Cairo to Lagos

Lake Chad is an oasis amid the seemingly endless sands of the Sahara Desert. Here, a vast dust storm (white) blows across the Bodélé Depression towards the lake.

The Chari River is the main feeder river for Lake Chad, providing the lake with 90 percent of its total water.

1860 - Hippos and fishermen on Lake Chad. Though their numbers are decreasing, hippos can still be found in the lake.

The Chari River is the main feeder river for Lake Chad, providing it with 90 percent of its water. It is nearly 950km long.

c. 1930 - 'Papyrus canoe, Lake Chad'. Locals have been fishing in Lake Chad for thousands of years, using traditional papyrus canoes and poles.

The Black Crowned Crane is one of many hundreds of bird species that live around Lake Chad.

Lake Chad extends across the border of four countries, and supports around 30 million people.

This map shows the extent of Lake Mega-Chad (dotted blue line) compared to the current Lake Chad (solid blue). Mega-Chad was the largest of the Sahara's ancient lakes.

1907-08 - 'Buduma Canoe on Lake Chad near Bol'. Reed beds and islands give Lake Chad its unique environment providing homes for hundreds of bird, fish and mammal species.

Fishermen on the Chari River at dusk. The Chari is Lake Chad's main feeder river, drawing water from its 500,000km² watershed.

The Chari River flows into Lake Chad, bringing with it large quantities of fish with hundreds of species.

Crocodiles are another of the large species that inhabit the shallow waters of Lake Chad.

Lake Chad supports huge amounts of wildlife, including hippos.

1907-08 - 'Boat on Lake Chad'. Lake Chad was once deep enough to accommodate large boats such as this, but today only canoes can navigate it.

1969: Fish being dried and sold at Baga on the edge of Lake Chad. Baga was a waterfront town, but now it lies stranded many kilometres from the Lake.

These false-colour satellite images show the shrinkage of Lake Chad between 1973 and 2001. The red and green colours denote vegetation, while blue is water.

Villagers in the Karal Region, just south of Lake Chad, moving to areas where water can be found. As Lake Chad dries up, more people will be forced to move to find water and food.

Villager getting water from a well during a drought in 1984. This drought contributed to the drying up of Lake Chad and its surrounding rivers.

Livestock being taken away from the drought-stricken areas of Karal Region just south of Lake Chad during the drought of 1984, while the lake was at the height of its decline.

This diagram shows the extent of the shrinkage of Lake Chad since 1972. The grey shows the size of the lake before 1972, while the pale blue was the lake in 1987.

1969: Dried snake skins being sold on the waterfront town of Baga. The town now lies many kilometres from the shore of Lake Chad.

Lake Chad from the window of Apollo 17 in 1968 - just five years after it had begun to shrink. The lake is vast compared with its current size, but wrinkles of sand dunes are already visible on its northern shores (left).

1907-08 - 'Native boats'. Fish stocks in the lake have decreased dramatically with the shrinking of the lake. Today, fishermen struggle to make a living on Lake Chad.

1930 - '"Cabbage" on Lake Chad'. As the water level has shrunk, vegetation has taken over its fertile flood plains.

By the end of the 1990s, Lake Chad was mostly covered in vegetation, shown in green. The light brown patch at the bottom is the shallow sheet of water.

As fishing declines in Lake Chad, locals are forced to farm river banks and flood plains. This exacerbates the shrinkage, as many draw water from the lake for irrigation.

Women carry goods from N'Djamena's markets along the Chari River. People come from across the Chad Basin to N'Djamena to buy and sell goods.

1907-08 - 'Kanembu salt boilers'. The Kanembu people are the last descendents of the Kanem-Borno Empire, and are still powerful in Chad today.

Traders carry their wears to market in Ngoury, on the edge of Lake Chad.

Kanembu children in front of their village. The Kanembu live as they have for centuries on the banks of Lake Chad.

A Kanembu woman mills grain in the traditional way near Lake Chad.

A family travel from a Lake Chad town to trade in N'Djamena.

1826 - A body guard of the Sheikh of Borno. The Kanem-Borno were very powerful, controlling most of north Africa until the arrival of the French in the late 19th century.

Women sell fruit and local dishes along the roadside in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad.

1892 - A group of Kanem-Borno warriors. These were the most powerful group in North Africa for more than a thousand years.

1847 - The arrival of the French in West Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led to the retreat of the Kanem-Borno Empire.

The towns around Lake Chad remain much how the have done since the Kanem-Borno era. Buildings around Lake Chad are made with mud bricks like these.

1907-08 - 'Archipelago, oxen crossing lagoon'. Trading in livestock has been going on around Lake Chad for thousands of years.

Carts laden with charcoal ready to be sold at the markets in N'Djamena.

c. 1897 - A caravan passes through a small town en route to Lake Chad. The Kanem-Borno were known for their trade caravans, often trading with Egypt.

1907-08 - 'Kanembu girl at N'Gouri'. The Kanembu are direct descendents of the Kanem-Borno Empire, numbering more than 655,000 on the northern shores of Lake Chad.

Women sell their pots on the roadsides in N'Djamena. This city is the trading hub of Lake Chad at the centre of cotton, fishing and cattle industries.

Traders sell precious fresh water at the roadside in N'Djamena.