The “Eye of the Sahara” — also known as the “Eye of Africa” or the Richat structure — is a giant rock dome, carved with concentric rings, that looks like a giant bullseye when seen from above. The eye is visible from space and has been known to astronauts and scientists since the earliest crewed missions in the 1950s, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Estimates of the Eye of the Sahara’s dimensions range from 25 to 31 miles (40 to 50 kilometers) in diameter. The eye forms a near-perfect circle in the desert of Mauritania, which initially led scientists to think it was an impact structure from a meteor. However, subsequent research found the dome was shaped by tectonic uplift during the Cretaceous period (between 145 and 66 million years ago) and laid bare through erosion.
The Eye of the Sahara stands out like an oversized ammonite among an immense sea of sand known as the Erg Oudane, which stretches roughly 350 miles (560 km) east to Mali. Ergs are areas of desert that span at least 48 square miles (125 square kilometers) and feature wind-swept sands with little to no vegetation. The eye towers about 660 feet (200 meters) above the surrounding sands, which rise against its southern edge and occasionally obscure parts of the structure in photographs, according to ESA.
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