The Ghosts of the Green Sahara

In this video essay we take a deep dive into the enduring mystery of the African Humid Period or the Green Sahara. A period about 16,000-5,000 years ago when monsoonal rains brought a lush grassland to the Sahara Desert. We will be exploring the ancient civilizations that once called this land home as well as the biodiversity it once housed. All in an attempt to learn more about the mysterious and fascinating cultures that once existed in the Green Sahara.

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VIDEO CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
03:53 Ghosts of the Green Sahara
05:20 The Cave of Swimmers
07:45 When The Sahara Was Green
15:46 Back In Time
24:33 The Kufra River
28:32 The Wadi Sahabi Paleoriver
34:22 Lake Mega Chad
40:17 Gobero Burials Reprise
53:49 Ghosts of the Monsoon
57:48 Thank You and Outro

CITATIONS

[OverlySarcasticProductions]

Less than two minutes in and I'm already losing my mind because I was lucky enough to take a one-quarter paleo course with Doctor Sereno back in 2017 and I knew he was a big deal but I was NOT prepared to be bitchslapped with "discovered the first evidence of the Green Sahara" -R

[diamond_tango]

Born too late to see the green Sahara. Born too early to see the green Sahara. Born just in time to see a guy with a cat talk about the green Sahara.

[Magnus]

Love the idea of ancient people painting their friends

[Windthroughcedars]

Can I just say I love that you do longform content. This video finally helped me clean my kitchen that I have been looking at, but not cleaning all day.

[cookiecraze]

The fact this video is almost at a million views after 3 days proves that actual science can appeal to people if you present it well.

[versusdxxth_]

Miniminuiteman summer clothes dlc just dropped.

[MorphicGalaxy]

Kind of incredible to see Milo at this point. Man’s gone far from being a TikTok debunk channel, and I for one can’t wait to see more of what he’s got!

[Lillian]

How wonderful is it that these paintings of people enjoying the raining season by going for a swim still exist today for us to see? I love when we find things like them from the past. Just shows humans have always been human.

[MorgottTheGraceGiven]

I’m a paleontologist, not an archaeologist, but I honestly find your videos so refreshing! A lot of times, those in our field tend to focus on extremely large swaths of time, myself included. When I first saw the title of the video, my first thought was that it would be about the trans-Saharan seaway, a shallow sea that split the Sahara up until around 50 million years ago. We can still find the fossils of massive marine animals there today. In my work, 16, 000 years is such a minimal amount of time that we sometimes overlook how much can actually change.
Not only was this video fascinating from an archaeological perspective, but it made me reflect on how I think about time in my own field of expertise. Cycles like the green Sahara are undoubtedly important and help to tell a much fuller story of the life that thrived in a specific area. It’s something I need to remember when looking at vast swaths of time- that within those periods, there are cycles that may be harder to pinpoint and are comparatively short, but important nevertheless.
I love your videos so much, I love learning about these fascinating parts of human history. But above all, I love how you’ve been able to reach across scientific disciplines and emphasize how important interdisciplinary learning is. I’ve taken so much of what you’ve said to hear in my own field, and I hope you keep it up!

[dsbromeister]

Aerospace engineer here. Not important enough to warrant a correction, but I wanted to clarify some details of the planetary dynamics that you mention as causing the Green Sahara period.

The important factor you're referring to is actually the precession of the Earth's axis, not the "wobble." It's the same way a spinning top that is spinning at an angle will slowly circle around a different, perfectly vertical, axis. At the other end of the procession, the star Vega would be the north star rather than Polaris.

The "wobble" is actually the change in the tilt of the axis by a couple of degrees, which can also make the seasons more or less extreme. The Earth's axis wobble is actually stabilized quite a bit by our large moon. Mars, without any large moons, has much greater wobble and thus less long-term seasonal stability.

The eccentricity isn't about the Earth's orbit as a whole being closer or further to the sun, but rather about how large the difference between perihelion and aphelion (i.e., how circular it is). I don't think you meant what you said, but it did imply the former rather than the latter.

Again, not a huge deal. Excellent content as always.

[AFowkingPanda]

Fun fact: The Sahara is still growing. There is actually an initiative going on to stop it from spreading any further south. The use of very small "oasis" plots about 8 feet in diameter consisting of plants with high water retention, you can see a belt of these going across the middle of Africa like a giant wall.

If this interests you; China is also working on reclaiming their northern deserts in a similar fashion.

[_ForgottenIchor_]

This is probably the best channel discovery for me this year. Like bro?!? Entertaining, Informative, and actually fire merch. Glad you popped up on my feed. Going to continue to binge now!!!

[CodeNameX]

So last night I was like, "Wow, haven't seen anything from Milo lately."

BOOM.

[gekyume]

heyo, Nigerian here, Nigeria is massively unexplored when it comes to archeology and i believe theres a ton of undiscovered ancient history buried in its lands
one day i hope these secrets are discovered

[adelaide]

Buried on a bed of flowers that grew a hundred miles away... that was my favorite part, the reminder that no matter how far we come as a species, we're the same people who would go so far to do something like that for someone we love, whether they're still here to see it or not. Humans aren't perfect, but I really do love us 🥹

[hexhydr]

I play ur videos during my night shifts and it’s a great contrast to the inaction of every night. thanks for making my job bearable 🙏

[robbaldwin]

Getting called out for listening to the video in the background while at work with a single tear running down my cheek...

[hassansalah]

Egyptian here .. thank you so much for the most sophisticated video about Green Sahara Period .. it's believed that the predynastic Egyptian period corresponds to the beginning of monsoons recession and it's said that the end of African humid period is cause of the fall of old kingdom (pyramids builders) 4200 ago 👌

[joelle]

"Not understanding the facts does NOT make them any less TRUE." Preach Milo!

[daisynand]

Thank you, Milo, for making me cry on that last bit there. You've taught me something so wonderfully beautiful and deeply heart-wrenching at the same time.