10 Mysterious Things Hidden Under The Sahara

hi it's katrina from a horde of ancient sea monsters to gemstones from space worn by pharaohs here are 10 of the most amazing things hidden under the sahara number 10 the p40 kitty hawk in 1942 flight sergeant dennis copping crashed his p-40 kitty hawk fighter plane into a remote part of the sahara desert it was june 28th when the sergeant was flying his damaged fighter craft between two british airfields located in egypt but on his way he experienced some kind of catastrophic failure and crashed the fate of the pilot remained a mystery for 70 years until the lost and forgotten fighter plane was finally discovered in the middle of some sand dunes archaeologists have referred to the recent discovery of the world war ii wreckage as the aviation equivalent of titan commons tomb in egypt the aircraft was almost perfectly preserved when it was found in 2012 by a polish oil company worker while on a remote expedition in the desert about 200 miles from the closest town because the craft was in such an isolated spot nobody had touched it since its messy landing the mystery remains as to what happened to the pilot according to news reports there was absolutely no sign of him there had been a crude shelter made outside of the plane involving a parachute but it appeared that the pilot must have run out of supplies and tried to walk to safety as you can imagine there is no way he was going to make it that far especially since he didn't know where the closest town was while his plane has been found the pilot is believed to have died in the desert and covered by the wind and sand number nine a lost civilization a pair of researchers have found traces of a lost civilization in the sahara desert using remote sensing technology satellite images and drone flyovers the lost culture of the sahara is known as the garamantes and archaeologist david mattingly believes that they started to build a network of cities and fortifications around the few remaining oases in the libyan part of the sahara desert sometime around 1000 bc or about 3 000 years ago this civilization likely reached its peak at the beginning of the common era and then began to decline after 700 a.d mattingly claims that they probably declined after running out of water that'll do it but even though this culture is long gone some of their structures are still standing albeit in pretty rough condition the reason not a lot is known about this ancient culture is that not many archaeologists do field work in the hot and remote areas of the libyan sahara this place is harsh and difficult to get to safely which means that cultures like the garamantes that thrived before the islamic conquests of north africa have all but been ignored countries with a lot of civil unrest aren't great for people to go exploring this is where the remote sensing technology comes in handy mattingly and his team have been able to locate at least 158 major settlements and even the remnants of irrigation systems unfortunately there are still no archaeologists working on excavating these sites in the field but at least we know they are hiding in the desert just waiting for the right time number eight nabta playa is believed to be the first astronomical site on planet earth it was constructed in the sahara desert about 7 000 years ago making it far older than stonehenge the huge stone circle was used by a surprisingly advanced culture to track the summer solstice and the annual monsoon season this was the earliest calendar the first use of astronomy by a civilization and perhaps even the starting point for what would eventually sweep around the globe and cause ancient societies everywhere to begin building their own stone monoliths to track the sun and stars nabta playa is located roughly 700 miles from the great pyramid of giza according to discover magazine the astrological calendar was probably built by a cult of nomadic people who worshipped cattle j mckim malville from the university of colorado says that nabta playa is the first attempt ever made by human beings to make a legitimate connection with the heavens the only sad part is that today we don't know what these ancient people were thinking when they developed astronomy and astrology we don't know if they thought the stars and stones were connected if they imagined the twinkling stars in the sky to be gods or if they just wanted a reasonable way to track the seasons while the site of nabta playa was discovered in the 70s it wasn't until more recent decades that the full meaning and importance of this place was understood and shared with the world number seven giant sea creatures new archaeological research has revealed that some of the largest and scariest sea creatures ever to populate the planet once thrived in what is today the sahara desert scientists have been examining fossil records for decades to try and figure out what kinds of animals lived in the ancient trans-saharan seaway from between 100 million and 50 million years ago researchers now know that the water here was warm and relatively shallow and also that it was apparently home to sea snakes that were over 40 feet in length and other horrifying monsters fossil records have revealed catfish over double the size of their modern cousins as well as crocodilians with huge snouts and fish that were so strong that they could crush mollusks you're probably thinking that animals back then were always gigantic but the sea monsters living in the trans-saharan seaway were extraordinarily large even compared to other animals from the same era maureen o'leary from stony brook university says that the seaway changed so frequently in size and geography that it created a sort of island situation where the sea monsters living there grew to preposterous sizes because of a lack of predators but in any case now these beasts are long gone nothing remains except their bones buried in the sand number six an ancient mega lake the sahara desert may be a barren wasteland today but new geological evidence has revealed that there was once a giant lake in the eastern sahara 250 000 years ago this happened when the nile river flowed through a channel and completely flooded an area of over 42 000 square miles evidence of this ancient mega lake was spotted by ted maxwell from the national air and space museum while studying radar data of the egyptian sahara as a professional geologist maxwell was able to understand the patterns of wind-blown sediments and changes in the bedrock by piecing all these different clues together maxwell realized that buried beneath the shifting sands is evidence of a huge body of water and there may even still be buried channels 50 feet beneath the surface of the desert even more amazing is that scientists were able to use fossil fish found about 250 miles from the nile river and 810 feet above sea level to determine where the shoreline of this ancient mega lake would have been they looked at the locations of paleolithic human settlements and they all corresponded to where the edges of the lake used to be there is really no denying that the sahara was once a prosperous lakeside destination there was water there was lush vegetation everything you could want and this may have been what coaxed early human beings into the area where they eventually founded the great early civilizations number 5. mysterious impact crater a mysterious impact crater was found in the sahara desert and scientists are linking it to a gemstone found in the tomb of the egyptian king tutson common an international team of researchers analyzed satellite images of the vast and sandy terrain between two remote egyptian villages in the desert what they found was el bar crater a massive hole about 1 000 feet across it looks exactly like the impact crater made by a meteor scientists also found traces of chemicals that confirmed there had been a high energy impact event at the site this was done by inspecting the concentration of certain minerals in the rocks at and near the site of the crater the rocks inside of the crater had been melted from something hitting them extremely hard in other words the crater was 100 formed by a meteor impact but here's where the impact crater ties in with king tut back when british archaeologist howard carter entered the young king's tomb in 1922 he discovered a breastplate encrusted with precious jewels and one extremely rare gemstone it turned out that this rare gemstone was made of libyan desert glass a substance made almost entirely of silicon dioxide it's one of the rarest minerals on the entire planet and is found only in the most desolate areas of the sahara desert but for decades scientists have not been able to figure out where the libyan desert glass came from now it seems that the rare gem may have been created when a meteorite exploded over the sahara desert and caused a unique chemical reaction this would mean that the egyptian king was walking around with a gemstone in his breastplate brought to him from outer space you know how intense the egyptians were with their symbolism so if that doesn't have powerful significance i don't know what does number 4. stone age graveyard the largest stone age graveyard ever found in the vast nothingness of the sahara desert is providing an incredible record of life from a time when the region was a green paradise this graveyard has just been discovered in the country of niger by paul soreno from national geographic his team went on an expedition to find dinosaur bones and instead found a stone age archaeological site dating back ten thousand years the site has been dubbed gobero and it is bursting with skeletons of both humans and animals it's located inside the tenere desert known as a desert within a desert for its extreme remoteness the graveyard has so far revealed two human populations living one after the other within a space of about one thousand years the skeletons included full sets of teeth and small hands reaching out through the desert sand with finger bones still intact and none of this had ever before been seen by modern human eyes there were also artifacts like harpoon points and stone tools these civilizations lived in the sahara desert when it was green and filled with animal life the first group were hunters who colonized the sahara between ten thousand and eight thousand years ago and were amazingly tall at an average of over six feet the newer group was there between seven thousand and four thousand five hundred years ago and had a more diverse economy of hunting and cattle herding these later people were often buried with impressive jewelry including bracelets carved from hippo tusks it's not exactly clear what drove both groups out of the area but it likely had something to do with the shifting climate as the sahara desert turned from a peaceful paradise into a violent wasteland number three ancient rivers three ancient rivers once linked sub-saharan africa to the mediterranean sea this was about 130 000 years ago when three enormous rivers flowed across much of north africa providing a safe route of travel for ancient humans through what is today a merciless desert the rivers were discovered after scientists simulated ancient rainfall patterns using newly advanced computer climate models they were able to recreate what the desert looked like over 100 000 years ago and this led them to the discovery of the rivers but what's really cool is that the rivers are still there today just buried under dozens of feet of sand scientists say that the most popular of the three ancient saharan rivers was once called the irarhar this river system seems to have been a very popular travel route and archaeologists have found artifacts from the stone age along much of what was once the irarhar river system the river would have provided green corridors where animals and plants could survive as well as massive lagoons and wetlands further surveys will probably reveal even more evidence of human activity dating back tens of thousands of years the only issue is convincing archaeologists to get out there and dig through all that sand who's up for the challenge number two the whale graveyard buried beneath the sahara desert are thousands of whale bones these whales date back 50 million years when the earth looked completely different the highest concentration of whale bones has been found in a place called wadi al-hitan or the valley of the whales in english the bones found here belong to ancestors of modern whales with the first ones being discovered way back in 1902 these fascinating beasts roamed the ocean that once covered all of the sahara desert this was known as the tethy sea and it filled the space between africa and asia before the himalayas had even been born just imagine before the biggest mountains on earth were even pushed out of the ground enormous whales had already evolved from land creatures with legs and were swimming through the ocean in an area that is today nothing but an inhospitable wasteland the valley of the whales provides a complete glimpse into the past with the bones of extinct ancient whales spanning many millions of years the archaoceti whale skeletons belong to the earliest form of cetaceans to emerge from the murky evolutionary past these whales still have their legs and toes intact other whales have hip bones that were later lost their hip bones had previously been used for legs that carried them scuttling across the ground for whatever reason they returned to the water and over the course of millions of years their legs became unnecessary in the water and they lost them the whale graveyard shows us a clear picture of the progression of time and explains why some of the whale fossils still had remnants of their old limbs other fossilized sharks fish and plants found in the area have helped paint a picture of what the tethosc would have been like number 1. the legendary spinosaurus by far the coolest and most amazing dinosaur fossil ever found hidden in the sahara desert was that of the spinosaurus paleontologists working in the moroccan part of the sahara unearthed one of the biggest and most intact spinosaurus fossils ever the spinosaurus egypt tiakus this legendary monster was the first known aquatic dino it was a 50 foot long predator with a massive sail on its back huge teeth for ripping apart prey and stubby little arms like a t-rex the spinosaurus hunted in the ancient river systems about 100 million years ago according to nizar ibrahim an explorer with national geographic and a paleontologist with the university of detroit mercy the tale of the spinosaurus is utterly bizarre and worked as a propulsive organ to move the large animal through the water it even had a snout like a crocodile that it could use to catch fish and even though the spinosaurus could easily swim through the water it also roamed the land the amazing fossil was discovered buried under 15 tons of rock the team of paleontologists labored in 120 degree heat they were beaten by sandstorms some of them were attacked by snakes and it proved to be an entire adventure just to get the enormous bones out from under the rocks but it was worth it as the skeleton of this monster proved that the sahara desert was once home to the world's first river dragon the spinosaurus would you go fossil hunting in the sahara let me know in the comments below thanks for watching remember to subscribe if you haven't already and i'll see you soon bye

Channel: Origins Explained

Views: 418,792

Rating: 4.7449923 out of 5

Keywords: origins explained, mysterious things hidden under the sahara, mysterious, things, discoveries, hidden, secrets, sahara, desert, sahara desert, mysterious discoveries, strange discoveries, amazing discoveries, sahara secrets, secrets of the sahara, hidden under the sahara, sahara discoveries, discoveries in the sahara, sahara desert discoveries, archaeological discoveries, unexplained discoveries, strange mysteries, mysteries of the sahara

Id: 5dRc6DLaLFo

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021