The sands of the Sahara have swallowed rivers, flowering valleys and entire cities for millennia. It is the largest hot desert in the world, and those who get lost in its endless sandy plains will most likely never get out of there again. In the ancient world, entire armies were known to go on a campaign across the desert, and no one else saw them. Only now, thanks to modern technologies, we begin to penetrate into all the secrets of the Sahara, and there are many of them.
Here are some of the amazing things that the Sahara Desert hides from us.
Lost Fortresses
The satellites have allowed explorers to peer under the canopies of the densest jungle and pierce the heart of the most inhospitable deserts. In 2010, satellites discovered the remains of more than 100 fortresses belonging to the Garamante people of Libya.
The area was well mapped by oil industry experts looking for drilling sites, so archaeologists were able to scan their satellite imagery for signs of the walls. Later, field researchers were able to confirm that the buildings were indeed built by the Garamants, although their expeditions were interrupted by riots and the war in Libya, which overthrew Colonel Gaddafi. At the time the garamantes flourished (from roughly the second century BC to the seventh century AD), the area in which they lived was already incredibly arid. In order to cultivate their land, they built underground canals through which water from ancient reservoirs came. When this source of water dried up, the fields dried up, and the Sahara covered with sand the remains of fortresses and villages.
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Meteorites and craters
The earth has always been bombarded by meteorites from space. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere harmlessly, leaving nothing but a streak of light in the sky.
Others reach Earth and are devastating when struck. Since most of the meteorites fell in the Sahara in the distant past, the craters left after the fall are often overlooked because they are covered with erosion or they are overgrown with plants. In deserts, however, scars can still be seen. The 45-meter-high Kamil crater in southwestern Egypt still seems to indicate where the iron meteorite fell about 5,000 years ago. However, you can find not only craters left by meteorites. Fragments of the meteorite itself were discovered around the Camille crater, which crashed and crumbled on the sand. This is not an isolated discovery. Almost a fifth of all the extracted meteorites came from the Sahara. This is because meteorites are easier to find in sands, and they often just wait to be picked up. Only the snows of Antarctica provide the best hunting ground for meteorites.
Libyan Desert Glass
Even when the remnants of meteorites and their craters have disappeared, other traces of cosmic collisions may remain. About 29 million years ago, a meteorite struck Earth with enough energy to melt a vast area of the Libyan desert into sheets of thin green glass.
The crater left behind by this explosion has yet to be found, but a lot of desert glass is still being found - and in some unexpected places. When Howard Carter opened the tomb of Tutankhamun, he found among the treasures a precious breastplate belonging to the buried Pharaoh. In its center was a sacred scarab beetle carved out of green glass. The Egyptians probably had no idea about the origin of the glass they were using. One of the daggers in the tomb was also crafted from iron obtained from a meteorite.
Nabta stones
Wherever you find water in the desert, you will find life clinging to it. When people lived near Nabta Playa in southern Egypt from 9,000 to 6,000 years ago, the area was prone to annual flooding that created the lake.
Tribes of people in the Neolithic period came here to feed and water their pets. These people not only survived, but also developed a culture of sacrifice. Here scientists have found ritually buried cows, sheep and goats. About 6,000 years ago, people in Nabta erected large stone blocks in a circle radiating out from the center. It was claimed that this stone circle, which is 1000 years older than Stonehenge, is the earliest structure with astronomical functions. There is still controversy about what the circle is pointing to: one researcher claims that it corresponds to the position of Orion's Belt.
Lost river
The Sahara Desert has not always existed. As climate changes over millions of years, the sand boundaries have shifted.
Just as scientists may be looking for ancient evidence of water on Mars, they turned their attention to the history of the Sahara. Research has shown that the Sahara was once home to the 12th largest freshwater drainage basin in the world. The remains of a river in Mauritania were sighted when an underwater canyon was discovered off the coast that had been carved out by the river. River sediments were found in unexpected places. The final confirmation of the presence of the lost river was made by satellite. The lost river is now called the Tamanrasett River, and research continues to uncover more new facts about a body of water that may have dried up just 5,000 years ago.
Whales
Rivers were not the only ones that disappeared under the Sahara. Over geological time, what was once an ocean has become one of the driest places on earth. In Wadi al-Hitan in Egypt, one can find evidence of the existence of the lost ocean of Tethys.
The place known as the Valley of the Whales is one of the best places to find whale fossils. The fossils here provide insight into how whales evolved from land-based creatures to sea giants that spend their entire lives at sea. When the ancestors of modern whales died at sea 37 million years ago, their bodies were covered in sediment. When the earth's crust rose, the seabed turned into dry land. Today paleontologists are studying the 15-meter skeletons, as well as the creatures with whom they shared the sea. Teeth of large sharks were found next to the whale bones.
Machimosaurus Rex
The seas have always been home to monsters. About 120 million years ago, a 9-meter crocodile, the Machimosaurus Rex, lived in the vastness of the Sahara.
The Machimosaurus Rex is the largest crocodile known to inhabit the ocean. The site where Machimosaurus Rex once lived was likely a vast lagoon stretching to the Tethys Ocean. There, he used his enormous head, incredible bite force, and short, strong teeth to split the shells of ocean turtles or catch fish. The irony of fate is that the dry and hot climate of the Sahara allowed the remains of such a large number of marine life to survive. Without plants and soil, scientists can often simply walk through sand-freed areas to collect amazing results.
Spinosaurus
Continuing the theme of marine discoveries made in the desert, one cannot fail to mention Spinosaurus, which is the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered. Living 95 million years ago, Spinosaurus was about 7 meters high and 16 meters long, surpassing the more famous Tyrannosaurus.
Spinosaurus looked and lived quite differently from its more famous rival. The spinosaurus had a huge sail of bones sticking out of its back and a number of other devices that puzzled scientists. Spinosaurus is now believed to be the only known truly semi-aquatic dinosaur. Since the bones of the originally discovered spinosaurus were destroyed during World War II, researchers were only really able to study the spinosaurus after another set of fossils was discovered in Morocco. Among the evidence indicating that the Spinosaurus lived partly in water is its long, flat legs for a flipper, as well as its nostrils set high on the muzzle, allowing it to breathe even when submerged in water. The sight of a huge sail on its back must have thrilled the inhabitants of the ancient expanses of water,much the same as shark fin today.
The Second World War. Kittyhawk P-40
On June 28, 1942, Sergeant Dennis Copping flew a damaged Kittyhawk P-40 to a British base in the desert for repairs. Somewhere along the way, both the plane and its young pilot disappeared. Only in 2012 were the remains of an aircraft discovered when oil workers stumbled upon them.
The aircraft was largely intact and evidence was still visible that the parachute was being used by the pilot to create cover. The plane was later taken to the El Alamein Museum and restored. Some believed that the plane should have remained in place in memory of the young pilot. Others believed the museum's restoration work made it look like a poorly painted model. While the plane was rebuilt, no sign of Dennis Copping was found. His fate is another secret held by the Sahara.
Gobero skeletons
Paul Sereno has already featured on this list, as he was part of the team that found the spinosaurus fossils. It was during one of his dinosaur hunting trips that he accidentally found the largest human cemetery in the Sahara. The site at Gobero in Niger was inhabited some 10,000 years ago and shows that it was once a blooming green valley.
Remains of fish, crocodiles and other animals are mixed with human remains. Many discoveries just stuck out of the sand. Two years of excavation have revealed about 200 human burials and indicated two distinct periods of residence, separated by more than 1000 years. The Kiffians and Tenerians left traces of their lives behind. Bone ornaments and arrowheads were found near the harpoons, which were used for hunting in the nearby waters. Many burials were unusual. One person was buried with his head in a pot, while another rested on the remains of a tortoise shell. Perhaps we will never know exactly how these people lived and died. The Sahara does not reveal all its secrets to us.
Here is more about the study and study of the Sahara Desert.