Mysterious murals in the Sahara Desert

These mysterious paintings are the crystallization of a brilliant ancient civilization. Until now, those frescoes have become one of the great mysteries in the history of human civilization.

The Sahara used to be a rich steppe

In 1933, Leo Frobenus, the famous German zoologist, during an expedition, discovered in Libya, on the cliffs of Fezzsan in the center of the dry Sahara desert, drawings of buffalo, elephants, ostriches, lions , chamois, goats, rhinos even hippos.

In the area 60km on both sides of a dry tributary of the ancient Wadi River, on the cracked dark orange cliffs stretch frescoes painted in ocher and white clay.

Subsequent studies have confirmed that, from the Paleolithic period, about 10,000-12,000 years ago, when humans first appeared in North Africa, the climate here was much wetter. The Sahara is not a desert but a fertile steppe.

Here, hunting was the source of life for ancient people. Camels then did not appear in the Sahara, they appeared much later, but in the rivers flowing in what is now shallow springs, there were crocodiles. The last representatives of this reptile now inhabit a small reservoir at Hoggar at the edge of the desert.

Then, about 5-7 million years later, the drought began, the land of the Sahara lost its moisture, the grass and trees died. Herbivores and then carnivores gradually disappeared from the Sahara. Animals must retreat to the remote forests and steppes of Central Africa.

Following the animals, most of the humans left, leaving only a few capable of surviving there, where very little water remained. They became nomads.

Paintings on cliffs in the Sahara desert. (Illustration).

As the centuries passed, the nomadic peoples of the Sahara were the total rulers of the desert. They hold all the roads across the desert.

According to ancient historians, thanks to the trade in salt and gems, the remaining people gained a lot of wealth, this is also confirmed by the Phesan treasures that Italian archaeological scientists found in 1960s, including a lot of gold jewelry and Roman coins.

In addition to the above treasures, many remarkable artifacts were found in the tombs. There were also found cups and jewelry, Etrurian ivory combs, flowerpots, Phoenician necklaces and more. All the artifacts found confirm one thing, the remaining people have extensive trade with all the civilized peoples of the ancient Mediterranean region.

Scientists think that was the period when most of the frescoes appeared in the pointed mountains in the center of the desert. This place itself is also called "the plateau of many rivers" when life was still flourishing in this place.

Painting in the desert

Through studying a large number of these cultural artifacts, it is said that 400 to 10,000 years ago, the Sahara region had many tribes and peoples living in this fertile land, and they created such a highly developed culture.

The most important feature of that culture is grinding stone and making pottery. It is a milestone marking the level of production development. In the frescoes, there are also Saharan and ancient scripts, showing that their culture at that time had developed to a fairly high level. The form and method of expression of the fresco are quite complex, the content is rich and diverse.

Judging from the drawings, it is still rudimentary and sketchy. The colors used are the colors of the earth and different rocks, such as red from iron oxide, white from kaolin. Brown, blue or green colors are also obtained from sedimentary rocks with a carbon content.

They took colored stones and water as a pigment to paint the murals. Thanks to hydrolysis of the red colors that permeate the cliffs, long-term contact with the stone will fuse together into a homogeneous body, so it keeps the fresco surface fresh and durable over time. After thousands of years, up to now, the colors are still gorgeous and fresh.

It's also one of the many special and strange things.

In 1933, the French cavalry team went to the Sahara desert, accidentally discovered a population of frescoes several kilometers long in the highlands of Taxiritai and Enachen. Many of them are large, some up to a meter tall. After that, many European and American scientists went there one by one.

In 1956, a French expedition team went to the Sahara desert and they discovered up to ten thousand frescoes. The following year, they brought back to Paris 11,600 square yards of restored pictures of the frescoes and photographs that once stirred up world opinion.

Among the frescoes, there are many people who are mighty martial artists, showing the majestic and invincible appearance. There were people holding long spears, round shields, sitting on chariots, and rushing forward to show the scene of going to battle.

Some people hold bows and arrows, re-enacting hunting scenes. There is another scene where many pictures of smiling girls are duplicated.

There were even people who looked like they were giving, like they were welcoming an angel to descend. There are even house paintings showing the people of the Sahara living in hemispherical grass huts. Many pottery items are also depicted in the paintings.

From the frescoes, it can be known that dancing, hunting, sacrifices and religious rituals are the main contents of the customs and habits of the people at that time. It is very likely that the people of that time before or after fighting, hunting, sacrificing and dancing, they created frescoes to represent the spirit of love for life and self-motivation.

Among the frescoes found, animal figures are the most numerous. The animals were scared, their four hooves raised as if they were flying. Then the scene was scattered, very lively. The art of composition is very unique, comparable to any artistic masterpiece of any country at the same time.

From these animal images can be inferred the natural conditions of the Sahara at that time. Some frescoes depict people on a canoe hunting hippos. It is worth noting that the animals that appear on the frescoes have a chronological order. From the earliest buffaloes, to elephants, antelopes, giraffes, etc., these grassland animals prove that the climate of the Sahara is increasingly arid.

Until now, the Sahara desert has been a place full of mysteries. Scientists also suspect that there is a large water reserve, and the ruins of an ancient stronghold are buried under the desert sand. Currently, the Sahara Desert is home to about 2 million people, with honey The population density is equivalent to 1/150 of the population density of the United States.