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I think I have read somewhere that the Sahara area was pretty grassy and savannah-like from the end of the Ice Age until around 1,500 BC/BCE. What I find interesting is that, according to one of my books on Ancient Egypt, the age of building pyramids ended around 2,150 BC/BCE. Apparently, the Sahara wasn't a desert until well after the last pyramid was built!
It seems to me that the popular depiction of the pyramids being built under a scorching desert sun in a beige landscape is inaccurate, and that the terrain of the time was grassy like the Serengeti today rather than arid.
Another thing I want to know is what the Nile Delta was like around this time. I know that it's fairly green today compared to the Sahara Desert, so I suspect that it was possibly a humid jungle in Old Kingdom times. Am I correct?
[This message has been edited by trexmaster (edited 17 April 2005).]
rasol Member # 4592
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Your idea about the sahara being wet is correct. You seem have the dates and timing a bit confused is all.
trexmaster Member # 4812
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I'm not sure about that...some Old Kingdom reliefs do depict plants and animals that require wetter conditions than Egypt currently provides, and the Sphinx shows signs of erosion by rain (source). True, the rainfall in Old Kingdom Egypt may not have been the heavy, frequent kind you get in a jungle, but it does appear that O.K. Egyptians probably did not see modern-like extremely arid desert until the end of the Old Kingdom.
EDIT: Some corrections made.
[This message has been edited by trexmaster (edited 19 April 2005).]
trexmaster Member # 4812
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Oops, I have read that the Sphinx was probably built in pre-Pharaonic times, not in the Old Kingdom.
Still, as mentioned in my earlier post, evidence for a wetter-than-present dynastic Egypt seems to exist (or am I reading bad sources? Can rasol or ausar help me out on this if I am?).
[This message has been edited by trexmaster (edited 19 April 2005).]
ausar Member # 1797
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Geologist/Egyptologist like Fekri Hassan believe that the drying Sahara was one of the contributing factors of the end of the Old Kingdom. Around the 6-8th dyansties it appears that large tracts of the Sahara began to dry,and this is about 4,000 years ago. The Kharga Oasis area and other oasis in Egypt show wild fauna and animals that is usually found in savanna like areas like the Kenyan plains.
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