Shuttle images reveal Egypt's lost great lake

Science News ^ | Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 | Alexandra Witze

[SunkenCiv]

Radar images taken from the space shuttle confirm that a lake broader than Lake Erie once sprawled a few hundred kilometers west of the Nile, researchers report in the December issue of Geology. Since the lake first appeared around 250,000 years ago, it would have ballooned and shrunk until finally petering out around 80,000 years ago...

Since then, desert winds have eroded and sands have buried much of the region's landscape, says Maxine Kleindienst, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto. But during next summer's field season, she and her colleagues will be checking for ancient shorelines at the elevations suggested in the new paper.

Other studies have found evidence of mega-lakes in Chad, Libya and Sudan at various points over the past 250,000 years. The new study targeted Egypt, some 400 kilometers west of the Nile, where in the 1980s researchers reporting finding fish fossils in the desert.

[SunkenCiv]

Saharan Lakefront -- At perhaps its greatest extent, the Tushka lake would have covered more than 68,000 square kilometers (shown in false color topographical image at left). At other times (right) less water would have flown into the low-lying basin from the Nile (visible on the right in both images), causing the lake to shrink. Red corresponds to an elevation of 400 meters above the basin floor.T.A. Maxwell et al/Geology 2010

[SunkenCiv]

Egyptian Sahara Lost Lake

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[SunkenCiv]

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[Tax Government]

They should refill it.

[BigCinBigD]

If it’s lost. How did they get a picture of it?

[Diogenesis]

For much of the twentieth century, Egyptologists shied away from explorations in the vast sand sea known as the Western Desert.
An expanse of desolation the size of Texas, the desert seemed too harsh, too implacable, too unforgiving a place
for an ancient civilization nurtured on the abundance of the Nile. In spring, a hot, stifling wind known as the Khamsin
roars across the Western Desert, sweeping up walls of suffocating sand and dust; in summer,
daytime heat sometimes pushes the mercury into the 130 degree–Fahrenheit range.
The animals, what few there are, tend to be unfriendly. Scorpions lurk under the rocks,
cobras bask in the early morning sun. Vipers lie buried under the sand.

Umm Mawagir, as the city is now known, flourished in the Western Desert from 1650 to 1550 BCE,
nearly a millennium after the construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
This was a dark, tumultuous period of Egyptian history.

the discovery of Umm Mawagir, in concert with finds from the more westerly Dakhla Oasis, says Darnell,
reveals clearly how the Theban dynasty succeeded in extending its power and military might
more than 100 miles into the hostile desert, building an entire city, and controlling a vital crossroads of trade routes.

The growing mountain of data revealed just how much traffic once flowed along the Girga Road,
which stretched 110 miles westward from Thebes in the Nile Valley to remote Kharga Oasis in the Western Desert.

In 2005, the team found a dense litter of ceramic molds for baking bread—vestiges of a large industrial bakery—
about half a mile north of the temple.

The sheer scale of the operation, says Darnell, suggests that Umm Mawagir was producing a huge surplus of bread,
enough to feed an army of soldiers."

[Diogenesis]

LINK HERE:

"For much of the twentieth century, Egyptologists shied away from explorations in the vast sand sea known as the Western Desert. ....
The sheer scale of the operation, says Darnell, suggests that Umm Mawagir was producing a huge surplus of bread,
enough to feed an army of soldiers."

[csvset]

The old fishing hole dried up.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Who knew that the ancient Egyptians drove SUVs and that Halliburton’s reach stretched so far back?

[central_va]

Topless chics making bread bump.

[1010RD]

Very good. Thanks for sharing.

[PIF]

Correct Science News link:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/66507/title/Shuttle_images_reveal_Egypts_lost_great_lake

[PIF]

The question arises - where did the grain come from? Was it barged down the Nile at huge expense, or was there a micro-climate maintaining a nearby lake (a remnant of the old lake or an overflow from Nile flooding or Lake Tritonis, the existence of which was widely reported by the classical Greek geographers) which allowed for agriculture in the area?

[rusty millet]

Very cool discovery. Probably was nice real estate with all the sandy beach shoreline...

[shotdog]

“At other times (right) less water would have flown into the low-lying basin from the Nile (visible on the right in both images), causing the lake to shrink. Red corresponds to an elevation of 400 meters above the basin floor.T.A. Maxwell et al/Geology 2010” And, having flown in, it transferred at Cairo and flew on. sd

[BenLurkin]

I think they are making beer.

[central_va]

I think they are making beer.

Topless chics making beer -even better! Those ancient Egyptians has their Shiite together.

[Nowhere Man]

Hmmm, I guess Hooters has been around for a lot longer than we thought. >B-D

[worst-case scenario]

“Radar images taken from the space shuttle”