Egypt
Scotsman (Lyndsay Buckland)
- More On Mega-lake Discovered In Western Desert
Discovery News (Larry O'Hanlon) The hyper-arid deserts of western Egypt were once home to a lush mega-lake fed by the Nile River's earliest annual floods. Fossil fish and space shuttle radar images have defined the bed and drainage channels of...
- Radar Images Reveal Lost Lake
Thaindian The original article can be found in the December 2010 edition of the journal Geology but be warned that it costs $25.00 for a day's access to the article. Geologists have found that a huge lake waxed and waned deep in the sandy heart of...
- Sudan's Land Of 'black Pharaohs' A Trove For Archaeologists
expatica.com There is not a tourist in sight as the sun sets over sand-swept pyramids at Meroe, but archaeologists say the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan holds mysteries to rival ancient Egypt. "There is a magic beauty about these sites that is heightened...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Travel: The Complete Guide To Nile Journeys
The Independent on Sunday (David Else)Picture a map of Africa, and divide it in four. The top right-hand bit – the north-eastern quadrant, for the geographically minded – is dominated by the Nile. It has two main tributaries: the White Nile, flowing...
Egypt
Drought at the end of the Old Kingdom
Scotsman (Lyndsay Buckland)
They built the iconic pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza, which still stand as a monument to their skills and tenacity to this day.
But the fall of the great Egyptian Old Kingdom may have been helped along by a common problem which remains with us now - drought.
Researchers from the University of St Andrews have confirmed that a severe period of drought around 4,200 years ago may have contributed to the demise of the civilisation.
Using seismic investigations with sound waves, along with carbon dating of a 100-metre section of sediment from the bed of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, the team were able to look back many thousands of years. They were able to see how water levels in the lake had varied over the past 17,000 years, with the sediment signalling lush periods but also times of drought.
Lake Tana - the source of the Blue Nile river - flows to the White Nile at Khartoum and eventually to the Nile Delta.
Dr Richard Bates, senior lecturer in earth sciences at St Andrews, said their studies had confirmed that the ancient civilisation that was the Egyptian Old Kingdom - often referred to as the Age of the Pyramids - may have experienced a prolonged period of drought of the same severity being seen in parts of Africa now.
- More On Mega-lake Discovered In Western Desert
Discovery News (Larry O'Hanlon) The hyper-arid deserts of western Egypt were once home to a lush mega-lake fed by the Nile River's earliest annual floods. Fossil fish and space shuttle radar images have defined the bed and drainage channels of...
- Radar Images Reveal Lost Lake
Thaindian The original article can be found in the December 2010 edition of the journal Geology but be warned that it costs $25.00 for a day's access to the article. Geologists have found that a huge lake waxed and waned deep in the sandy heart of...
- Sudan's Land Of 'black Pharaohs' A Trove For Archaeologists
expatica.com There is not a tourist in sight as the sun sets over sand-swept pyramids at Meroe, but archaeologists say the Nubian Desert of northern Sudan holds mysteries to rival ancient Egypt. "There is a magic beauty about these sites that is heightened...
- More Re Drying Of The Sahara
Scientific American In a finding that may help scientists better predict the pace of climate change, research published in Science shows how the Sahara Desert, a region as big as the U.S. that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea across northern...
- Travel: The Complete Guide To Nile Journeys
The Independent on Sunday (David Else)Picture a map of Africa, and divide it in four. The top right-hand bit – the north-eastern quadrant, for the geographically minded – is dominated by the Nile. It has two main tributaries: the White Nile, flowing...