Melrhir

(also Chott Melrhir), a salt lake (sebkha) in the eastern Algerian Sahara, the largest in Algeria. Area, 6,700 sq km. It is situated in the center of an internal drainage basin, in a depression whose bottom is 26 m below sea level. During the rainy season (winter), it fills with water from temporary streams flowing from the Aures Mountains and the Saharan Atlas. During the dry season it dries up and turns into a salt marsh.