arrowheads, and stone artifacts; rock engravings and rock pictures of animals are indicative of Neolithic (8,000–5,000 BC) inhabitants. The Tuareg and Teda nomads who frequent the Ténéré use sand dunes as landmarks. The addax, a rare desert antelope, survives in the Ténéré.