Libyan Sahara Water from the Desert - The Secrets of Nature

[Music] the Sahara is the world's fastest tropical desert everything here seems to combine against life but below the dust the sand and the squashed rocks there is a glitter of Hope water the Sahara's Wells Oasis and lakes are the deserts only sources of life a few gallons of water can always be drawn from the ground but the question is how much longer right across the Libyan Sahara history's biggest water pipeline is being built ancient underground water resources are to help break the reign of dust and sand and make the desert green can this vision become a reality or will it upset the Sahara's water system [Music] the people navigating across the Sahara called the great desert barbel Ahmad the waterless ocean [Music] this ocean of sand is nature's ultimate challenge a challenge the caravans face every day as they have done for millennia they endure daytime temperatures of up to 170 degrees in the Sun for there is no shade the last time it rained here may have been 10 years ago the few drops were not really worth remembering [Music] in many places the waterless ocean tosses up steep waves or surprises the traveller with less visible dangers [Music] especially those who use more modern means of transportation need to be on the lookout [Music] [Music] one can cross the entire Sahara from the Atlantic to the Red Sea a distance of some 3,000 miles without ever driving on a solid road surface the Sahara covers three and a half million square miles the state territory of Libya alone makes up one-fifth of the Sahara ninety-five percent of Libya is desert the extinguished volcano var animus is a witness of the turbulent past of the world's largest desert [Music] the volcanic cone is at the center of 40,000 square miles of a bone-dry grapple plane the film crew trails along cloud of black dust [Music] whoever makes it to this place feels as though they're on an alien planet [Music] and it's not very long that humans have first walked to this ground it was not until 1931 that the first expedition reached the vow animus it is not unlikely that a caravan has stumbled across the crater before then says khalid the crews local guide khaled knows the area like the back of his hand he tells the crew that in the lunar landscape around the crater lush vegetation can be found even animals survive here the bedouin has lit a fire and just in time night falls suddenly and then the temperatures drop to almost freezing this is due to the extremely low humidity in more temperate regions the humidity in the atmosphere stalls the warmth of the day smoothing out the difference between day and night in the desert however the warmth is gone as soon as the Sun sets but the clear air opens the view into the skies the moon seems closer than anywhere else in the world [Music] [Music] [Music] day break drives the shadows from Varna mousse [Music] the volcano harbors a secret a wonderful whim of nature [Music] water in the middle of the desert five lakes and a gigantic caldera the caldera is 400 feet deep and measures two and a half miles across [Music] this natural wonder is the aftermath of a cataclysm when the volcano was no longer active it collapsed for volcanoes this is not so unusual but The Vow and namaz collapsed in a special place cutting into a subterranean water reservoir supplied with water but once fiery crater turned into a blossoming oasis with sometimes unpleasant side-effects varna mousse literally means oasis of the mosquitoes the tracks in the sand are from Phoenix and jackals they cannot drink the water in the five lakes it contains too much salt that one doesn't have to dig very deep to find drinkable water a member of the film crew tries the taste Isis Isis Eve give us Suz let's Arctic the Oasis is just as exposed to the desert heat as the dusty plains surrounding it every year half a billion gallons of water are lost by evaporation this is why the banks are surrounded by a white crust fresh water is not quite the correct term for the lakes content but these birds can't afford to be choosy when they touch down during their long migration across the Sahara the film crew climbs a small volcanic cone of more recent origin plants have not yet been able to colonize its top it's a little desert within the Oasis [Music] [Music] surrounded by thousands of square miles of bare rock and dust the five lakes at Varner moose appear to have dropped out of the ethereal blue but in fact it's the opposite the water comes from below below the Sahara the alleged waterless ocean a deep reservoir of the volatile liquid is hidden it's the Saharan aquifer below the state territory of Libya alone there are four vast reservoirs each measuring 700 miles across with a depth of nearly 4 miles [Music] [Music] these immense water resources are the heritage of a time when North Africa was a green garden with lots of rain with a camera jib the crew tries to get insights into the secrets of the ancient Sahara the desert has come through an eventful geological history until 10 million years ago the waterless ocean was submerged under a shallow sea the traces of this marine past are present everywhere in sandstone formations and limestone consisting of seashells when the animals that inhabited the waters of this ancient sea died their shells and skeletons sank into the sand on the sea floor captured in sandstone some of the fossils were preserved for 70 million years before wind erosion brought them to daylight once more like a giant sand blaster the desert wind freeze this biological evidence from the crusts of geological history bringing to light petrified shells snails and sea urchins [Music] the desert wind is the driving force in the Sahara's geology relentlessly it sweeps sand and dust over the rocky surface evens out the topography frees new material and builds dunes elsewhere with the exception of the ill-famed traveling dunes these gentle waves of sand are more stable than they appear friction loads the sand grains with an electric charge that connects the particles into very stable shapes only the surface layer is moved by the wind [Music] [Music] [Applause] hard to imagine that this hot and dusty hell once also attracted human settlers and yet in one of the planet's most extreme landscapes there are also traces of human civilization khalid the film crews guide knows places that are saturated with history we are in medium desert just dunes and some rocks and you can find it like this this is limas of rocks use it like an axe a thousand of year thousands of years ago the youngest objects are only a few thousand years old together with the older ones they are strewn all over this dune valley the wind uncovers ever new pieces andrey berries others whenever one finds objects from various periods and such density it can only mean one thing for a long time this place must have been very attractive for humans the film crew crosses a moonlight field of debris in the Sahara ancient centers of civilization are sometimes found in what are now the most hostile areas [Applause] this riverbed has been dry since times beyond human memory but once its banks were bustling with life this is aadi Macintosh and this is a graffiti of Cthulhu and there is many many graffiti of elephant and many animals here in this body and this what it was before there is a lot of water and many people love live here in in this wordy but now there is no water and there is just the graffiti these rock engravings are an important key to understanding the Sahara's past at first people only depicted wild animals later drawings show their cattle and other domestic animals to the first farmers the Sahara was a fertile land with many rivers vast pastures and a soil yielding rich crops then suddenly some 4000 years ago the Paradise ended abruptly the Garden of Eden withered away [Music] how could this happen possibly as the population slowly grew too much water was diverted from the natural cycle speeding up the spreading of the desert or equally possible a slight shift in the angle of the Earth's axis of rotation tilted the scales of North Africa's delicate ecosystem these animals can do without green pastures all they need are the sporadic dry bushes in this region with the great dearth that began 4000 years ago the civilizations of the Sahara have changed instead of settled crop and cattle farmers nomads began to roam the desert only by keeping on the move continuously have the people been able to live on the scarce resources the land now offers the camel fit in perfectly to the nomadic pattern of life the first camels were brought to the sahara from the deserts of Asia a little more than 2 thousand years ago mostly single humped dromedary their long legs keep the vital organs above the hottest layer of air near the ground just below a camel's belly the temperature may be a hundred and ten degrees while the ground may be a hundred and seventy degrees with their long eyelashes and the ability to close their nostrils they can weather the worst sandstorms their soft feet can spread out to prevent sinking into the sand their best asset in the desert is their ability to go for weeks without drinking when they do get a chance to drink they really get their fill within just a quarter of an hour a camel can gulp down 50 gallons Atta Allah the divine gift is what the Bedouins call the dromedary meanwhile however the long-legged humped animals may become a curse with their numbers rising they seem to drink the Sahara as Wells dry but maybe the water shortage has other reasons [Applause] [Music] the nomads cannot believe that their camels are responsible for the drying up of their wells all they know is that they have to dig deeper and deeper for water and ever more often without result it is certainly not these people who waste the Sahara's water in fact they are extremely careful not to waste the precious liquid [Music] the camels are worried there's a threat in the air a stench of burned hair [Music] the burn marks are painful symbols of ownership they make an animal part of a particular herd and of a man's property [Music] [Music] [Music] please [Music] we're sand dunes rise today there were river scapes and lakes during the last ice age most of these have completely disappeared but a few are still there in a few choice locations the watery Treasure of the Saharan aquifer is surfacing the lakes of the Mandara area give an impression of what the desert must have looked like ten thousand years ago when olives tsipras's and laurel trees grew in the Sahara [Music] this Mediterranean setting was very attractive to human populations the first large settlements grew around bodies of water [Music] Oasis settlements thrive to become wealthy cities like Artemis [Music] there was a time when gadamer's was a trading stop on every caravans journey today the older parts of the town are threatened by decay they've not been inhabited for a long time Mansoor is one of the last farmers to work the remaining gardens he knows the labyrinth of narrow passages better than anyone some say that garden maze is the world's oldest oasis town at least there is proof that this spot was settled by humans 10 millennia ago according to a legend Galindez was founded around an artesian well that began to spout under a mares Hoofbeat for several thousand years garden Eze was the leading trading post on one of the oldest trans-sahara caravan routes everybody did good business here including the Touareg card amis was their northernmost out only a century ago Garda mez had 12,000 inhabitants today the historic town centre is deserted who nesco aid ensures that the ancient desert town is preserved only on holidays is it filled with a life or in hot summer days when the heat in the modern quarters becomes oppressive and the inhabitants prefer the cool shade of the ancient patios are not ever an animal there are only a few farmers left in caramels as in days past a single ancient spring feeds the entire water system of the Oasis meaning the water from this well used to irrigate 200 acres of orchards and vegetable gardens but that's a thing of the past but although less water is now used the level of the well is sinking the question is how much longer the people will be able to raise crops here the unexplained sinking of water levels is becoming a problem across the Sahara even for the most experienced of desert dwellers the Touareg [Music] for several days this tiny caravan has been looking for water for locals it used to be relatively simple to find something to drink but the familiar Wells and water holes along the old caravan routes are often falling dry now on their search the men need to penetrate into more difficult terrain the mountainous areas of the Sahara are not where the camels would usually go but the mountains hold secret surprises these nearly impossible sand rock formations in southwest Libya make up the so called a carcass range it's complex topography with its deep gouges and canyons provides a very unusual microclimate sometimes even rain clouds are caught between the high peaks of the aircar coast and drop their wet load in contrast to the desert flats the deep canyons with their cool shade are able to hold the rainwater like natural systems these are the Sahara's only bodies of water that are not fed by the Saharan aquifer here the Tuareg fill their goatskin water bags [Music] long ago these canyons were dug into the rock by torrents some of the water may even date from that time and it has been replenished with rainwater while on the desert flats every raindrop that may fall will instantly dry up the shadowy crevices of the a carcass range keep the water from evaporating [Music] allah has taken all that is superfluous from the desert the 2rx a Alice seems to regard hard rock is very essential the Sahara mostly consists of gravel and rock only 20% of its area is sand desert [Music] [Music] the largest dune area of Libya is the far southwest the ERG would soak this is a challenging terrain for the film crew [Music] like a mirage a bizarre shape emerges from the blurred horizon [Music] these tubes on wheels work a miracle in the desert [Music] we are here now in whatever judge I was received lots of piled around us one of the most greenness files it's behind me this is one of the 73 files that we have here in bar judge on my left side we have one of these files that is getting ready now for the other group agriculture this is one of the main project here in Libya it's based on seed agriculture and it's all given to all the city in on the whole Libya and actually called now Djem area the 130 feet tubes moving circles like the hands of a giant clock spreading a fine mist of water over the soil Depot's of fossil water deep underneath the surface parts of the Saharan aquifer are tapped to feed this sprinkling system Omar right Sandra side here it is the pump it's 150 horses and it forms about 77 liters per second and if we had to cross through this pipe to the other side and it's about 400 meters long five such projects make the desert of Libya blossom as you see here this is a normal kind of scent to have good results like we see behind me we had to add different kinds of minerals and visa confluences is our city actors and there to have good results you can see all this green grass near me and behind me you had to add different kinds of minerals because of the great number of sunny days per year the fields can be harvested every six months in spite of the extreme desert climate the yield per acre is comparable to standards in more moderate climates in winter wheat and barley are harvested in summer millet and forage is grown on the artificial fields when the harvest is over sheep and cows are brought in to feed on the leftovers four thousand years after the green of a once fertile Sahara withered away cattle herds have returned the dimensions are still tiny but to the Libyans even this partial victory in the struggle against the desert has great symbolic power hard to imagine that the water extracted for these circular fields is the cause of sinking water levels all over the Sahara only a far greater diversion in the Sahara's water system could effectively deplete the Saharan aquifer and cause elisa's to dry up [Music] [Music] through these giant tubes water from subterranean resources is conducted 3,000 miles across the desert this is the great man-made River the dream of Libya's revolution leader Muammar Gaddafi [Music] since 1984 and a modder of construction machines has eaten its way across the Sahara laying a gigantic system of pipelines through the Libyan desert after its completion some 20,000 gallons of water per second will be pumped to the dry coastal regions [Music] to Qaddafi it is the eighth wonder of the world to international Construction Companies it is the greatest Bonanza in history so far 64 billion u.s. dollars have been buried in the sand [Music] the mega project is financed by Petro dollars bringing water to a land without a single natural river the great dream of water from the desert is near completion which have been done to take the water from the desert area we bring the water to make many projects for factories and other projects you know the meter for this fight is 4 meter and also each pipe distance about 7.5 meters each detail shows the dimensions of the project for stabilization every segment is surrounded by a mantle consisting of 11 miles of metal wire the wire that was used only in the first few years was enough to go around the world 280 times this screen take the BAI from this place inside the trench and this train can carry 450 tons as we know this the by Bush had been hired by this screen is weighed 80 tons the Libyans have brought together workers know-how and technology from all over the world [Music] this machine is kept excavation machine is used in Phase three and great man River Project and this machine escapades up to 12 meter cube per per minute and also we called miner machine this machine 3700 SM since the start of the project 28 billion cubic feet of sand and rock have been excavated [Music] but it could well be that the Libyans are building on sand even before the gigantic project is completed parts of the man-made River are beginning to leak a few hundred miles from here the pipeline is already under repair the system is giving into the pressures of water and sand [Music] it is not yet clear whether the pipeline system will ever work as intended the Libyans have to make every experience for the first time never before has anything of comparable dimension been built so far the Libyan dream of a gigantic concrete lifeline seems Within Reach [Music] the great man-made river is fed by 1300 wells the greatest density of wells in the world most of them are between 450 and 650 meters deep this is a blueprint showing a cross-section of desert marked with wells the wells guzzle the water reserves from the Sahara and aquifer the great man-made river distributes them along the Mediterranean coast so far 2/3 of the project have been completed water is already flowing through the pipeline on the way to the consumers it is stored in shallow reservoirs measuring 2/3 of a mile across that is a large area to expose to the Sun every week 2 million gallons of precious water literally disappear into the air no one can tell the precise volume of water in the Saharan aquifer it may turn out that the massive extraction will cut off the deserts water supply making wells fall dry and destroying oases in spite of these risks Libya stays on course with this gigantic irrigation project having its sights set on the goal of a wide fertile strip of coast [Music] two thousand years ago this dream of a green coast was a reality the Greeks built colonies here and for the Romans Libya played the role of an important granary [Music] coastal cities like Apollonia or Leptis magna still have a flair of ancient grandeur and power even as ruins [Music] [Applause] [Music] in a few decades these cultural treasures may be drowned in the sea of sand during the past 2,000 years the deserts advanced has reached the coast the Sahara is spreading relentlessly I like the desert because here I feel free when I cross the Sahara I think it will never come to an end the illness come come up to this place where the sand meets the sea can water stop the desert [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The Secrets of Nature

Views: 2,383,837

Rating: 4.6636233 out of 5

Keywords: orf universum, blue chip, natural, history, secrets of nature, documentary, planet earth, sahara, water, desert, libyan desert

Id: b5dx7jQF1WQ

Length: 43min 58sec (2638 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/dieyoufool3]

Skipping the human elements, here's a jump to the geopolitical section.

[u/00000000000000000000]

The ability of the Libyan power players to exploit desert aquifers is going to dictate the degree of instability in the nation as much as political factors I reason. These large scale pumping projects will be capital intensive and there are serious concerns about whether they can be brought about