Did Egypt always have sand?

Pulls up a stool..

It was a lush forest at one time, with plentiful flowing rivers , and teaming with amazing animal life. But alas the land was sold to the treachorous logging companies leaving nothing behind but sawdust. and a few outcrops of vegitation.

But serously, the sahara desert has been spreading miles for a number of years. i expect the same is happening in egypt, and it was once(hundreds of thou year) quite habitable. i dont really know how they expand, havnt really looked into it much.

This could be anserwed by five mins on google.


Forgot to ask: directed at the OP where is that picture on your avatar from? i have seen it somewhere else but i cannot get any info on it.

[edit on 9-6-2008 by monkeybus]

I have an interesting question for you all. Have you ever seen the Great Sand Dunes National Park seated at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado? Anybody care to explain how that got there?

Originally posted by 12.21.12
I have an interesting question for you all. Have you ever seen the Great Sand Dunes National Park seated at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado? Anybody care to explain how that got there?

In the very beginning? Well some very ancient granite mountains were eroded away by rain and wind. The eroded material(sand) flowed downstream to the shallow sea that was what was to become the rocky mountains.
There the collected sands were transformed into sandstones after many millenia. These sandstones were then exposed as the rocky mts uplifted, and they were eroded away into sand once again and some of it is blown by winds into areas were it will collect to form dunes.
In the case of those dunes inparticular the sediments collected in a lake that has since dried up, and then the winds took care of the rest.

During the last ice Age north africa was much different that it now, much cooler and wetter.
What turned it into a desert, with a change in climate and the advent of the domestication of sheep and goats.

simple answers to thses questions:

number one: no egypt has only been a desert for around 12,000 years

number two: that 'nuclear explosion' was infact discoverd to be a comet impact.

numbe 3: the medatreian was once all land

reply to post by 12.21.12


To add the fellow above, mountains help create deserts, as clouds go up against the side of the mountain, they condense and rain on that side. SO the other side of the mountain gets very little rain in comparison.

Originally posted by UnderwaterPyramid
I know the Egyptians wore laptis lazuli powder for the eyes with different colored styles and had three different civilizations.

They had lots of different makeup. You may be thinking of 'kohl' which is the dark eyeliner. They had an amazing amount of makeup, though.

I'm not sure what is meant by "three civilizations' unless it refers to the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, and then... well, history gets muddled but eventually they fall under the Turks after the collapse of the Roman empire. However, by the time of the Romans, styles were beginning to change and by the time of the Turks you see the "Arab dress" and headscarves and no makeup.

Was Egypt always a desert?

Err... yes... and no.

We know that about 3 million years ago, it was actually a pretty nice place to live. And in between the last two ice ages, it was fairly hospitable. However, since the last ice age (10,000 years ago) it turned into a dry and dusty land. www.livescience.com...

It was this drying up of the land that caused people to move into the Nile area... and cities and towns sprang up, along with a lot of technology and trade. Life got fun!

How can the Egyptians have electricity in a desert?

Same way we can have electricity in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and so forth... there are coal plants, some water power, and they buy electricity from other places. I'm not sure if they have nuclear plants, but they may. I believe there's a little bit of solar and wind power as well.

Why isn't any camel gods part of Egypt if they were living in a sandy world, they had cat, bird, crodile and many other animal gods besides a camel.

Because the camel isn't native to the area. It was brought in by the Persians about 600 BC (good question, though.)

I surely cant find pictures online for what Egypt use to look like, anyone with insight about what im asking? Always thrilled to have a reply.

There are lots of images (drawings) of Egypt from their tombs and temples as well as line drawings from Europeans. Go to Google, select "images" and ask for "ancient Egypt." You'll get tons of stuff!

Originally posted by UnderwaterPyramid
If the Pyramid was was part of the ocean floor at sometime (possible)

They weren't (there's over 100 pyramids in Egypt).

WRITTEN Egyptian history (that they wrote) goes back to about 500 years before the first pyramid.

The "Red Pyramid" is called that because it is built out of reddish colored sandstone. It was one of three built by Snefru
www.touregypt.net...

Could be how it survived........the flood that Egypt was talking about in the Book of the dead, and the bible among many others who described the ancient flood!

The Book of the Dead doesn't describe a flood. It's the story of what happens to the soul as it goes from life to the afterlife. There's rivers involved, but those are in the Afterlife.

Here are some good reports on that area. There seems to be quite a bit of controversy, as to the age of things, between Geologists and Archaeologists.

a discussion about how old that area is

[edit on 11-6-2008 by win 52]

Byrd makes some great points.

Just a few things I will add. First of all the makeup, kohl (black) was used as an eyeliner by both men and women. They wore this to reflect the sun, as well as to keep bugs and infection out of their eyes.

They also ground up malachite (green) to wear as an eyeshadow, as it was a naturally occuring antibiotic.

As far as I know (and I may be incorrect on this), Lapis Lazuli was not worn as makeup, but rather as jewelry. Lapis was not native to Egypt. They had to trade for this, so it was very valued.

The colors blue and green symbolize resurection and rebirth, black symbolized the fertility (of the soil) in the Nile river valley.

Another thing about the pyramids. Many pyramids had deep trenches within them (which some people mistake for "traps"). These were actually "drains" to catch water from the floods.

The Egyptians relied on the Nile river valley to flood every year, which would ensure a bountiful harvest season. Floods and earthquakes were very common.

And no...camels are not native to Egypt.

As far as I know, the sand has always been there. Of course the areas closer to the Nile, would have been much more green, but the outlying areas were desert.