With the highest temperature up to 57 degrees Celsius and the lowest humidity of only 2%, it is hard to imagine this place used to be a green paradise.
While it’s now one of the driest places on Earth, just 10,000 years ago, the Sahara was a wonderful place to live.
The Sahara used to be a green steppe. (Photo: Internet)
The green Sahara was once a fertile savannah teeming with wildlife, grasslands, trees, and fish-filled rivers.
It was at this stage that an ancient civilization resided here.
For about five thousand years, humans have proliferated, hunting, fishing, grazing, growing food, making pottery and jewelry. But then it all comes to an end...
The Sahara Desert was once filled with green
About 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, a climate change event occurred due to a change in the tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation and orbit.
Epoch Times mentioned this climate change event in the article The largest Sahara desert in the world was once a fertile green grassland?.
According to climate scientist Dr. Gavin Schmidt of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, about 8,000 years ago, the Earth’s orbit was slightly different from what it is today.
The tilt of the axis of rotation changed from about 24.1 degrees to 23.5 degrees today. This change caused the climate pattern to change, thereby making the once green Sahara land become barren, dry and hot like today.
Rainfall has almost stopped. The inhabitants of the Sahara were forced to leave their paradise to migrate eastward, to the Nile Valley. It was here that they built the glorious Egyptian civilization and prosperous pharaohs.
Many ancient corpses may lie beneath the sands of the Sahara. (Photo: messagatoeagle)
Hidden beneath the sands of the Sahara are remnants of the civilization that once inhabited this land. Recently, archaeologists have begun to find clues about this lost magical world.
At more than a hundred archaeological sites, scientists have unearthed geological specimens, animal bones, tools and impressive rock art murals. They present a vivid, colorful picture of life in the verdant Sahara.
If we climb the Tassili N’Ajjer plateau in southeastern Libya, at Hoggar and Air, we can still encounter plants such as cypress and olive trees.
Because they could not reproduce, they managed to survive through the long years. Many trees are at least 4,000 years old. Their roots extend more than 7m in the ground, in order to maintain the water supply for the plants.
Before transforming into a desert, the Sahara also had trees such as ash, cedar, oak, walnut, myrtle, and lemon.
The concept of camels did not exist in the lost ancient civilization of the Sahara
Today, when it comes to the Sahara desert, people immediately think of the image of a caravan of pilgrims on camels, but few people know that this animal is completely alien to the ancient civilization that used to be the first time. inhabited here about 10,000 years ago. In fact, camels did not appear in this area until early AD.
Camels were an alien concept to the lost ancient civilization of ancient Sahara. (Photo: Internet)
Various dinosaur fossils have been unearthed in the area. Giant dinosaur genera such as Ouranosaurus, Afrovenator, Jobaria and several others used to roam here in ancient times.
Afrovenator Dinosaurs. (Photo: Internet)
Jobarian dinosaur. (Photo: Internet)
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Other animals living here are reptiles and rodents. Both species are easily adapted to the extreme heat in the desert. By incubating their feet beneath the sand, they are able to create a suitable temperature environment.
Not only that, reptiles can survive without drinking water, because their digestive system is able to break down the texture of dry plants to produce water.
A common animal in the Sahara is the jerboa, or desert rat. In addition to the excellent burrowing ability, jerboa mice can also jump on their hind legs, like kangaroos, to move quickly on the ground.
In addition to the excellent burrowing ability, the jerboa can also jump on its hind legs, like a kangaroo, to move quickly on the ground. (Photo: Internet)
Wild hares are also commonly encountered in the area. As a long jumper, it can move very quickly, thus avoiding burns to its feet. Based on the large number of bones found, it is clear that crocodiles dominated many ancient rivers, which are now dried up.
Ancient frescoes on rock reveal the secret of ancient lost civilization in the Sahara
We can learn a lot about the lost civilization from the stone frescoes depicting thousands of years of forgotten history.
A prehistoric petroglyph on the Tassili N’Ajjer plateau. (Photo: Internet)
Heinrich Barth, a German explorer, spent five years studying thousands of prehistoric rock frescoes in the area.
Portrait of German explorer, Heinrich Barth. (Image: Wikimedia)
These ancient frescoes are found in a large area, stretching from the city of Timbuktu in the west to the Republic of Chad in the east.
In the large caves on the Tassili N’Ajjer plateau, in southeastern Libya, Mr. Barth discovered thousands of frescoes and carvings. Many of them are large, some up to a meter tall.
The paintings depict people here enjoying a prosperous pre-desert life. There are many pictures depicting scenes of daily life: Men hunting, women combing their hair and dancing in a circle.
There are many paintings depicting common animals in the area: elephants, rhinoceros, lions, ostriches, giraffes, hippos, antelopes, ...
Housing paintings show the people of the Sahara living in hemispherical grass huts. Many pottery items are also depicted in the paintings.
A cave mural on the Tassili N’Ajjer plateau, in the Sahara Desert. (Photo: messagetoeagle)
(Image: Wikimedia)
They also graze livestock. There are many paintings depicting cows, goats, sheep, and pigs. Domestic dogs also appear in the picture. Fishing is a very popular activity.
The Sahara is a place full of mysteries. Scientists suspect that there is a large water reserve, along with the ruins of an ancient stronghold buried under the desert sand.
