Libyan Desert - endless sands, with rocky formations towering here and there, among which you can find Libyan glass - a mineral that appeared, possibly as a result of the intervention of cosmic forces …
Why is it possible? Because among scientists there is no consensus that unequivocally explains the reason for the appearance of Libyan glass in the desert.
This natural glass is found only in one place in the world - in the dangerous and inhospitable Great Sandy Sea of the Libyan (or Western) Desert, which is part of the Sahara. In order to find the stone for the amulet of Tutankhamun, the ancient Egyptians had to walk about 800 km in one direction from ancient Thebes (present-day Luxor). The true nature of the material was discovered only in 1999 by Italian scientists Giancarlo Negro and Vincenzo Michele, who examined the stone.
Libyan glass has been found since antiquity in the Libyan desert, which is located to the west of the Nile - on the same side as the Theban Hills and the City of the Dead. Both the desert and the glass were named after “levu” (or “either”) - an ancient people who inhabited these lands 5-6 thousand years ago. Stones are literally scattered across the desert over a large area along the Egyptian-Libyan border, and in the south along the border with Sudan. These transparent or translucent stones, ranging from white to yellow or green, sparkle like jewels under the bright desert sun. Their sizes - from very small pieces - to large ones of several kilograms. The ancient Egyptians knew it well - tools, spearheads and arrowheads with sharp blades of the Paleolithic era were found here, the age of the most ancient of which scientists determine at 100 thousand years.
Most experts believe that about 28 million years ago, a large meteorite fell into the territory of what is now the Libyan desert, causing a huge explosion that caused a sharp rise in temperature. The sand melted, and then quickly cooled (until crystallization), and a mineral was formed, consisting of 98% silicon dioxide, the remaining 2% - cosmic dust. This was Libyan glass - the cleanest glass in the world (with the highest percentage of silicon dioxide).
Let's make a reservation that millions of years ago there was no Sahara Desert, which means that there was no sand - the main "ingredient" in the production of natural glass. But, according to experts, at that time the surface layer of the earth in these places consisted of rocks suitable for obtaining glass.
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Libyan glass is the purest natural glass on the planet, 98% silicon oxide (SiO2). It has, in many cases, meteorite inclusions, confirming the theory of an explosion that occurred from a collision with a comet, and the concentration of iridium in it exceeds that of the earth. Moreover, now they are talking about the rarest finds of small diamonds that originate from the comet nucleus itself - such material has not been found on earth yet.
Scientist Mark Boslow (New Mexico) was a proponent of the idea of the formation of Liys glass under the influence of a cosmic cataclysm. For a long time, a crater was lacking for the final confirmation of the version, which was soon discovered by a scientist from Boston University - Farouk el-Baz, who had not previously shared Boslow's theories. The crater was discovered during the study of images from space in the Sahara region. The crater was very large and covered with sand, so it could not have been identified on the ground before. They named him Kebiru. By the way, similar phenomena in ancient times also occurred in Scotland and India.
Some experts do not agree with this theory of the origin of Libyan glass, since a crater should have formed when a large space body collided with the Earth. There is such a crater in the Libyan Desert, but it is located outside the mineral zone. How can this be?
Another question: Libyan glass is found over a very large area. What force should be the impact from the collision of our planet with a cosmic body, so that the "products of their meeting" scattered in all directions for hundreds of kilometers? Again, there should be an impressive funnel at the meeting point.
This can happen only in one case - if a flying space body exploded near the Earth, and not on its surface. Then the absence of a crater and the large spread of minerals can be explained.
According to other scientists, lightning took part in the formation of Libyan glass - they hit the ground, and as a result, these minerals were formed. That is, everything was exactly the same as in the story with fulgurite. Personally, I am confused by this theory, because it is difficult to imagine how in a sufficiently short period of time (the age of the found Libyan glass is the same) lightning should have struck in these places in order to form so many minerals.
Libyan glass is a translucent yellow-green mineral. People used it in everyday life many, many millennia ago. Knives, spearheads and even jewelry were made from it. According to the excavations of archaeologists, the age of the found items exceeds one hundred thousand years.
In the tomb of Tutankhamun, the pharaoh's jewelry was found - a pectoral necklace with a scarab beetle made of Libyan glass. The examination showed that the mineral from which the scarab is made is identical in composition to Libyan glass.
The pectoral of Tutankhamun symbolically depicts a rather complex plot about how the sun passes through the sky, and the scarab (dung beetle) symbolized the rebirth and the sun itself, which every day died and was revived again. I wonder if the ancient Egyptian priests and jewelers knew about such an unusual origin of Libyan glass?
The size of minerals found by people in the Libyan desert is small, although sometimes rather large stones come across. Libyan glass is an inexpensive mineral. A stone measuring 2 cm by 2 cm costs about two thousand rubles.
Interesting fact. Although there is no talk of "depletion" of Libyan glass reserves, the Egyptian government has banned the export of minerals from the country.