reply to post by kimish
The shorelines and sea levels were different then. Also, in Africa the Nile once flowed west into the Atlantic. It flowed through where the
Sahara Desert is now. Just saying I believe the fact that the sea levels had changed plays a huge part.
Sorry but that never happened. It's meandered quite a bit over time, and they do have a good idea when and where (paleo-channels indicate it's
ancient course), the one thing is certain is that the Nile never flowed into the Atlantic. That's more of a Cayce thing than a science thing.
(however there was once a large lake in the area now occupied by the Sahara - see
Ancient lakes of the Sahara).
The Sahara had been quite green at one time, the ancient peoples of North Africa living in that region would eventually be driven east to the
remaining green area along the Nile as the encroaching desert followed the changing climate.
reply to post by SumerianSoldier
A good example of cities lying in ruins in a 'desert' might be several of the Sumerian cities, which originally lay along the ancient Persian Gulf
shoreline, but due to siltation the gulf shoreline has migrated far to the south, leaving these cities now high and dry and seemingly now "lost in a
desert".
Some ancient cities were situated where they were to take advantage of trade routes (like Palmyra in Syria) or for defensive reasons (like Hattusha),
and when they were abandoned or destroyed, they look incongruous sitting forsaken in a desert region. Hattusha in particular was situated far from any
waterways or shorelines in a very hostile region to make it more defensive from sieges as the Hittites went about carving out their empire. A siege
army could die of thirst before gaining entry into Hattusha. If you didn't know Hittite history and
why the city was built there, you might
wonder how it came to exist in such a remote and arid region, which might lead to the wrongful speculation that it must hale from a time when the
region's climate was much different.
They have also found neolithic petroglyphs, artifacts and cemeteries that show humans once lived in the Sahara, along the shores of ancient lakes,
that must now look odd found deep in a hostile desert. These finds however stop well short of being signs of a civilization or even cities. (see
Stone Age Cemetery, Artifacts Unearthed in Sahara
