The fact that the Sahara, which today covers an area of ​​9.2 million square kilometers, turned green before we were born, or It’s possible that it will turn green one day, even if we can’t see it. It may sound quite illogical.

However, this greening Even if you have trouble dreaming it, it’s real!

We have known for a long time that there are water resources beneath the sands of the Sahara.

Swimmer’s cave

However, with the studies conducted in 2010, scientists in this region They discovered a prehistoric mega-lake. This lake was formed about 250,000 years ago when the Nile River flowed through a low channel near the Tushka Valley.

And this wasn’t the only evidence that the Sahara Desert was once a very different place. Among the archaeological finds from this desert, An area called Swimmers’ Cave There was.

This People swimming were depicted on the walls of the cave And according to scientists, these drawings showed that there may once have been lakes in this region.

On the other hand, the Sahara Desert underwent somewhat of a transformation between 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, after the end of the last ice age.

The green vegetation on the sand dunes grew and rainfall increased He also turned existing wells into lakes. In other words, almost 9 million square kilometers of North Africa have turned green.

Once again, the transformation of the Sahara into green, It also happened when the Earth’s tilt changed. 8,000 years ago the slope began to shift from an average of 24.1 degrees to the current 23.5 degrees.

Furthermore, the Northern Hemisphere is currently closest to the sun in winter, but during the Sahara’s green period in summer.

This situation occurs during the summer months in the Earth’s northern hemisphere. caused the effects of the sun to increase. This increase strengthened the seasonal African monsoon, caused by temperature differences between land and ocean.

In other words, rising temperatures in the Sahara created a low-pressure system that transported moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to the desert. This increased humidity It was enough to turn the Sahara Desert green.

In summary: the Sahara Desert, even if one day we can no longer see it for all these reasons, It turns surprisingly green.

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