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For years, satellite images of the Sahara showed nothing but endless sand and stone. But now, archaeologists claim they have identified a massive ancient formation stretching nearly 10 miles across the desert. And if the first measurements are correct, this discovery could completely rewrite what we know about the people who lived there.
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00:00Archaeologists were looking for the long-lost tomb of Cleopatra when they found something that seemed too good to be
00:06real.
00:06Roughly 43 feet underground beneath a ruined Egyptian temple, there was a perfectly straight tunnel, carved through solid sandstone.
00:14The tunnel is over 4,200 feet long, and so precise that experts called it a geometric miracle.
00:26The tunnel sits beneath an ancient city west of Alexandria, near Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
00:32The team that found it carefully peeled back layers of stone and debris until they hit this passage, about 6
00:391⁄2 feet tall, cut cleanly into bedrock.
00:42There were no collapse marks or wandering curves, just precision.
00:46If you've ever tried to drill a straight hole into a wall at home and failed within seconds, imagine doing
00:53this underground for nearly a mile.
00:56Ancient builders had no GPS, no lasers, no modern surveying tools.
01:00Yet, this tunnel stays remarkably level over its entire length.
01:05That means they understood gradients, angles, and distance in a way that goes far beyond stacked stones and hope.
01:12Engineers today rely on machines to maintain that kind of accuracy underground.
01:17These people relied on knowledge, repetition, and patience.
01:22Parts of the tunnel now sit underwater or collapsed, probably after several earthquakes that struck the region centuries ago.
01:29Some experts think the tunnel may have once connected the temple to water sources or ritual areas closer to the
01:35sea.
01:36Archaeologists noticed that the Egyptian tunnel is an exact replica of the Eupolinos Tunnel in Greece.
01:42It's believed to be one of the most important engineering achievements of antiquity, which only makes the Egyptian tunnel more
01:49special.
01:50Underground passages in ancient Greece linked temples to sacred springs.
01:55Back in ancient times, people moved through space in specific ways, underground and above, to reenact myths and journeys of
02:02gods.
02:03A tunnel like this could represent a path to the underworld, rebirth, or divine transition.
02:10Nobody would invest this much effort in construction just for decoration.
02:14Plus, in earlier digs at the site, archaeologists pulled up all kinds of artifacts,
02:20including coins with the names and faces of Cleopatra VII and Alexander the Great.
02:25They also found figurines, statues of deities, a mummy with a gold tongue, and even an entire cemetery packed with
02:34Greco-Roman-style mummies.
02:37The perfect geometric tunnel isn't an isolated flex.
02:41Not far away, underwater archaeologists off the coast of Alexandria uncovered something that sounds like it belongs in a royal
02:48travel documentary.
02:49A 2,000-year-old pleasure boat that once glided along the Nile.
02:55And this wasn't just another fishing vessel or cargo barge.
02:58It likely stretched over 115 feet long and 23 feet wide and had a decorated cabin, plus around 20 rowers,
03:07which turned the river into a moving palace.
03:09This isn't speculation pulled out of thin air.
03:13An ancient Greek geographer named Strabo wrote about these exact boats around the 1st century BCE.
03:20He described lavish vessels used by royalty during festivals and ceremonial outings in Alexandria.
03:26For years, historians treated that as a poetic exaggeration.
03:30Then, this wreck surfaced, and suddenly Strabo sounded less like a storyteller and more like a witness.
03:37Even ancient art backs it up.
03:39The Palestrina mosaic from Italy shows richly decorated boats floating down the Nile.
03:45They match both the texts and the physical evidence almost perfectly.
03:51Inside the wreck, archaeologists found something small but incredibly human.
03:56Graffiti scratched into the wood in Greek.
03:59Just writing left behind by someone who stood on that deck 2,000 years ago.
04:04Researchers haven't fully decoded the text yet.
04:07But its existence alone matters.
04:09It tells us this wasn't just a floating symbol of power.
04:13People lived on it.
04:14It was sort of like a modern luxurious yacht, and the Nile was like a highway.
04:20All types of vessels with passengers were moving back and forth, visiting friends, carrying their goods for trade, doing business,
04:27and, of course, going on pleasure cruises.
04:30The location of the pleasure boat makes the story even better.
04:34The boat sat near the temple of Isis on Antirhodos, an island that once hosted royal and religious buildings before
04:41earthquakes and rising seas erased it from the surface.
04:55Another recent find that has to do with life on the Nile is the lower part of the massive worship
05:00complex about 10 miles southwest of Cairo.
05:03It connects directly to an upper temple dedicated to Ra, the Egyptian deity of the sun.
05:09The newly excavated part is a 4,500-year-old valley temple.
05:14The upper temple sits on higher ground, and archaeologists excavated it years ago.
05:19The valley temple is closer to the Nile, and it's connected to the upper part by a causeway.
05:25A German Egyptologist actually started excavating part of the temple back in 1901, but the groundwater sat much higher then,
05:33and he had to stop.
05:34Now, the groundwater level is lower, and a modern team has managed to excavate about half of the valley temple
05:41since 2024.
05:43Once they got in, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a columned entrance portico.
05:48Then, they found blocks carved with a calendar of religious events, almost like an ancient public schedule.
05:54The text includes feasts for Sokar, a falcon-headed deity linked to Memphis, which was a major capital during the
06:01Old Kingdom,
06:02plus the Festival of Min, a fertility deity, and even the Procession of Ra.
06:08The calendar blocks all showed up around the entrance portico area,
06:11which most definitely means that the outside facade of the temple displayed this long feast calendar publicly.
06:18That's why archaeologists think this might be one of the earliest examples of a true public calendar ever found.
06:24A literal event list for an entire community, built into the architecture.
06:29On top of that, the team found dozens of decorated blocks covered in inscriptions that named a pharaoh,
06:35who ruled around 2420 to 2389 BCE, and had the temple built.
06:42This temple shows how people moved through ancient Egypt.
06:45Because the upper temple handled the main worship, but the valley temple made the whole place accessible.
06:51It acted like the landing area for boats coming in, either directly from the Nile, or more likely from one
06:57of its side channels.
06:58So instead of hiking across desert terrain, visitors could arrive by water, step onto the temple's landing stage,
07:06enter through the valley temple, then head up the causeway ramp toward the upper temple on the hill.
07:11After about a century of use, researchers found that the valley temple had been repurposed into a residential area.
07:18And the best part is, what they found from that era.
07:21Two wooden pieces used for playing senet, an ancient board game.
07:27Senet shows up at other Egyptian sites too, including King Tutankhamun's tomb, but nobody fully agrees on the rules today.
07:34Some discoveries in Egypt create new mysteries instead of solving the old ones.
07:39Earlier in 2025, archaeologists announced the discovery of the first pharaoh's burial found in or near the Valley of Kings
07:47since King Tut's tomb in 1922.
07:50The newly found tomb of Thutmose II flooded almost immediately after burial.
07:56Ancient officials rushed in, removed the mummy and most of the grave goods, and hid them somewhere else.
08:01The weirdest part is that an alabaster ointment jar inside the tomb links the burial directly to Hashapsut, Thutmose II's
08:10wife and half-sister.
08:11The inscription basically says she made this monument for him, which proves she arranged his burial.
08:17But it still doesn't explain why she placed him here and later chose the Valley of the Kings for herself.
08:24Now, archaeologists are studying a huge mound of rubble near the tomb, about 75 feet tall,
08:30and suspect it was built to hide something important.
08:33If a second tomb sits underneath, it could be complete and undisturbed.
08:39So, the deeper the archaeologists dig, the more ancient Egypt stops feeling like a gone civilization and starts feeling like
08:46a paused one.
08:47Looks like it didn't just survive time, it outsmarted it.
08:51And we're only just beginning to catch up.
08:56You've heard of Dune, right?
08:58Giant sandworms, Zendaya and Timothy walking the desert in funky spacesuits fighting over spice.
09:05Well, welcome to Mount Baldy, our very own real-life version of Dune.
09:10Minus the celebrities and giant worms.
09:13Instead of space drama, we're dealing with something even weirder.
09:17A Dune that's literally eating people.
09:22Mount Baldy rises over Lake Michigan like a giant sandy mountain, looking totally normal.
09:28But under all that sand, there's a mystery that's got scientists scratching their heads.
09:35It all started on a sunny afternoon back in 2013, when a six-year-old boy named Nathan was running
09:41up the Dune.
09:43The boy was on vacation with his family and his best friend.
09:46They were excited to spend their days swimming in the lake's cold water and soaking in the warm sun.
09:52At some point, Nathan and his best friend got tired of swimming and decided to explore the dunes.
09:58Their idea of fun was to run up the slopes and then slide it all the way back down.
10:03When they were running uphill, Nathan took the lead and saw something weird.
10:08A hole.
10:09He leaned forward to check it out, when the ground literally swallowed him whole.
10:14It happened too fast.
10:16Nathan was gone before his friend got there.
10:19His family freaked out and for three long hours, search teams desperately tried to find him.
10:25Don't worry.
10:26The guy survived.
10:27Even though his chances were slim.
10:29And since then, scientists have been trying to understand what on earth caused this accident.
10:36The weird part here is that dunes like Mount Baldy shouldn't have holes or empty spaces underneath them.
10:43Dunes are supposed to be solid piles of sand.
10:46For sinkholes to happen, there needs to be running water below ground.
10:50This water usually weakens the soil up until the point where the ground breaks beneath the surface and a huge
10:56hole opens up.
10:57That afternoon that Nathan disappeared, a geologist happened to be passing by and was completely shook by what had happened.
11:05Erin Argylin, who tried helping with the rescue, said she never heard of anything like that in her years of
11:12studying dunes.
11:14She was determined to figure it out, though.
11:16So, she went back to Mount Baldy and used ground-penetrating radar to scan the dune.
11:22That's when she saw the problem was way bigger than expected.
11:27Bizarrely enough, there were another 66 hidden holes just waiting to collapse.
11:33It was like Mount Baldy was a dune full of invisible traps, and no one had any clue why.
11:41Argylin started to speculate what could possibly explain this phenomenon.
11:45One clue rests on the history of Mount Baldy.
11:48You see, over the years, sand was taken from Mount Baldy for industrial purposes, like making mason jars and other
11:55glass products.
11:57Some scientists think that removing all that sand disturbed the natural structure of the dune.
12:02This disruption could have caused the dune to weaken, making it unstable and creating the weird hollow pockets we're seeing
12:09now.
12:10But this theory doesn't explain why the sinkholes are only happening now or why they disappear so quickly.
12:18The sinkholes sort of look like those old Hollywood movies' quicksand.
12:23They open up, sometimes swallow something or someone, then they disappear.
12:28But real quicksand is not as evil as the ones in the movies.
12:32It's a slushy mix of sand and water that looks solid from above.
12:35But it collapses into a more liquid form if a heavy object disturbs it.
12:42Another theory says it's probably because of fallen trees, buried long ago under layers of sand.
12:49These trees could be decaying and leaving behind empty spaces.
12:53If the sand shifts just right, it could cause these gaps to collapse, forming sinkholes.
13:00The problem with this theory goes back to the disappearing sinkholes.
13:04If it were true, the holes would remain open.
13:09This next deep hole seems to come out of a totally different Hollywood era.
13:13Something like if Jurassic Park met Aquaman.
13:17Behold, the famous sawmill sink.
13:20This wonder of nature is a deep, mysterious blue hole in the Bahamas.
13:25Think of it as a giant underwater sinkhole that goes down about 120 feet,
13:31filled with fresh and salty water.
13:34It's a natural wonder by itself, but also because scientists started to uncover perfectly preserved fossils and ancient bones in
13:41it.
13:42We're talking extinct species like giant tortoises, crocodiles, and even an ancient rat the size of your backpack.
13:50Back in 2004, scientists hit the jackpot when they dove down into the depths of sawmill sink
13:57and pulled up fossils that have been there for thousands of years.
14:01You may think they did not preserve well, but no.
14:04The water there is so cold and low on oxygen that everything stayed in tip-top shape, like it had
14:10been frozen.
14:12The scientists didn't just find long-lost animals, but human remains too.
14:17These bones composed a human tibia and sacrum of a Leucaean person,
14:22the indigenous folks who lived in the Bahamas about a thousand years ago.
14:26This discovery shocked archaeologists,
14:29because it gave them a major clue into the lives of the Bahamas' original inhabitants.
14:35And speaking of holes, this group of scientists tried digging an insanely deep one just to hear Mother Earth's heartbeat.
14:42Hang in there, I'll explain.
14:44It started back in 1987, when the Germans decided to dig the KTB borehole in Bavaria.
14:52A borehole is a deep hole in the ground used to find oil.
14:57These guys managed to dig almost 30,000 feet below the ground.
15:01Their mission was to understand more about our planet's inner workings,
15:05like tectonic movements, temperature changes, and seismic activity.
15:10But as they dug deeper, they were hit with a few surprises.
15:15Instead of finding solid, stable rock,
15:18they encountered fluids and gas seeping into the hole,
15:21which threw off everything they thought they knew.
15:24The heat also spiked way faster than expected,
15:28making scientists rethink their theories on how temperature behaves deep down.
15:32They actually had to stop digging,
15:35because they reached the insane temperature of 572 Fahrenheit.
15:39This whole experiment sparked the interest of a Dutch artist,
15:43who decided to tag along and do an experiment of her own.
15:47She used a geophone,
15:49which is an instrument that converts ground movements to voltage,
15:52and she recorded sound waves from the hole.
15:56When she got the results,
15:58she was shocked to hear that the sounds they recorded
16:00resembled a distant thunder,
16:02and almost sounded like a real heartbeat.
16:08Okay, so this diamond mine could easily be scouted as a location for some Star Wars sequel.
16:14And I'm not even joking.
16:16Located way up in the remote wilderness of northern Canada,
16:19surrounded by ice, snow, and a lake,
16:23sits the Diavik Diamond Mine.
16:26Since opening in 2003,
16:28Diavik has produced over 100 million carats of high-quality diamonds.
16:33But what really makes Diavik special is how it's powered,
16:37in part, by a wind farm.
16:39Yep, they managed to do that even in the cold tundra.
16:43When Diavik first opened,
16:45it was all about open pit mining.
16:47But now they've moved underground,
16:50digging deeper to find those hidden treasures.
16:52And to make it all work,
16:54they had to build a dike system to stop the lake from flooding the mine.
16:58Pretty intense, right?
17:00And then there's the Monticello Dam,
17:03which sounds pretty Italian,
17:05but it's actually located in Napa Valley, California.
17:08This beauty was built between 1953 and 1957,
17:12and it created Lake Berryessa,
17:14which holds the record for the 7th largest man-made lake in California.
17:20The lake covers approximately 20,000 acres,
17:23which is about as big as Disney World in Florida.
17:26And although this lake works as a water reservoir
17:29for the northern region of the San Francisco Bay Area,
17:32that's not its most important feature.
17:34Its most unique feature is known as the Glory Hole.
17:38The Glory Hole is a morning glory-type spillway,
17:42which helps to drain the excess water from the dam.
17:45It has a diameter of 72 feet at the top,
17:48and it can drain an astonishing 48,000 cubic feet of water per second
17:53when the lake reaches its maximum capacity.
17:57If you thought about swimming around in the lake, forget it.
18:00It's pretty fascinating,
18:01but it was forbidden since someone swam too close to it in 97
18:05and was swept inside the spillway.
18:08Yikes!
18:11Now, have you ever seen cricket balls that are 3 billion years old?
18:16Klerkstorp spheres were found in deposits
18:18of the mineral pyrophylite in South Africa
18:21and rocked the science world.
18:23They do look like tiny ancient cricket balls
18:25with seams-like lines around the middle.
18:28Back in the 1980s,
18:30some folks claimed these spheres had been made
18:32by an advanced pre-flood civilization we know nothing about.
18:36One museum curator shared stories
18:38about how they rotated on their own in a display case.
18:42There was also a TV show that invited a psychic
18:45who declared the spheres were pieces of an ancient spaceship.
18:49But according to geologists,
18:51these spheres are actually pretty common concretions
18:54or spherical objects formed by different minerals
18:57than the surrounding rock.
18:59The seam-like lines are just imprints
19:01from the host rock's layers building up over time.
19:04The Klerkstorp spheres come in different shapes,
19:06from noticeably flattened spheres to distinct disks.
19:10As for that episode,
19:11when one of these spheres spun on its own,
19:14the curator of the Klerkstorp Museum cleared that up too.
19:17He said that when he put one sphere on its glass shelf
19:20when a journalist came to visit,
19:22the sphere naturally rotated a bit because it's round.
19:26The area where the museum is located
19:28often experiences earth tremors
19:30from gold-mining activities nearby.
19:33The oldest known human-like footprints
19:35could be 6 million years old.
19:38They were found on the Greek island of Crete in 2002.
19:42If the number is correct,
19:43it would mean that early human ancestors
19:45may have migrated between Europe and Africa
19:48much earlier than we previously thought.
19:50This doesn't mean Africa is not the cradle of humankind, though.
19:54It could just prove that early human ancestors
19:57moved back and forth between continents.
20:00Some researchers believe the footprints
20:02were left by a bipedal creature
20:04possibly related to an early human ancestor
20:07nicknamed El Grieco.
20:09According to scientists who studied them,
20:11the footprints have a very human-like shape
20:14with five toes and a parallel big toe.
20:17Some scientists are skeptical about it
20:19and suggest the prints might be from a late European age.
20:23The new study analyzed fossilized marine microorganisms
20:27found in the sedimentary rocks
20:28to determine the footprint's age
20:30and prove it's actually 6 million years.
20:34The next amazing find that keeps scientists entertained
20:37is the Dorchester plot.
20:39It's a beautifully crafted metal vessel
20:41with some fancy geometric designs
20:43embossed in shiny silver.
20:45The pot was discovered in, who could have thought,
20:48Dorchester in 1852 under quite unusual circumstances.
20:53During a powerful blast, the pot broke into two pieces.
20:57Scientists believe it was originally embedded
20:59within a rock or boulder known as pudding stone.
21:02The rock from which the Dorchester pot emerged
21:05is dated to be around 500 million years old.
21:09So it could mean the pot itself is also that old.
21:12The current and less exciting theory suggests
21:15that the Dorchester pot is a Victorian-era candlestick holder.
21:19Such things were really trending back then,
21:21so it's not a surprise to find such fancy household item
21:24from that time.
21:25The Dorchester pot falls into the category of uparts,
21:29or out-of-place artifacts.
21:31Those are objects that seem too advanced
21:33for the time period they're supposedly from.
21:36If we accept that the pot is 500 million years old,
21:40then whoever made it was way ahead of their times
21:43in terms of crafts and tech.
21:45One extra mystery is that the pot has an engraving of a plant
21:49that most likely disappeared from Earth
21:51over 100,000 years ago.
21:53Sounds like good proof the pot is really extra old.
21:57Now, it looks like the oldest map in Europe
22:00is a stone from 4,000 years ago.
22:02This Bronze Age slab was found in France
22:06in the year 1900 at an ancient burial ground.
22:09The carvings on the slab show in three dimensions
22:12the river Odie network with a fantastic accuracy
22:15of around 80% over an 18-mile stretch.
22:19There are other stone-carved maps around the world,
22:22but this one is unique because it shows a specific area to scale.
22:26Looks like the slab's carvings don't just map rivers and hills,
22:30but also settlements, barrow sites, and field systems.
22:35Archaeologists say the slab wasn't used for navigation,
22:38but rather to symbolize power.
22:40The detailed markings on the slab might have served
22:43to illustrate the domain of a local ruler,
22:45possibly a prince or king,
22:47to show their control over the territory.
22:50When the ruler lost power,
22:52the slab was likely repurposed as part of a burial vault.
22:55The unique artifact was stored in the cellar of a museum.
22:59For decades, no one even noticed
23:01until several scholars read older reports about the slab
23:05and decided to check it out.
23:07They conducted a detailed analysis using 3D techniques.
23:11Their research proved that the creators of the slab
23:14had not only etched lines into the rock,
23:16but also modified its surface
23:18to reflect the topography of the landscape with high accuracy.
23:23The Salzburg cube, also known as the wolf's egg iron,
23:27was discovered in the late 19th century in Austria.
23:30Now, don't let the name mislead you.
23:32It doesn't look like a cube at all.
23:34It's more like a rounded object with two flat sides.
23:37Down the middle, there's a groove,
23:39and the surface is covered with pits and craters.
23:42This unique appearance is the reason why
23:44many people think it might be something out of this world.
23:47Workers accidentally found this artifact
23:49when they blew apart a piece of coal.
23:52The coal seam it came from
23:53is thought to be over 60 million years old.
23:56The Salzburg cube moved between museums,
23:59mysteriously vanished in the early 20th century,
24:02and then showed up again.
24:04A professor from Bonn University
24:06suggested it might be from a meteor.
24:08But they found no evidence of elements
24:10that you'd normally see in meteorites,
24:12like cobalt or nickel.
24:14Then, researchers thought it must be a human-made object,
24:18possibly a Victorian-era candlestick holder.
24:21No one knows the true story of the cube
24:23or its current location.
24:25Yep, it disappeared again.
24:28Have you heard about the Meister print?
24:30It's a fossilized sandal print discovered in 1968,
24:34and it has sparked a lot of intrigue.
24:37There's a trilobite inside the print,
24:39which supposedly went extinct around 500 million years
24:42before humans even existed.
24:44But many historians think this age is an exaggeration.
24:48When Meister found the fossil,
24:50it was authenticated.
24:51But the scientist who did it
24:53didn't confirm it was a human's sandal print.
24:56He only agreed there was a trilobite there.
24:59When another scientist visited the site,
25:01he found a 6-inch impression
25:03he believed was from a child's moccasin.
25:05But the footwear seemed to be new.
25:07So, could it be evidence of time travel?
25:11Proof that humans existed millions of years
25:13earlier than we thought?
25:14Or a sign that someone else visited early Earth?
25:18Or is it just a rock formation
25:20that looks like a sandal print?
25:21We still don't have the answers.
25:24Back in June 1936,
25:27a couple was walking along Red Creek in London, Texas.
25:30London, Texas?
25:31Yeah.
25:32When they stumbled upon something unusual.
25:34It was a piece of wood sticking out
25:37of what seemed to be an ancient rock formation.
25:40About 10 years later,
25:41their curious son decided to crack open the rock
25:44to see what was inside.
25:45And he saw a hammer,
25:47which looked surprisingly modern.
25:49Then, one unique finds enthusiast
25:52decided that the rock encasing the hammer
25:54was from the Cretaceous period.
25:57This would mean that someone dropped
25:59a 19th-century hammer
26:00while dinosaurs like Triceratops
26:02were still roaming the Earth.
26:04So, if this hammer was truly
26:06from the Cretaceous period,
26:08then the whole evolutionary theory
26:10would be wrong.
26:11And if the hammer was modern,
26:13it would mean the Cretaceous rock formation
26:15it came from was much younger than we thought.
26:17But the real answer was much simpler.
26:20The hammer was indeed modern,
26:22and geological processes had encased it in rock.
26:26Minerals can harden around an object
26:28in a relatively short time.
26:30So, the hammer was probably dropped
26:32by a miner a century or so ago,
26:34and the rock formed around it afterward.
26:37And no, it wasn't a Victorian-era
26:40candlestick holder either.
26:43When you think of an epic desert scene
26:45with blazing sun,
26:47endless dunes,
26:48and those magical little oases,
26:50you probably picture
26:51the legendary Sahara, right?
26:53But what if I tell you
26:54that 11,000 years ago,
26:57this vast expanse of hot sand
26:59looked totally different
27:00than it does today?
27:01Yeah, I don't know.
27:02I wasn't around then.
27:03But I'm told that back then,
27:05what we now call a desert
27:07was a lush paradise,
27:08brimming with lakes, rivers,
27:10grassy plains,
27:11and even woodsy forests.
27:13So, where did all this water go?
27:17There are many stories
27:18about the distant past of our planet
27:20when deserts were covered
27:21with jungles and forests.
27:23And then something happened,
27:24like changing climates
27:26or colossal earthquakes,
27:27and it all turned green lands
27:29into dunes.
27:30But how about a theory
27:31that Sahara became a desert
27:33because of humans and goats?
27:37The Sahara has seen its fair share
27:39of wet and dry drama
27:40throughout the ages,
27:41mostly thanks to little shifts
27:43in Earth's orbital tilt,
27:45causing variations
27:46in how much solar radiation
27:47hits the atmosphere.
27:48There were even times
27:50called the African humid periods
27:52when the rain would pour in
27:54and transform the dry landscape
27:55into a bright green haven.
27:58But between 8,000
28:00and 4,500 years ago,
28:02something really funky
28:03happened to this region.
28:05Certain areas went from humid
28:07to dry,
28:08way too fast to explain it
28:10by just orbital changes.
28:11In the blink of an eye,
28:13the lush Sahara
28:14turned into the Sahara
28:15we know today.
28:16Now, if you ask scientists
28:18why it happened,
28:19they will tell you,
28:20oh, it's just poor
28:22parameterization of the data.
28:24Bet you didn't get it,
28:25did you?
28:25Well, right,
28:26let me translate it
28:27from scientific
28:28to common human.
28:29It means they really
28:31don't know the answer
28:32themselves,
28:32and they got a bunch
28:33of missing puzzle pieces.
28:35But as scientists
28:37sifted through ancient
28:38dirt and pollen samples,
28:40they spotted a quirky trend.
28:42Wherever there were
28:43pastoralists,
28:44also known as humans
28:45with their domesticated animals,
28:47the plant life
28:48seemed to shift.
28:49It was as if every time
28:51humans and their furry friends
28:52meandered through the greenery,
28:54they turned it into scrub
28:56and desert right behind them.
28:57Oops.
28:59Yep, chances are
29:01that by overgrazing,
29:02humans were sapping moisture
29:04out of the atmosphere,
29:05since plants give off moisture,
29:07which helps make clouds
29:08and making things even sunnier,
29:10leading to a quicker end
29:11of the humid vibes.
29:13Plus, our ancestors
29:15may have been getting
29:15a little too cozy
29:16with fire for land management,
29:18further speeding up
29:19the desert takeover.
29:22Anyway, scientists are sure
29:24that this lush Sahara
29:26would have turned back
29:27into desert eventually,
29:28even if humans hadn't shown up,
29:30thanks to Earth's natural rhythms.
29:32So there's no need
29:33to pin this abrupt change
29:35solely on humans.
29:36It could simply be about nature
29:38getting feedback
29:39from vegetation and dust cycles.
29:43It's difficult to determine
29:45what caused these changes,
29:46as it's all interconnected.
29:48During the last humid period,
29:50the Sahara was filled
29:52with hunter-gatherers.
29:53As things got a little drier,
29:55they started herding animals
29:56for food.
29:57The weather pushed people
29:58to herd cattle.
30:00It's also possible
30:01that grazing sped up
30:02the landscape degradation.
30:04So, which came first?
30:05The chicken or the egg?
30:07Or in this case,
30:08the human or the cow?
30:09Well, it's tough to tell
30:10with the evidence we have now.
30:13Now, today,
30:14it's safe to say
30:15that water is no longer
30:16that big of a problem
30:17in the Sahara,
30:18even though it's a huge desert
30:20and the times of lush forests
30:21there are long gone.
30:23But technology's got us covered.
30:26For example,
30:26the Nubian sandstone aquifer system,
30:29the biggest underground water stash
30:31on the planet.
30:32It's nestled beneath
30:33the Sahara desert's eastern edge
30:35and stretches across
30:36four northeastern African countries
30:38– Sudan, Chad, Libya, and Egypt –
30:41covering a whopping
30:43770,000 square miles
30:46and holding around
30:4736,000 square miles
30:49of groundwater.
30:50Just look at the pipes transported
30:51when it was being built.
30:53It's the world's largest
30:54irrigation project.
30:56No wonder it's feasible
30:57to thrive in the Sahara today.
31:01But imagine thriving
31:02in the Sahara desert
31:03with just one water source.
31:05Sounds like a tough gig, right?
31:07But the ancient Garamantes
31:09did just that,
31:10surviving and even thriving
31:12for nearly a thousand years
31:13without monsoons or rivers
31:15flowing to their desert paradise.
31:17These clever folks
31:19were the trendsetters
31:20of urban life in the sands.
31:21And even the Romans
31:23couldn't help but notice
31:24their genius.
31:25While many thought
31:26they were just
31:26desert-dwelling savages,
31:28the Garamantes were busy
31:29building an empire
31:31in one of the toughest
31:32climates on Earth.
31:33But how did they do that?
31:35Well, they got crafty
31:37and dug a whole bunch
31:38of underground tunnels
31:39to tap into
31:40a massive sandstone aquifer.
31:42They were literally
31:43squeezing every drop of life
31:45from under the dunes.
31:46But recently,
31:47research showed
31:48that the Garamantes
31:49weren't just hardworking.
31:50They were pretty lucky, too.
31:53The Garamantes
31:54had an underground aquifer
31:56that brought water
31:57up to a hill
31:58where they built
31:58over 500 Fagras,
32:00which are irrigation systems,
32:02some stretching
32:03as long as 2.5 miles.
32:05It was like sipping water
32:06through a straw,
32:07which let them irrigate
32:08their crops
32:09for nearly a century,
32:10especially since
32:11even a little rain
32:12would help recharge
32:13the system.
32:15But eventually,
32:16due to rain insufficiency,
32:18the aquifer ran low,
32:20and reaching it again
32:21would have meant
32:21digging more tunnels
32:23and relying on more people.
32:24That's a tough problem,
32:26considering these people
32:27were in the middle
32:27of food and water shortages.
32:29Guess I don't need
32:30to tell you
32:31what happened
32:31to the Garamantes,
32:32do I?
32:34The fall of the Garamantian culture
32:36might be linked
32:37to several factors.
32:38It may have been due
32:39to climate changes,
32:40or they may have simply
32:41used their water resources
32:43too much.
32:44Back in the day,
32:45the Sahara Desert
32:46was actually fertile
32:47agricultural land,
32:48thanks in part
32:49to the cool irrigation system
32:51the Garamantians created.
32:52But since fossil water
32:54isn't something
32:55you can replenish over time,
32:57the groundwater levels
32:58dropped pretty low.
32:59This likely played
33:00a big role
33:01in the kingdom's decline
33:02by the late 7th century CE.
33:05That sounds like someone
33:06who hit a lottery jackpot,
33:08used up all the money,
33:09and went back
33:10to their original
33:10not-so-cool job
33:12once the bank account
33:13got fully drained.
33:14Oh, by the way,
33:16even if the Garamantes
33:17left some secret
33:18wisdom messages for us,
33:20the chances are
33:21we'll never get
33:22what they wanted
33:23to tell us.
33:23Nobody really knows
33:25what language they used,
33:26and their texts
33:27are nearly indecipherable
33:29to us today.
33:31But let's go back
33:33to the green Sahara.
33:34So it transformed
33:35into a desert
33:36about 4,500 years ago.
33:38But today,
33:39we can understand
33:40how people lived
33:41in those times
33:41in the Sahara,
33:42thanks to natural parks
33:44in Africa
33:45that have the ultimate
33:46outdoor art gallery.
33:47There are well over
33:4815,000 ancient paintings
33:51and carvings,
33:52depicting everyday life
33:53from around 11,000 years ago.
33:56However,
33:56if the carvings
33:57aren't enough for you,
33:58and you feel like
33:59visiting an actual
34:00green desert,
34:01all you have to do
34:02is book a flight
34:03to California.
34:04One of the most
34:05beautiful phenomenon
34:06in the world,
34:07the super bloom
34:08takes place here.
34:09Look at all these colors.
34:10Orange, green, pink.
34:12It's a miracle.
34:15Wildflowers bloom
34:16right in the middle
34:17of a hot desert
34:18after several years
34:19of rainfall
34:19and dry places.
34:21It's such a bright
34:22and colorful landscape
34:23that super blooms
34:24can be seen from space.
34:26This rare phenomenon
34:28can be observed
34:29in other arid places
34:30and deserts
34:31in western
34:31and southern Africa,
34:33western Australia,
34:34and Chile.
34:35In all these places,
34:36the weather is very hot
34:37and dry in summer.
34:39Mild human air
34:40comes in winter,
34:41and this is the ideal
34:42environment
34:43for mass flowering.
34:45Flower seeds
34:46that lie in desert sands
34:47can wait for decades
34:48before starting
34:49to produce flowers.
34:50When the hot sun
34:52destroys all the weeds
34:53and grass,
34:54and the rainfall
34:54becomes enough
34:55to moisten the soil,
34:56the seeds are kind of like,
34:58well, okay,
34:59now it's our turn
35:00to play a big game.
35:01And then,
35:02hundreds of thousands
35:03of tourists
35:04come to take photos
35:05and post these beautiful
35:06pictures on social media.
35:08And this,
35:09unfortunately,
35:10is one of the main dangers
35:12for flowers.
35:13Therefore,
35:13if you find yourself
35:14in a place like this,
35:16don't pick the flowers
35:17and don't trample on them.
35:18Stay on the path,
35:19don't litter.
35:20Take only pictures
35:22and leave only footprints.
35:24You get it?
35:25Good.
35:25Good.
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