Atlantropa: The Megaproject That Wanted To Dam And Drain The Mediterranean Sea

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A bit of a different episode for the channel today! As opposed to focusing on population, we're going to dive deep into a very specific proposed megaproject called Atlantropa. This wild machination would have drained large parts of the Mediterranean and physically connected Europe and Africa. But while that might sound good in some ways, the geographic consequences would have been staggering! It's not too much to say that, had this project been built, the world would be very different today and not for the better.
Stock footage is purchased from www.videvo.net and www.storyblocks.com. See something that doesn't look right? Please contact me!
Atlantropa Map at 04:48 by Devilm25 (map), VulcanTrekkie45 (translation) - File:Map_of_the_Atlantrop_Projekt_blank.png, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Gibraltar Dam sketch by Peter Behrens - Wolfgang Voigt: Atlantropa - Weltenbauen am Mittelmeer., Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Sunken Mediterranean Sea aerial by Ittiz at en.wikipedia, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Animation support provided by DH Designs (needahittman.com)
This video is a production of Sound Bight Media (soundbight.com)

[@eazydee5757]

No wonder projects like these don’t work. They’re way too dam huge.

[@pattimullins9179]

Thanks so much, Geoff! Fascinating- never heard this before.

[@herschelwright4663]

One thing that needs to be addressed is the fact that Europe and Africa are on two different tectonic plates. The dams would be destroyed by a major earthquake and tsunami.

[@classic.cameras]

The Aral Seas environmental impact is what I see when I think of this horrible idea. That "lake" drying up was devastating to the environment especially down wind. This Mediterranean Land idea would have just give the Sahara Desert all it needs to conquer the world. Or most of it. Bad bad bad idea.

[@thomasgrabkowski8283]

Like it likely would cause massive and rapid desertification of southern Europe for example

[@nlpnt]

The Salton Sea is another example and one with better Google Streetview coverage of the towns around it.

[@MrBoliao98]

What the Europeans then needed was a railway across the sea.

[@philmanson2991]

The Three Gorges Dam continues to wreak havoc on the surrounding countryside. You can't put that much water-weight in a place that's never had it.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Well, China's folly.

[@yusefinc1096]

Well the Three Gorges Dam is a HUGE disaster waiting to happen. When that dam breaks…millions of people will perish, and it will also collapse their economy.

[@thomasgrabkowski8283]

Not to mention, it’s built over a fault line and it’s also causing earthquakes

[@MrBoliao98]

No, the point is that when you enact such changes, there are other changes that one may not preempt.

[@fjp3305]

What an insane idea!

[@stuartaaron613]

The irony of this project is that historically the Strait of Gibraltar has closed naturally because of the northward movement of Africa several times, resulting in the Mediterranean Sea drying up. Eventually the natural dam would collapse, resulting in the sea refilling.

[@soundscape26]

The principality is called Monaco, Monte-Carlo is a district within Monaco.

[@JoshJones-37334]

Cody Franklin’s the Atlantropa Articles is a fun read

[@mellissadalby1402]

Hey Geoff, you changed your studio. Looks a bit better I think.

[@Bhembca]

Yay, new set!

[@bobjones7533]

Please do video about connecting the black sea to Caspian and sea water flow east

[@Hogtownboy1]

this up there with King Cante commanding the tides not to advance.

[@user-ig8qn2en8y]

I want video about australia please ❤❤❤❤

[@tomc9706]

Funny to hear a geographer label a strait as straight.

[@nlpnt]

He has autcorrect enabled...on his graphics program...

[@VanillaMacaron551]

@@nlpnt I wonder how he would label the Great Australian Bight / Bite?

[@mariaconsuelothomen]

What about Naples Italy, Corinth, and Athens?

[@bopitbull3957]

That is insane he would have killed so much ocean life.

[@mancroft]

Lunatic idea.

[@jazy13u]

What a terrible idea.

[@LeSethX]

I always love this topic, although I thought it was a pre-WW1 idea, so still learning something new. The only good thing for it, regarding existing coastal cities, is it would save Venice from their sinking problem

[@AlexanderWeurding]

Thanks!

[@WizardToby]

Alternate History Hub did a book a handful of years ago about this project and occurred in a distant future when the entire Mediterranean dries up.

[@theenergizer248]

I'm planning to drain the Pacific Ocean., so we don't need ships anymore but just lay railway lines across what's now the bottom of the ocean.

[@user-ig8qn2en8y]

Thanks ❤❤❤❤

[@acousticambush9421]

There was a plan a few years back to dam between James Bay and Hudson Bay in Canada as well . Due to the amount of fresh water pumped into James Bay , the salinity is very low . So they figured James Bay would turn fresh and Hudson more saline. They would then send the fresh water from James Bay to the French River , to the Great Lakes , and to the US.

[@acousticambush9421]

If you look at the history of the US's water management , you'll quickly find that it is disastrous. Cayahoga river CAUGHT FIRE ! Salton Sea. Love canal . Colorado River/ Lake Mead. Below third world standards of management

[@acousticambush9421]

If you look at the history of US water management , you'll quickly find that this would have been disastrous..Love canal , Cayahoga river CAUGHT FIRE ! Colorado River/ Lake Mead , Salton Sea

[@orangeyewglad]

lol what an absolutely horrific catastrophe of an idea. The hubris of man knows no bound!

[@history_leisure]

Sea Level rise is an issue places are facing at the moment, and communities would be lost anyway weather or not you try and do something (damming seas, figure how to push it somewhere else), so why not think of things (maybe just not this)

[@Ulbre]

At first everyone was all for it and there were shouts of Dam The Mediterranean from all across the globe. And then it changed and everyone started saying "Damn the Mediterranean"!!!!!!!!

[@bigjared8946]

I have no doubt there were proponents of this at the time who painted the opposition as anti-technology and anti-human progress. The part I don't get is using drained sea bed for agriculture. The ocean has electrolytes which are of course what plants crave.

[@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536]

Where is Australia? In the Moon?

[@WPAK207]

There is no Australia, and no Moon! Wake up, they're lying to you! (S)

[@notrueflagshere198]

And WW2 was such a great success!

[@IbexWatcher]

How arable would the land even be if it were exposed? When the Mediterranean has dried up naturally in the past, it left a lot of salt flats. I’m sure some new areas could be tilled, but a lot of it would just be a desert

[@pabloquijadasalazar7507]

Wouldn’t they have to wait a long time for the previously underwater land to dry up?

[@VanillaMacaron551]

No? Water evaporates quickly. Mudflats can be drained. Idk, maybe the land would be salty for a long time. In lots of places the water table is not far from the surface.

[@nathanbyd570]

Anyone who did this to the Mediterranean would have a lot of angry people who want to get their ships in and out for trade...

[@thomasgrabkowski8283]

Not to mention draining it would likely turn southern Europe into a desert similar to the Sahara instead of the fertile region it is today

[@michaelhiatt7377]

Are there any dam questions?

[@MaxwellMax]

In time (a few million years) the Mediterranean Sea will be dam by Africa moving north.

[@OGStoneVegas]

3:03

[@joshuachristofferson9227]

6:12 ...except that Europe is already connected to itself & yet BOTH WW's occurred on that Continent, largely, so...

[@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536]

Waiting 💤.

[@pacificatoris9307]

As crazy as Suez canal?

[@chrisk5651]

Sounds like something that the Dutch would do!

[@danr1920]

Why isn't it a lake?

[@evanheathcock4679]

Seas have openings leading into bigger bodies of water, mostly an ocean. Lakes do not, as they are enclosed on all sides

[@andyd6031]

@@evanheathcock4679why isn’t it a gulf?

[@lonniemcclure4538]

@@andyd6031 - Perhaps more to the point, why is the Gulf of Mexico a gulf instead of the "Sea of Mexico" or "Mexican Sea"?

[@TheOneAnd178]

@@andyd6031 historical importance.

[@romuco9872]

Yes, so many flaws in this idea. No mention of the Strait of Messina and all the rivers that flow into the Med. Tidal effects, land erosion. Is crackpot too harsh for Mr. Sörgel?

[@VKK-cr1uk]

And mofos want to know why HOI4 TNO devs took it out.

[@mariaconsuelothomen]

If they needed more land, why didn't some people move to America? Some ideas are just plain stupid. This is like moving the Nubian temples to form a second Nile valley in Egypt.

[@johnl5316]

that guy was no doubt the person who also came up with net zero

[@JayJay-je1tk]

Straight or Strait ?

[@soundscape26]

Strait is a noun so it's the correct word for the geographic feature.

[@hoangkimviet8545]

It is like “dam* everyone”.

[@jediknight5600]

This was honestly one of the dumbest ideas ever dreamed up.

[@eddieliu350]

Please stop with these “premiere 1 day later” videos. They’re cluttering up my subscription feed and it’s disappointing when I’m looking for things to watch and I can’t watch it until I remember to come back later.

[@mwnemo]

Probably better to do the premiere a few hours before.

[@KootenayCards]

That sounds like a you problem

[@eddieliu350]

@@KootenayCards Yes, it is my ultimate first world problem haha

[@pyro226]

​@@mwnemo Not even

[@pyro226]

I downvote all premieres. At this point though, it's "don't hate the player, hate the game". KZbin has become worse over the years.

[@EnneaIsInterested]

A huge mega-dam like that on Earth is probably not the right call, but the basic intuition was good - Infrastructure projects can reshape a people's collective identity quite effectively - I think the left can learn from this and embrace the utopianism that Marx and Engels abandoned.

[@patrickgallagher9069]

You live in Oregon. I wish you'd add SAE units when specifying units. 46000 kilometers times 0.621 kilometers per mile equals 28566 miles. That's a lot to process each and every time you give a unit of length. And areas? Holy cow. Please do the math so I know what you're saying.

[@VanillaMacaron551]

Most of the world talks in metric - as well as ALL of the medical, scientific and pharmaceutical world. I guess Geoff wants to talk in the language that most of his viewers understand, ditto for his scientific colleagues. Drop the American Exceptionalism - you will increasingly be isolated in hanging on to imperial measures. I learnt to do rough km-miles conversions at age 11 when my country went metric half a century ago. It was a fun mental challenge on road trips. The easy and rough way is to say a kilometre is a bit more than half a mile, so just halve the number of km and add a bit. More accurately, divide the number of miles by 8 and then multiply by 5 if I remember correctly.

[@patrickgallagher9069]

@@VanillaMacaron551, attacking my character was totally unnecessary.....

[@patrickgallagher9069]

@@VanillaMacaron551 All I was saying is that’s a lot of math to do in my head at the pace someone talks. I don’t live in Europe. I’m not in the pharmaceutical industry. The world I live in is immersed in Imperial units, and that’s what I can comprehend quickly. And I enjoy his shows enough to muddle through the math once in a while. Asking to include units I understand (along with metric) is respectable and reasonable. It’s not arrogant, and it’s not a political statement about my country, which I love. It’s a simple request to help make this bit of his audience enjoy his videos even more.

[@bollweevil8112]

Tighten up the narration, it’s a bit redundant

[@VanillaMacaron551]

Studying for my communications degree, we had many many exercises where we had to cut as many words as possible from pieces of text - WITHOUT LOSING ANY MEANING. It was most hilarious when the tutor would give us the uni's administrators' memos to edit. One rambled on for about 10 lines of official-ese and we finally got it down to: "The tennis courts will be closed on Friday from 4-7pm." Less is always more when it comes to clear communication.

[@Hoppelite]

Thank god this never happened. The last thing the world needs is for it to be easier to get between Europe and Africa/Middle East.

[@user-oh2hs6jh5x]

Your graphic should say "Strait of Gibraltar", not "Straight . . .". Fire your graphics person.

[@3DGEM3]

Can you talk more casual and less jump cuts.

[@richardjaskiewicz4039]

It is the the "straight of Gibraltar." It is the "strait of Gibraltar." This guy doesn't know geography. Disgusting!!!!!!!

[@michaelhiatt7377]

You're incorrect

[@soundscape26]

What?

[@davemtb8044]

Just remember the United Kingdom and also Republic of Ireland are part of the continent of Europe so should be included in the images correctly! Sorry for being petty but it was doing my head in,lol

[@VanillaMacaron551]

@@michaelhiatt7377 Clearly Richard's first words were meant to be "it isn't", and then he would have been correct. But yes a bit rich to criticise over a misused word when he cannot even read over his own copy to make sure it's right.

[@rheffner3]

Come on Geoff. What a stupid video. No one in their right mind would want to drain it. What a disaster that would be.

[@IbexWatcher]

How arable would the land even be if it were exposed? When the Mediterranean has dried up naturally in the past, it left a lot of salt flats. I’m sure some new areas could be tilled, but a lot of it would just be a desert