Atlas Mountains
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Atlas Mountains (Berber: idurar n Watlas, Template:Lang-ar, Classical Arabic: Daran; Dyrin) is a mountain range across the northwestern stretch of Africa extending about Template:Convert through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of Template:Convert in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert. The population of the Atlas Mountains is mainly Berbers. The terms for 'mountain' in some Berber languages are adrar and adras, believed to be cognate with the toponym.
The mountains have been home to a number of plant and animal species unique in Africa, often more like those of Europe; many of them are endangered and some have already gone extinct. Examples include the Barbary Macaque, the Atlas Bear (Africa's only species of bear; now extinct), the Barbary Leopard, the Barbary stag, Barbary Sheep, the Barbary Lion (extinct in the wild), the Atlas Mountain Badger, the North African Elephant (extinct), the African Aurochs (extinct), Cuvier's Gazelle, the Northern Bald Ibis, Dippers, the Atlas mountain viper, the Atlas Cedar, the European Black Pine, and the Algerian Oak.
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