This is the map of Africa. If you look to the South, you will see lush
vegetation, with lots of greenery. However, when you go north, things are different. Covering multiple
countries, it is the most gigantic desert globally, with miles and miles of dune formation. Altogether, the Sahara Desert covers 9 million
square kilometers, meaning it will swallow Spain 18 times! However, did you know that this vast stretch
of sterile sand covering a third of the African continent was covered in lush vegetation
thousands of years ago? What
happened to the Sahara? And what is happening to it right now? In this video, we look
at the terrifying discoveries scientists made under the Sahara desert! The Atlantic Ocean borders the Sahara on the
west, the Red Sea on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the north, and the Sahel
Savannah on the South. The enormous
desert spans 11 countries: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco,
Niger, Western Sahara, Sudan, and Tunisia. The Sahara desert is most famous for the sand
dune fields often featured in movies. The dunes can reach almost 600 feet or 183
meters high. However, they cover only
about 15 percent of the entire desert. Other topographical features include mountains,
plateaus, sand- and gravel-covered plains, salt flats, basins, and depressions. The Sahara used to be a tropical area, so
how did it become the harsh arid region it is
today? The answer to this question takes us several
thousands of years back. The
Sahara has long been subject to periodic bouts of humidity and aridity. These
fluctuations are caused by slight wobbles in the tilt of the Earth's orbital axis, which
in turn changes the angle at which solar radiation
penetrates the atmosphere. At repeated
intervals throughout Earth's history, there's been more energy pouring in from the sun
during the West African monsoon season. During those times, known as African Humid
Periods, much more rain comes down over North Africa. With more rain, the region gets more greenery
and rivers and lakes. But between 8,000
and 4,500 years ago, something strange happened: The transition from humid to dry
occurred far more rapidly in some areas than could be explained by the orbital
precession alone, resulting in the Sahara Desert as we know it today. In his study, Archaeologist David Wright tells
us what happened next. As he pored the
archaeological and environmental data, obtained chiefly from sediment cores and pollen
records, all dated to the same period, he noticed what seemed like a pattern. Wherever
the archaeological record showed the presence of pastoralists, that is, humans with
their domesticated animals, there was a corresponding change in the types and variety
of plants. It was as if, every time humans and their
goats and cattle hopscotched across the grasslands, they had turned everything
to scrub and desert in their wake! This led Wright to conclude that by overgrazing
the grasses, they were reducing the amount of atmospheric moisture-you know, plants
give off moisture, which produces clouds-and enhanced albedo. He says this may have triggered the end of
the humid period more abruptly than can be explained
by the orbital changes. These nomadic
humans also may have used fire as a land management tool, which would have
exacerbated the speed at which the desert took hold. Now, when you think of the Sahara desert,
do you imagine whales frolicking on the rolling sand dunes? While that is highly unlikely to happen since
whales can't survive outside water, there is evidence that the
ancestors of the modern whale once swam around right in the hot African desert! Rewind to 1902 when a team of geologists guided
their camels into a valley in Egypt's Western Desert. Centuries of strong wind had sculpted sandstone
rocks into strange shapes, and at night the moonlight was so
bright, making the sand glow like gold. A
nearby hill was known as the "Mountain of Hell" because of the infernal summer heat,
but in this arid valley lay the bones of whales! Some of the skeletons were 50 feet long,
with vertebrae as thick as campfire logs. They dated back 37 million years to an era
when a shallow, tropical sea covered this area and all of northern Egypt! And although the geologists didn't realize
it at the time, the prehistoric specimens in the
sand would offer clues to one of evolution's most nagging questions: how whales
became whales. One clue found from these long-dead whales
was the presence of feet! Scientists had long suspected that whales
were terrestrial mammals that had eased into the ocean over millions of years, gradually
losing their four legs. Proof of this is that
modern whales have vestigial hind leg bones. But little in the fossil record illustrated
the transition until paleontologists began excavating
hundreds of whale fossils buried at Wadi Hitan and finding legs and knees! Older specimens of footed whales have since
been identified, but Wadi Hitan's are unparalleled in their numbers and state of
preservation. The valley, about a three-hour drive from
Cairo, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site visited by some 14,000 people
each year! Paleontologists speculate that whales' landlubber
ancestors were deer- or pig-like scavengers living near the sea. About 55 million years ago, they started spending
more time in the water, first eating dead fish
along the shore and then chasing prey in the shallows and then wading deeper. As they did, some of them evolved traits that
facilitated hunting in water. Over time, since they no longer had to bear
their total body weight at sea, they got bigger, their backbones
elongating and their rib cages broadening. Most of the fossils in the valley belong to
two types. Basilosaurus was the giant with an
almost eel-like body. The more petite but heavily muscled Dorudon
looked more like a modern whale, at least until its mouth opened
to reveal a jaw lined with serrated daggers instead of peg-like teeth. Interestingly, the fossils of more than 75
whales have been found in the middle of the Atacama desert in Chile. How they ended up there has been a subject
of debate among scientists. Now, have you heard about the lost city of
Atlantis? You will be shocked by how this
famed city is connected to the next discovery in the Sahara desert! This takes us to the
Eye of the Sahara, also known as the Richat Structure or the Guelb er Richat! It is a
geological formation in the Sahara Desert that resembles an enormous bull's eye. The
formation stretches across a 40 kilometer-wide region of the desert in Mauritania. For
centuries, only a few local nomadic tribes knew about the formation. It was first
photographed in the 1960s by the Gemini astronauts, who used it as a landmark to
track the progress of their landing sequences. Later, the Landsat satellite took additional
images and provided information about the formation's size, height, and extent. Geologists initially believed that Eye of
the Sahara was an impact crater, created when an object from space slammed into the surface. However, lengthy studies of the rocks
inside the structure show that its origins are entirely Earth-based, prompting geologists
to look for other explanations. Geologists have concluded that the Eye of
the Sahara is a geologic dome. The
formation contains rocks at least 100 million years old; some date back to well before
the appearance of life on Earth. These rocks include igneous volcanic deposits
and sedimentary layers that form as the wind pushes
dust and water deposits, sand, and mud. Today, geologists can find several types of
igneous rock in the eye area, including kimberlite, carbonatites, black, and rhyolites. However, there is another explanation for
this Eye of the Sahara! According to this
YouTube video, the remains of the ringed city Plato spoke of in the fourth century BC
can be found in the African country of Mauritania, meaning it has been hiding in plain
sight this whole time! The search for Atlantis has been ongoing since
Greek philosopher Plato first described in 350BC a mysterious
island that seemingly just vanished! "We've been looking in all the wrong places
for its location since everyone assumes it must be under the ocean somewhere, such as
in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea," says the host of Bright
Insight YouTube channel known only as Jimmy. Show some clips from this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoM4BmoDQM Instead, he proposes the Eye of the Sahara
is the mythical city's actual location. Solon,
a statesman from Ancient Greece, is the man who is thought to have passed on
information regarding Atlantis to Plato. Jimmy says it is not only the exact size and
shape Plato said it was - 23.5km across and circular - but mountains he described to the
north can be seen quite clearly on satellite imagery, as evidence of ancient rivers, which
Plato said flowed around the city. Plato said Atlantis was destroyed in a "single
day and night of misfortune" and sank beneath the waves. The scientific record does show the Earth
underwent significant climate upheaval around 11500 years ago when
Atlantis is alleged to have disappeared. Jimmy also points out satellite imagery that
resembles the aftermath of a tsunami unlike anyone alive today would have seen. Look at the satellite map of The Eye of the
Sahara. Doesn't the entire region look like it
was blasted by flowing water or a tsunami? The Sahara desert continues to serve up mysteries,
and the next one is about an object found there whose functions have not been
known till today! It is the Clayton ring, and
more bafflingly, these rings were found in the most inhospitable part of the Sahara
desert in Egypt! Named after the geographer and desert explorer
P.A. Clayton (1896–1962), Clayton
rings are conical pottery cylinders open at both ends. They are always found with one or
more perforated pottery disks that are always just slightly larger than the ring's smaller
opening but do not fit as lids. Some were custom-made by potters as a set;
others were reworked from old pottery jars and sherds,
like the ones on display. These objects were not used by the Egyptians
living along the Nile. Instead, they
formed an important part of the kit of the nomadic herders inhabiting the Dakhla Oasis
during Egypt's first dynasties called the Sheikh Muftah culture. Clayton rings and disks
have been found in the oasis, around seasonal hunting and herding camps of this
culture, but remarkably also in caches up to 300km away from permanent water
sources and beyond the safe roaming range of any herdsman or hunter. What made these objects so crucial that people
went to the trouble to take Clayton rings far into the desert? This is a question that is yet to be answered! Let's hear what you think of the discoveries
in the Sahara desert in the comment section
It’s pretty hard to argue anything but the Azores, but then again Atlantis was an empire so it could have been a well known city, perhaps that’s the city with the rings accounted for
Natural formation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdqX09zZNf8
No it couldn't
"Larger than Ancient Libya" kind of rules out a spot in ancient Libya. Herodotus caused this mess by misrouting the Nile all the way to Morocco.
This "Richat is the eye of the Sahara" is getting almost fanatical.
I wholeheartedly believe Africa is going to play a major part when we finally figure out what happened during those times because I believe land from Africa was what was ultimately responsible for the destruction of Atlantis.
Fun Fact: There is a second eye of Africa even closer to the correct size of Atlantis that nobody ever talks about.