It snowed in the Sahara (IMAGES)

Amateur photographer Karim Busetata, a native of the Algerian city of Ain Sefra - also known as the "Gateway to the Sahara" - captured this amazing spectacle with his lens, seeing the dunes surrounding it covered in snow.

The combination of fine sand and snow creates a wonderful backdrop considering that it does not snow often in the area.

The Algerian desert in north-central Africa is part of the vast Sahara Desert and is located 350 km south of the Mediterranean.

The last major snowfall in Ain Sefra was in February 1979 when it snowed for 30 minutes. Insignificant layers of snow also appeared for a while in 2005 and 2012.

According to the British newspaper "Daily Mail", the city is located about a thousand meters above sea level and is surrounded by the Atlanta Mountains.

In the last few hours, in the city of Ain Safra, the mercury showed minus 3 degrees Celsius with the photographer Karim capturing the sheep of the area to cut… walks in the snowy dunes.

At the same time, residents of the Aseer region in southwestern Saudi Arabia were enjoying the spectacle with camels enduring the polar cold.

According to the British newspaper "Daily Mail" which hosts on its website the impressive photos of Karim, while January brings snow and ice to many parts of the world, until now deserts in Africa and the Middle East were usually the exception.

But this month it spread to the Sahara, with temperatures in Saudi Arabia dropping to minus two degrees Celsius.

The Sahara Desert covers most of North Africa and has undergone temperature and humidity changes over the last hundreds of thousands of years.

According to scientists, it is expected to turn green again in about 15.000 years.