It is separated from the southern Sahara Desert by the Tibesti Mountains and the Tassili n'Ajjer.

The “Draa” dunes (from the Arabic for “arm”) are very large masses of sand in the western part of Libya's vast Murzuq Desert, and they appear in satellite images as a broad network of yellow-orange sand masses, with smooth-floored, almost sand-free basins between them.

The draa are almost stationary, but the smaller dunes move relatively quickly across their backs.

When the smaller dunes reach the downwind side of the draa, they are obliterated; their sand is blown across the basins as individual grains.

Two of the fields are considered giants, and altogether there are more than 2 billion barrels of oil in reserves under the desert there.