The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion, located in the north west of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of 284,993 square kilometres; the Gibson Desert lies to the south and the Tanami Desert lies to the east of the Great Sandy Desert. The Great Sandy Desert contains large ergs consisting of longitudinal dunes. In the north east of the desert there is the Wolfe Creek crater; the region is sparsely populated. The main populations consist of mining centres; the aboriginal people of the desert fall into two main groups, the Martu in the west and the Pintupi in the east. Linguistically, they are speakers of multiple Western Desert languages. Many of these indigenous people were forcibly removed from their lands during the 20th century and relocated to settlements such as Papunya in the Northern Territory. In recent years, some of the original inhabitants have returned.

Young indigenous adults from the Great Sandy Desert region travel to and work in the Wilurarra Creative programs to maintain and develop their culture. Rainfall is low throughout the coast and far north and is seasonal. Areas near the Kimberley have an average rainfall, patchy. Many drought years end with tropical cyclone. Like many of Australia's deserts, rainfall is high by desert standards, with the driest parts recording falls little below 250 mm. A massive evaporation rate makes up for the higher than normal desert rainfall; this region is one. All rain comes from monsoon thunderstorms or the occasional tropical cyclone rain depression. On average for most of the area, there are about 20 -- 30 days. However, in the north bordering the Kimberley, 30-40 per year is the average. Summer daytime temperatures are some of the hottest in Australia; the range on the northern border near the Kimberley at Halls Creek is around 37 to 38 °C, but this would be indicative of the low end of the range. Regions further south average 38 to 42 °C except.

Several people have died in this region. Winters are warm. Frost does not occur in most of the area; the regions bordering the Gibson Desert in the far southeast may record a light frost or two every year. Away from the coast winter nights can still be chilly in comparison to the warm days. Indigenous art is a huge industry in central Australia. Mines, most the Telfer Gold Mine and Nifty Copper Mine, cattle stations are found in the far west. Telfer is one of the largest gold mines in Australia; the undeveloped Kintyre uranium deposit lies south of Telfer. The vegetation of the Great Sandy Desert is dominated by spinifex. Animals in the region include feral camels, dingoes and numerous species of lizards and birds. Other animal inhabitants include bilbies, marsupial moles, rufous hare-wallabies, thorny devils, bearded dragons, red kangaroos; some of the bird-life found within the desert include the rare Alexandra's parrot, the mulga parrot and the scarlet-chested parrot. Deserts of Australia List of deserts by area Carnegie expedition of 1896 Burbidge, A. A..

Wildlife of the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. Perth, W. A.: Western Australian Wildlife Research Centre Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife. ISBN 0-7244-9307-7. Thackway, R.. D.. An interim biogeographic regionalisation for Australia: a framework for setting priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program. Version 4.0. Canberra: Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Reserve Systems Unit. ISBN 0-642-21371-2. Media related to Great Sandy Desert at Wikimedia Commons

In the Battle of Lake Huleh on 2 September 1771, the rebel forces of Zahir al-Umar and Nasif al-Nassar routed the army of Uthman Pasha al-Kurji, the Ottoman governor of Damascus, at Lake Huleh in the eastern Galilee. Most of Uthman Pasha's 10,000-strong army drowned in the Jordan River as they attempted to flee Zahir's forces commanded by his son Ali al-Zahir. According to historian William Harris, the battle has been "mythologized in local historiography and poetry". Nonetheless, no official account of the battle by the Ottomans was recorded. Starting in the 1740s, the Ottoman-appointed Arab tax-farmer for most of Galilee, Zahir al-Umar, became autonomous and in late 1768 he entered into an alliance with his erstwhile enemy, Sheikh Nasif al-Nassar, the virtual leader of the Shia Muslim clans of Jabal Amil. By Zahir was the de facto ruler over the Sidon Eyalet with the exception of Sidon itself. In 1771 Zahir and Nasif joined forces with Ali Bey al-Kabir of Egypt who dispatched his lieutenants Ismail Bey and Abu al-Dhahab to conquer Ottoman Syria.

The rebel alliance had the backing of the Russian Navy and captured both Sidon and Damascus in early June, driving out their governors, Darwish Pasha al-Kurji and Uthman Pasha al-Kurji and the Druze army of Yusuf Shihab, Emir of Mount Lebanon. Shortly after, the Egyptian forces withdrew from Damascus on 18 June; this action surprised Zahir and Nasif who were left vulnerable to resurgent Ottoman forces in Sidon and they withdrew from that city on 20 June. Upon Uthman Pasha's return to Damascus on 26 June, he launched an expedition to reassert his authority over areas of Palestine that Zahir was left in control of in the aftermath of the Egyptian offensive, his forces recaptured Gaza and Ramla. Uthman Pasha was unable to recapture Jaffa, he returned to Damascus where plans were set in motion to subdue Nasif. A plan was laid out whereby Uthman Pasha would launch an offensive against Zahir's forces in the eastern Galilee and would be supported by his sons Darwish Pasha of Sidon and Muhammad Pasha of Tripoli and more critically, Emir Yusuf Shihab.

Uthman Pasha led his 10,000-strong army, commanded by himself and two viziers from Anatolia sent by the Sublime Porte, across the Jordan River from the east. Uthman Pasha's ostensible intent was not subduing Zahir, but leading the dawrah, the annual tour of miri collection from the villages of the region to fund the Hajj caravan. Zahir and some of his sons, having been notified of Uthman Pasha's large army and entry into Galilee, left their headquarters in Acre on 30 August and were soon joined by Nasif's large cavalry; the combined rebel force advanced toward Tiberias. At dawn on 2 September, the rebels confronted Uthman Pasha's army in the vicinity of Lake Huleh. Emir Yusuf and his Druze forces had not yet arrived to back Uthman Pasha, leaving the latter's forces at a disadvantage. Ali al-Zahir launched an assault against Uthman Pasha's camp, while Zahir's other regiments, including Nasif's cavalry, blocked the area around the camp west of the Jordan River; as Uthman Pasha's army hastily retreated across the river, the overwhelming majority drowned.

Uthman Pasha himself drowned, but was rescued by one of his soldiers. About 300-500 managed to survive and Uthman Pasha returned to Damascus with just three of his troops. Following their victory and Nasif decisively defeated Emir Yusuf's troops at Nabatieh on 20 October, entered Sidon on 23 October after the withdrawal of Darwish Pasha and some 3,000 Druze forces commanded by Ali Jumblatt. On 22 October, Uthman Pasha, Darwish Pasha and Muhammad Pasha were all dismissed from their governorships. Uthman Pasha was succeeded by Muhammad Pasha al-Azm

Timothy W. Lake is a television news anchor and historical narrative nonfiction author at WTEN in Albany, New York, he was the solo anchor of WCAU's NBC 10 News at 6 p.m. and co-anchor of NBC 10 News at 4 with Dawn Timmeney and NBC 10 News at 11 p.m. with Renee Chenault-Fattah. Lake was the primary co-anchor at NBC 10 from March 2003 until December 7, 2012, he was the co-anchor of NBC 10 News at Five and the noontime news with Chenault when WCAU-TV was owned by CBS. He joined WCAU in 1992. Prior to that he was the weekend anchor at KPRC-TV in Houston and the 11 pm weeknight anchor at South Carolina's highest rated TV station, CBS affiliate WCSC-TV in Charleston. After leaving WCAU, Lake published three books, Henderson Harbor, Association Island, Hang on and Fly, A Post-War Story of Plane Crash Tragedies and Survival. Hang on and Fly is about the early low-cost airlines of America and how one of many crashes among these upstart airlines led to the largest group of crash survivors stranded for a long time without rescue in North America.

The story features a Syrian-American who becomes a national hero, a stewardess who gets limited credit for her role among the survivors because of her gender, a simple farmer's wife who helps rescue the survivors while keeping a deadly secret of her own. It features America's top plane crash investigator who makes the first visit to a commercial airlines crash; the story reveals. Lake began working for daily and weekly newspapers while attending State University of New York at Fredonia, he concurrently worked for commercial radio stations in Buffalo and Dunkirk, New York, in addition to the campus station, WCVF-FM. He has worked for several newspapers: The Walton Reporter, 1978–1981, he has worked at a number of other radio and television stations, including: WCVF, Fredonia, NY. Lake has covered news events throughout New York State and South Carolina and Mexico, Washington, DC, New Jersey, Delaware, he has won numerous awards for newspaper writing and radio and television reporting and is the tenth child in a family of thirteen.

Lake has published for Arcadia Books and what appears to be his own company, Lake Publishing. He's written long-form historical articles for The Buffalo News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jamestown Post-Journal, for Thousand Islands Life magazine; the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia inducted Lake into its Hall of Fame in 2011