Megalakes of the Sahara
Long ago, the Sahara was a really great place. Lots of lakes, good for fishing and swimming — it probably was not called Sahara, as that name is derived from Arabic ṣaḥrāʾ which means desert. The fact that the region was wet is known to researchers.
Something in dispute is the existence of megalakes. There is still Lake Chad, an important water supply and ecosystem that touches on four countries. It is large now, but was much bigger in the past. Today it is fed by rivers.
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| Sahara sand dune, USDA / E.L Skidmore (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) |
Researchers have long known that the Sahara Desert was once wet (or ‘green’). However, there is a question as to when it happened and how wet it became. They believe the Sahara was green very late in the Ice Age and the early Holocene—a period dubbed the African Humid Period (AHP). Field research and satellite pictures provide evidence of lakes and rivers that are now mostly buried beneath the sand. Paleolake Chad covered an area of 340,000 km, much larger than the current Lake Chad (figure 1). Countless fossils from the Ice Age have been found. . . . This kind of diversity is seen today in the African Serengeti, south of the Sahara Desert. Even dwarf Nile River crocodiles have been found as recently as the early 20th century in isolated lakes or pools in oases of the high western Sahara. This suggests the Sahara was wet recently. Moreover, many Ice Age artifacts and thousands of rock petroglyphs have been found, suggesting the population of the Sahara was quite large.
Intriguing, isn't it? To read the entire article, click on "Ice Age megalakes did exist in the Sahara."