Cairo to Lagos

One of the 'sand seas' in the Libyan Desert.

Pivot irrigation systems from ground level stretching across the desert floor.

A model of the underground reservoirs in the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System.

The spectacular geometric pattern and colour of the pivot irrigation fields.

The Libyan Desert. Nearly 90% of the country is covered in desert.

There are eight oases in the Libyan desert, of which Kufra is one.

A pivot irrigation barley field in the desert.

The grey cluster on the left are the cities of Kufra and Al Jawf. On the right are the circular pivot irrigation fields.

The hexagonal fields were the first kind of planned agriculture in Kufra, later taken over by the more effective pivot irrigation circles.

Pivot irrigation creates circular fields up to a kilometre in diameter.

The geometric fields are a product of farmers utilising the ground water to cultivate fields.

Water from the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System allows oases to grow in the desert.

Rocks in the Great Sand Sea, near Kufra.

Colonel Gaddafi called the Great Man-Made River Project the 'eighth wonder of the world'.

Already, oasis lakes are drying up from the water being drained from the underground aquifers.

Sections of the pipeline ready to be laid as part of the Great Man-Made River Project, which brings fresh water from desert aquifers to the cities.

A water tower in Tripoli. The Great Man-Made River Project now provides water to Libya's cities, improving living conditions for residents.

A section of pipeline used as a tourist attraction.

Construction work on the project began in the late 1980s and still continues today.

Libya, Egypt, Chad and Sudan all share the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer, but Libya is the only country with the resources to tap it extensively. The yellow shows the extent of the aquifer.

Before the Great Man-Made River Project water was taken from the aquifers by pumping stations in the desert such as this.

The Great Man-Made River Project provides water for this fountain on Tripoli's waterfront.

1988 - Some of the first sections of pipeline waiting to be laid.

1988 - Lorries transporting some of the first sections of pipeline.

An oasis amongst the dunes is quickly drying up, due to water being removed from the underground aquifers.

Huge pipes for use in Libya's Man-Made River Project, bringing water to the desert.

Most of the desert has no roads - trucks drive straight through the sand.

Sand dunes in the Rebiana Sand Sea.

Tyre prints mark the routes through the barren desert.

Migrants face weeks on the back of these trucks, exposed to the elements with little food or water.

The desert roads remain unmarked for thousands of miles through Libya.

Sometimes migrants fall out of trucks and are left to fend for themselves in the middle of the desert, thousands of miles from the nearest town or oasis.

One of the few roads in the desert, leading into Tripoli.

A motorcycle is often an easier way to travel through the desert than by truck.

Rest stops are rare for migrants on the journey through the desert.

A road cutting through the featureless landscape of Libya's desert.

Eritrean refugees boarding trucks ready for a long journey across the desert.

Migrants travel through Sudan or Egypt on the back of trucks to Kufra, the first stop in Libya before continuing on to Tripoli or Benghazi.

It can take weeks to drive 1,500 km through the desert from Kufra to the coast.