Evidence of a Wet Sahara

There is no doubt that climate changes take place. The Sahara of Africa is an example. Between 10,000 and 4000 years ago the Sahara was much wetter. There were many lakes and rivers and it was possible to travel great distances along the interconnected water systems.

The map below shows the water ways of the eastern African Shear Zone. The waters of the Sahara collected and flowed along rifts. These include the Atbara Rift, the Blue Nile Rift, the White Nile Rift, the Abu Gabra Rift, the Bahr El-Arab Rift, and the Muglad Rift. There were also basins that filled with water, especially during the rainy monsoon season, and Lake Victoria. Hydrologic studies indicate many periods of flooding from the Nile to the Atlantic coast of Nigeria.

The Central African Shear Zone (shown below) was riddled with lakes and rivers. The gray shaded areas show the ancient water ways in the African Sheer Zone. The area was prone to flooding.

In 1984, United States Geological Survey researchers located some of the covered channels with the aid of a satellite navigation device modified for land use. Archaeologist William P. McHugh directed excavations on the shorelines of two sand-covered valleys. McHugh uncovered hand axes and other stone artifacts, evidence of tool workshops used intermittently over tens of thousands of years at the ancient water systems. Animals uncovered at the sites included crocodiles and turtles. Researchers estimate that the annual rainfall during the Aqualithic was at least 20 inches.

Noah lived in the region of Lake Chad. This lake is located at the northeastern boundary of Nigeria, between Nigeria and Chad. The region is called Borno, which means "Land of Noah." This is the only place on earth that is claimed by the native population to be Noah's homeland.

There is a considerable evidence that boats were once prevalent in the Sahara. The black mahogany Dufuna dugout (above) was found in the Sudan buried 16 feet under clays and sands whose alternating sequence showed evidence of deposition in standing and flowing water. The dugout is 8000 years old. By comparison, Egypt's oldest boat is only about 5000 years old. 

Peter Breunig (University of Frankfurt, Germany) has written this description of the Dufuna boat: “The bow and stern are both carefully worked to points, giving the boat a notably more elegant form”, compared to “the dugout made of conifer wood from Pesse in the Netherlands, whose blunt ends and thick sides seem crude”. Judging by stylistic sophistication, Breunig reasons that, “It is highly probable that the Dufuna boat does not represent the beginning of a tradition, but had already undergone a long development, and that the origins of water transport in Africa lie even further back in time.”

Boats appear on prehistoric rock paintings in the Sahara. Many show people transporting long horn cows by boat. The Proto-Saharan were cattle-herding. Here are examples of the sickle, incurved sickle, square, incurved square, and flared boat types found on the prehistoric rock art of the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt.

The historicity of Noah’s concern for animals is supported by the discovery that Proto-Saharan rulers kept royal menageries of exotic animals. The oldest known zoological collection was found during the 2009 excavations at the city of Nekhen on the Nile. The royal menagerie dates to about 3500 BC and included hippos, elephants, baboons and wildcats. Noah would have known Nekhen. This painting was found on the wall of a tomb in Nekhen, the earliest known Horite Hebrew shrine city.

Related reading: The Historicity of Noah's Flood; Boats and Cows of the Nilo-Saharans