stuart@BMS-AT.UUCP (Stuart D. Gathman) (11/03/86)
The Sahara Desert (what I've read about it that is) has always fascinated
me. It appears, from the accounts I've read, to be the most lifeless
desert in the world. I've been to our southwestern desert, and it is
far from lifeless. It is filled with many fascinating plants and animals,
all amazingly adapted to the dry climate. The Sahara, on the other hand,
is described as completely barren: nothing but sand dunes and a few
oases.
Is this description accurate? How long has the Sahara been in
existence? I've read that it is moving southward at the rate of several
hundred feet every year.
To be in character with talk.origins, we need some outlandish
explanations as well as serious ones. For example:
The first nuclear war occurred long ago in northern Africa.
or, Northern Africa was the bread basket of the Roman Empire.
Over production reduced it to a desert.
or, A stray planet struck northern Africa while Earth was in
orbit around Saturn. (Now where did I come up with that one? :-)
What, if anything, is buried beneath the Sahara? There are
legends of a king in that area.
Looking for some good reading.
--
Stuart D. Gathman <..!seismo!{vrdxhq|dgis}!BMS-AT!stuart>firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth) (11/04/86)
Well, I lived for some years on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. It's not lifeless. When it rains (every five years or so) these beautiful plants appear out of nowhere for several days. Their seeds lie dormant. Even at normal times, there are a lot of animals - ground squirrels, lizards, snakes, bobcats and stuff. It's not all sand. Large parts of it are rocky, including a couple of mountain ranges. It's not all dry. There is one large inland lake (Lake Chad), which in earlier times was much larger and surrounded by marshland inhabited by hippo, waterfowl &c. There are several rivers running through it, including the Niger. North Africa was far more productive in Roman times. The main reason was extensive human engineering - terracing, canals, wells, windbreaks &c. What destroyed it wasn't overpopulation, it was the Arab and the goat - the one smashed everything and the other ate everything. Before that, the Sahara was temperate and quite damp (ca 2000 BC) for reasons unknown to me. Yes, the desert is spreading southweards. The local people burn the bush to clear the land for their crops. This destroys the ground cover and causes substantial erosion. The city of Kano (where my family lived for 5 years) was in a vast fertile region in mediaeval times, and is now surrounded by desert and scrub. Half the old city is ruined and deserted - it was once one of the greatest trading centres in Africa. sic transit gloria mundi
jin@hropus.UUCP (Jerry Natowitz) (11/06/86)
> ... > To be in character with talk.origins, we need some outlandish > explanations as well as serious ones. For example: > ... > or, Northern Africa was the bread basket of the Roman Empire. > Over production reduced it to a desert. > ... > Stuart D. Gathman <..!seismo!{vrdxhq|dgis}!BMS-AT!stuart> I don't think this explaination is as outlandish as you think. I read an article a few years ago (probably Scientific American or Smithsonian) that overly intensive grazing and/or cropping is responsible for the the growth of the Sahara. Of course the Sahara was never the bread basket of the Roman Empire, or was it? -- Jerry Natowitz (HASA - A division) Bell Labs HR 2A-214 201-615-5178 (no CORNET yet) ihnp4!houxm!hropus!jin (official) ihnp4!opus!jin (better)
joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) (11/07/86)
>From: jin@hropus.UUCP (Jerry Natowitz) >I don't think this explaination is as outlandish as you think. >I read an article a few years ago (probably Scientific American or >Smithsonian) that overly intensive grazing and/or cropping is responsible >for the the growth of the Sahara. Of course the Sahara was never >the bread basket of the Roman Empire, or was it? Egypt was the the breadbasket of the Empire, but I'm pretty sure that the other provinces of North Africa were big exporters of grain during the imperial period. Scily was too during classical times, although I'm not sure about it as late as imperial times. -- Joel Upchurch @ CONCURRENT Computer Corporation (A Perkin-Elmer Company) Southern Development Center 2486 Sand Lake Road/ Orlando, Florida 32809/ (305)850-1031 {decvax!ucf-cs, ihnp4!pesnta, vax135!petsd, akgua!codas}!peora!joel