Sahara Sea: The Insane Plan to Create a Sea in the Sahara Dessert

Discover the history and engineering behind a massive Sahara Desert megaproject - creating an inland sea twice the size of Utah's Great Salt Lake, with strategic, economic, and humanitarian benefits.
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[@rosscarr6817]

Would love to see a Megaprojects or side projects video about some of the largest communication towers around the world. These things push 2,000 feet, and poor schmucks like me go up and work on them 😂

[@nssmith2000]

I'd watch a video about those they seem insane to work on yet alone build.

[@sindrek8]

Wouldn't catch me on one of those 😂 I'm not scared of heights but absolutely fuck that hahahaha

[@ZOOMPZ00mp]

bro. i would absolutely go up on one. dont know how id feel about working in the elements that high up. Seems like super cold super windy or super hot

[@TrineDaely]

They should interview you about the experience, I'm sure there's a lot of work that we don't realize goes into those and their maintenance.

[@Shinzon23]

Wear a go pro and record yourself at work, guarantee you'll very quickly have thousands of views

[@MelbaOzzie]

Isn't the main obstacle to creating an inland sea in the Sahara, the long term salination of the water body? The one way flow of sea water into the inland sea would result in increasing concentration of salt, until you end up with a body of water so saline that it is good for nothing. Like the Dead Sea. However, if they could build a sea which has a steady flow of water in and out, thereby ensuring proper oxygenation and no more than normal sea levels of salt. That would be a project worth pursuing.

[@the-chillian]

Probably not, depending on how wide the canal is. The Mediterranean itself is a closed body of water with a relatively narrow inlet, but there's enough exchange between it and the Atlantic that it's only slightly more saline, more so in the east than the west and more in the summer than at other times. And depending on how the sea influenced the climate in the area, there might be increased inflow of fresh water from new rivers. The Dead Sea, by contrast, is fed ONLY by the Jordan and cannot possibly send any water upstream.

[@marktrain9498]

Yes, it would eventually become so salty that fish couldn't survive in it, like the Dead Sea. It might still be useful as a waterway, though.

[@Shoelessjoe78]

The other side problem is the discussion about the Sand from the Sahara effectly act as fertilizer for the Amazon Rainforest. Wouldn't that be a problem as well...

[@OnideusMadHatter]

Just melt the polar ice caps, all ice is freshwater and when it melts into the ocean it'll alter the salinity ratio, in turn increasing evaporation. If you do it correctly, you should be able to get things back to around 10k years ago when we had the Sahara grasslands.

[@aclassicguardsman946]

@RK Not to mention all the potential knowledge and other benefits the desert species could give us if we don't absolutely annihilate their environment.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:10 - Chapter 1 - Opening up a continent 3:30 - Chapter 2 - In come the french 8:50 - Chapter 3 - An explosive Idea 12:10 - Chapter 4 - The dream that never dies

[@onegoodfurboj]

Thank you

[@LibyanSoup]

Never once mentioned the aquifers that lie beneath the Sahara and the fact that they are some of the oldest and largest on earth. There is literally a giant freshwater sea below the Sahara.

[@moderatecanuck]

Yeah I was expecting that

[@greywolf7422]

They are a non-renewable resource, not a great plan to significantly rely on them.

[@nicolaemihai3581]

quite awhile ago I also read about increasing the size of lake Chad using the underground aquifers, so I was expecting at least a mention.

[@LibyanSoup]

@@greywolf7422 There is enough freshwater in the Saharan aquifers to last the next 10,000 years + at current consumption rates.

[@fearthehoneybadger]

Wonder what the effect of billions of gallons of salt water seeping into the aquifer would have on it.

[@HolySoliDeoGloria]

4:23 You forgot to square your conversion factor. While 5000 km is indeed roughly 3000 miles, 5000 square km is about 1930 square miles. The Great Salt Lake has a widely varying surface area. Its recent peak area, in the late 1980s, was roughly 3300 sq mi, which is much greater than 5000 sq km (1930 sq mi). Its current area is listed as between 800 and 950 sq mi, which is indeed about half of 5000 sq km (1930 sq mi). So this statement was correct in part, depending on your intended meaning.

[@Minty-vo4hm]

would it not just be easier for him to stop talking about imperial measurements, and get the punters from the good old US of A a reality check and become more educated.......

[@justinpape4257]

“Worlds largest hot desert” consciousness raiser - didn’t even think about the arctics being deserts. Love your videos, fun facts for days!

[@angelitabecerra]

Aye. Any place that receives below a certain amount of precipitation (whether that's rain, snow, ice, etc), qualifies as a desert. So we have hot and frozen deserts all over the world. Isn't nature fascinating?

[@dianapennepacker6854]

I wonder if any other deserts will grow larger. Gobi is growing like over 3,600km a year or around 1,400 square miles. Which is just mind boggling. Sahara mean while growing at 30 miles. Give it a century if it doesn't stop! I remember hearing the Sahara might start shrinking in some theories, but who knows.

[@user-yh1nm1vy3i]

@@angelitabecerra is the bottom of the ocean a desert?

[@danstrayer111]

@@angelitabecerra less than 25mm, with some excerptions

[@jerrylangford2991]

A Sahara Dessert sounds delicious!

[@thomasgade226]

100 years ago, a similar plan was to flood Lake Eyre (South Australia ) with seawater, creating more clouds and rain. Same problem - terrain too high and too far from the ocean

[@bigbad6983]

Lake Eyre is actually 9m - 15m below sea level.

[@twrampage]

I'm pretty sure the problem was too much evaporation. The plan called for water in North Queensland to be redirected south and actually looked kind of plausible, but had made its' calculations using European temperatures rather than Australian ones.

[@bigbad6983]

@@twrampage l think if it was done, the rainfall patterns to the east of the lake would benifit from the evaporation, and we could have salt prodution similar to the one on the Dead Sea.

[@timhinchcliffe5372]

There are weather experts who doubt that man made inland seas would create extra rainfall in adjacent desert regions, and point to many other regions where there are deserts right next to large bodies of water. But then again, these weather _experts_ are often wrong about certain factors around _climate change, global warming/cooling._ So maybe the only way to find out is to build it.

[@timhinchcliffe5372]

Apparently it was in the plans of the Japanese if they were to successfully invade and conquer Australia.

[@RealCadde]

With rising sea levels, this will become ever more of an interesting idea. And increased cloud cover will lower temperatures which could create a feedback loop where the land becomes ever more populated with vegetation, increasing cloud cover, increasing vegetation.

[@mehere8038]

"rain follows the plow" is a discredited hypothesis that caused the dustbowls in the US. Will people never learn?

[@oldbatwit5102]

@@mehere8038 Not on youtube, where everyone is an expert and knows to green the Sahara.

[@vonunterberg4313]

@@mehere8038 this hypothesis is in regards to agriculture and not "vegetation". The UN green belt initiative also focuses on shrubs and later trees for water retention. I encourage you to educate yourself before posting and not being mean spirited like the other dude

[@mehere8038]

​@@vonunterberg4313 Look at the climate data on Lake Eyre in Australia. It's a HUGE inland lake that intermittently fills with water in the middle of the desert. There is no change to rainfall when it is full vs empty, despite 10mms of evaporation a day for months over a 10,000km square area (far bigger than the Sahara proposals). There is some low level evidence that Lake Eyre may have a slight impact on rainfall levels in New Zealand when it hits their mountains, 3,600kms away but it certainly doesn't impact local weather. If the Sahara plan was viable, Lake Eyre would show it & Lake Eyre would have received the infrastructure to permanently fill it LONG ago! It is MUCH more viable to do that than do the Sahara, both in practical terms & also because of the economic situation of the country in which each are located, but Lake Eyre has not been done, due to the evidence clearly showing it does not impact the local climate! High mountains are needed to do that! & lets also be clear, planting trees in arid & semi-arid areas ALWAYS fails! If the climate rating is for semi-arid or above, ONLY grasses are possible to grow. C4 grasses use 30 times less water per molecule of carbon sequestered compared to any C3 plant. ALL trees are C3 plants. Semi-arid grasslands can NEVER be converted into forests! Only previously forested areas that have suffered deforestation can be reforested successfully

[@mehere8038]

@@vonunterberg4313 what on earth happened to my reply to you? No idea why that one went bye byes! Look at Lake Eyre to see the reality

[@karemchatti3589]

I'm Tunisian, and this is the first time to hear about the project. Tunisia's economic and political situation is far from being able to execute any mega projects, so the wait will continue.

[@zimriel]

The good news is, these projects were stupid and couldn't work anyway. So you get to save that money, and use it on fixing your economic and political situation.

[@karemchatti3589]

@@zimriel Even if government somehow decides to go forward and make the project public, the country would go into chaos since it will literally require drowning densily populated cities, their heritage and agricultre. The sad news is, even if the project is far from taking place, the money is not fixing our economic and political situation.

[@catabakies69]

@@zimriel but megaprojects might unite a country. It might create the mindset of setting aside our problems for a bigger cause

[@mmb133]

It might seems great at first indeed, but it could effect palm trees in the south due the new humid weather and our dates industry, besides there are risks regarding the increase of the sea level in close areas

[@Kevin-xi6ts]

You’re Tunisian? Which exit?

[@lethal_tempo]

That area in southwestern Tunisia/eastern Algeria has one of largest sweetest water reserves in the world (remnants of the African humid periode) and the salt lakes used to be freshwater mega lakes connected by complex river systems running through the desert all the way to Atlantic Mauritania flooding it with sea water dooms the water quality and some of the oldest and biggest oases nearby and the last surviving savannah in north Africa...

[@buttthecat1354]

Exactly what i was going to write. If you know anything about the Sahara, you would know this. Lots of fresh water still there, and is being used by the people.

[@jonathanburmeister1946]

The only way to build any kind of inland body of water in the Sahara or any kind of desert for that matter and not have it turn into a repeat of the Salton Sea or Lake Arial would be to use de salination plants to process sea water into distilled water. And that requires StarWars technology, cause water and salt Love each other there is next to nothing more energy intensive than separating the two and pumping it upland.

[@tjerkkorving]

​@@jonathanburmeister1946solar and wind power. Probably also a good alternative for the shit ton of money being poored into the continent for food if you would focus on getting water to places.

[@mehere8038]

plus evaporation doesn't even cause additional rain near the evaporation site, that's been shown over & over again. Beyond me why people don't call these project dreamers out on that one everytime they start talking about this ridiculous environmental vandalism

[@JonathanRootD]

A handful of people living in the desert... It's worth the small sacrifice. Plus with increased rainfall probably build your own reservoirs or build desalinization plants along the inland sea using the abundant solar to power it.

[@ic3olate]

Laughing at “Sahara Dessert” in the title before they realize the mistake and rename it! : )

[@SavageBunnyGirl]

Very common mistake!

[@uhohhotdog]

Still there

[@thirstfast1025]

2wks in, Simon still enjoying his sweet desert

[@mostazapistacho2131]

6 months here, still dessert

[@yastreb.]

Watching this in 2025, still says Dessert.

[@davidtuttle508]

It's interesting to note that the word Sahara in Arabic means: Desert. Its' complete name is al-Sahra al-Kubra (the Great Desert)

[@Ubique2927]

QI did a sketch on the Sahara Desert being the Desert-Desert.

[@phredphlintstone6455]

The Rio Grand River is the same way, Rio is Spanish for river, so it's the river great river.

[@petrfedor1851]

Real world, final boss of generic names!

[@nayrtnartsipacify]

chai tea

[@MegaBanane9]

And gobi means waterless place, so there's another desert desert too

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

The idea of a flooded Sahara Desert also occurs in The Secret People by John Wyndham. In the 2017 film Aquaman, the Sahara desert was once a sea inhabited by an Atlantean tribe.

[@TheBarretNL]

right, coz the Atlantic is in the sahara... makes no sense? :P

[@bjorndevlieger8565]

@@TheBarretNL nah he's right, before we had the Sahara, Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian sea there was once a ancient sea there called the Tethys Sea, which has since turned into the seas we know today and the Sahara.

[@brandonn6099]

This is just a cursory overlook of some of the plans. No mention of if it would work or why it would absolutely fail. 1. The air is bone dry over the entire region. A large inland sea would certainty make it less dry, but not wet enough to rain I'd wager. 2. The sea would quickly fill with salt and no more water would flow.

[@heidirobinson3352]

Thank you for this video.

[@newshodgepodge6329]

Can't remember if it was specifically about the Sahara or not. But according to NatGeo there is a portion of the desert that occasionally receives enough rainfall to create a temporary inland sea among the dunes. Does anyone else remember that article, the year and/or the issue?

[@bjarkiengelsson]

I do - it's in the western edges of the Sahara and it's incredibly short-lived. Likely not even long enough for life to take hold.

[@muninrob]

I think I've seen a few of the articles your thinking. If you have the digital archive, you might want to search for articles on the Bonneville salt flats, the dead sea (actually the salt flats around the dead sea), and other salt flats.

[@taylors4243]

i just replied talking about something like that. it rains and can put your car underwater in an hour then when it stops the water disappears like nothing happened. a normal tuesday.

[@allanmason3201]

Maybe you're thinking of the Okavango Delta in Botswana? It's a weird place, where a seasonal river flows from highlands into a basin where it turns into a huge inland delta that creates marshland for part of the year. I happened to notice it recently on Google Earth, and it's very peculiar: clearly a river flowing down from a mountainous area, but then it just spreads out and disappears.

[@AM-mu2kv]

@@allanmason3201 botswana desert isnt like sahara

[@boulderingbadger6179]

Great episode! Thanks

[@malgorzatamiroslawakim7187]

DZIĘKUJĘ BARDZO I POZDRAWIAM SERDECZNIE.

[@lylerolleman1564]

There's another issue with flooding any significant parts of the Sahara: the Amazon basin depends heavily on the nutrient rich dust clouds that blow across the Atlantic from the Sahara and are deposited in rainwater there. Disrupt this flow, and while you might get an increase in arability in Africa, it would likely come at a corresponding decrease in South America. A good reminder for those who want to put huge wind farms in the Sahara as well. There are consequences to messing with Earth's natural patterns that we can only pretend to truly understand.

[@namename9998]

and solar farms

[@mehere8038]

Sahara was green until a few thousand years ago. I didn't realise the Amazon was such a young forest!

[@MilesEdgeworth129]

Yeah, and environmental scientists predicted that Lake Mead and Lake Powell would have taken years to get back to the level they are at now. The reality is *you can't predict climate change.* So you therefore cannot say that bringing water to an arid region would do more harm than good, because you don't actually know that to be the case.

[@Juan-os4hs]

@milesedgeworth1297 FYI, when the Boulder Dam was originally built there was only one-one dam upstream from it. Guess the number there are today? It's more than one. I forgot the latest number, but it's greater than 20.

[@puclopuclik4108]

those are small areas in comparison to the size of Sahara. I doubt they won't too much.

[@infidelcastro5129]

Dessert? 😂

[@DiiL911]

😂😂😂

[@clarencehopkins7832]

Excellent stuff bro

[@elliotjackson1]

Wow! A delicious dessert! I love to have dessert! Cakes, ice cream, etc.

[@dorrinw9560]

In light of this video, I wonder if you could also analyze the Trans Aqua project, the one that would connect a flow (like 3%) of the headwaters of the Congo River to Lake Chad. While not proposed as an inland fresh water sea and would only act as like an irrigation canal, is it more reasonable and doable?

[@wilcoxdaniel9825]

There is a plan on place to do this it's ip

[@grandicellichannel]

Well, the idea to fertilize the Sahara and in general, Northen Africa was also part of the Grand Atlantropa-Afrika Plan by Herrmann Sörgel. By damming the Congo River in a part of it's valley pretty narrow, just before it's final journey to the sea, it would have risen (according to my calculations, being an hydro engeneer) it's water for an height esitmated between 450/500 and 550/600 meters. Using a lower point in the Northen Congo mountains chain containing the basin, the enormous and * 'till this day would be still BY FAR * greatest artifical lake in the world with the highest dam in the world * Rogun dam, Tajikistan, will reach 350 meters, when completed quite soon * the water would had found a natural spillway, from which the great majority of the Congo River inflow would run down in a great waterfall (in some variants it's used by a power plant, seems legit) towards the Lake Chad. Using again the morphology and orography of the area, the quite little natural lake's big sorrounding depression could have been filled with the Congo River's inflows, and BE TURNED IN A FREKING RESERVOIR BIGGER THEN LAKE VICTORIA IN EXTENSION AND VOLUME. And from there, finally, a series of canals could theorically feed all Northern Africa. Side effect, and good one indeed, in Congo, downstream the majestically giant dam, several channels would also would have provided bonifications, preventing malaria, and also to be used for agricoltural use. Same thing, according to Sörgel, would have happened to the desertic areas with his great Lake Chad canals, creating in a span of about 20 to 50 years, basically the greatest grain, fruit and veggies cultivation in the World. Sadly after some promises by Amercan Governament (we are talking about the Early Cold War post-WWII Period), with the fall of European Colonies, the governaments that saw Africa as the a potental great "Grain and Fruit Basket" for internal welth and growth (and ofc profits by the exports), abandoned Sörgel's dreams and the Afrika Project ended just like the well... fascinating but absourd Mediterranean Drying Project. And most of us know how Herrmann life full of majestic dreams ended like. And that's why I see him like the 20th Century's First Half's Nikola Tesla, if you may.

[@Nivoldoog]

I love this and spend way! Too much time thinking about it

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

Yes, dessert - oh dear. With custard? Apple pie?

[@mohamedb737]

As a Tunisian I am baffled... I can't believe you mentioned every single western person related to this topic without bothering to mention a single Tunisian name even once... Bechir Laajmi Al Turki, was a renown Tunisian engineer and had a Phd in nuclear physics he was even the president of IAEA (that's the UN international atomic energy agency). He proposed the finalized plans of what came to be called bhar el Jrid (or sea of Jrid) and his plan still has traction among Tunisian youth today. He helped build the first(and only) nuclear power plant in Africa and gave lectures in the Atomic University of Carthage. His project was going to be funded by the USSR so our president Bourgiba who was friendly to the west refused.. In the 80s, our weak government was pressured by France to abandon our nuclear research, and Dr Turki dodged multiple assassination attempts from the Mosad. The story is even longer than this, but I hope next time you can treat us like sovereign human beings, not livestock on a western owned farm. Tunisian and Algerian governments conducted two separate studies and concluded this project was too expensive and benefits not clear, the recent attempt you mentioned is mainly led by a local business man from Douz, not "SciEntists frOm eVery CoutRy exCePt Tunisia" type of deal.. Last but not least, you said France didn't face any resistance when Tunisia was put under protectorate? I can't figure out if this is a honest mistake or deliberate misinformation on your part. Treaty of Bardo? Marsa convention? Trabilsi wars? Opposition from Italian minority Tunisians (Schiaffo de Tunsi)? Next time do your research or abstain from mentioning my country in your sub-standard videos.

[@orin526]

I’ve said it on a couple videos but I’d love to see a megaprojects video on the “Soviet Battle Mole”. Dark vids did a small video on it but it wasn’t super in depth.

[@mikeynth7919]

Soviet engineering projects exemplify the words "huge" "insane" and "dangerous" like an adolescent's power fantasy. Best viewed from a distance and not as a direct neighbor.

[@jonuno]

this is great. subbed!

[@malcolmjcullen]

9:13 - "Iniciative" - a sure sign of quality and academic rigour.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

There was an inland sea in the middle of it, once upon a time. And there are loads of water underneath it, strange, isn't it? Underground aquifers in the geology.

[@fjkelley4774]

There is a cycle that moves the monsoon rains north. There are cave paintings in the Sahara that show animals we associate with areas to the south. The current Lake Chad is a remnant of a much larger lake. When the last cycle ended (I don't know, maybe 10k years ago?), desertification began quickly. Some of the inhabitants likely migrated to the Nile valley. This would have been pre-dynastic Egypt, so just tantalizingly on the edge of history, and more the province of archaeologists and paleontologists. "History became legend. Legend became myth" ... so to speak. The cycle has been repeated any number of times. You might search for "green sahara".

[@ALT3REDB3AST]

Atlantis was real...

[@RadenWA]

Isn’t that where they think Atlantis was

[@jackryan4313]

@@fjkelley4774 well said

[@fjkelley4774]

@@jackryan4313 Well, the quote is actually Tolkien's. I had to stop myself from adding "this has all happened before and it shall all happen again". But it will; it's related to a slight "wobble" in the earth's rotation. A full cycle is about 20K years. Or so they say.

[@Bosko423]

Would love a megaprojects vid on Simons most Simon channels project!

[@grandmasteryoda6717]

I've always wanted to see a similar project happen in the deserts of Patagonia.

[@dalehartley2821]

Even if we find a way to do this, we would still need to overcome the issue of super salinity. The Mediterranean Sea is already having difficulties with increasing salinity due to less freshwater entering it, and a highly restricted flow through the Gibraltar Strait limiting exchange between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. A second inland sea so far from the coast with only the Mediterranean as a feed source is going to have greater problems with salinity that will need to be managed somehow.

[@perttiroska9970]

It could be possible, if you find a suitable "pool(s)" to fill, and desalinate water through vaporization, and direct re-condensated water to the "pool(s)" using gravity. No electricity needed, but would propably need much of infra and maintenance (+securing sabotage of infra), thus costing a lots of money. Guess that is why many would rather make those "pools" new salt lake(s) with a simple canal from the sea.

[@MilesEdgeworth129]

The salt could be extracted, processed, and sold as table salt, ice melt, and even for large-scale sodium-ion batteries, which could be used to build up a sustainable energy grid. This would help further drive Egypt's economy, making it a win-win all around.

[@MrToradragon]

Either Nile + irrigation runoff and treated wastewater water (perhaps already from desalination units) can be used, but that perhaps would not be sufficient, or as saltier water is heavier, there could be set of tunnels at the bottom of the lake that would alow saltier water to return back into the sea while upper set of tunnels or canal would feed it with new water. If properly designed, the water would perhaps circulate in the lake.

[@daviddegroot8807]

The solution is a two lake setup- water flows from the Mediterranean to the first lake, a dam is in the first lake dividing between a second lake where salt water evaporates. The first lake is only slightly saltier than the Mediterranean because water is always flowing through and out of it. The second, lower lake is for salt, lithium and magnesium production

[@emkoravo]

Pipeline to establish the lake then build the canal afterwards. Establish a rail line next to the pipeline, solar desalination and Establish a string of oasis along the way, use permaculture (and similar) techniques to help slow evaporation + fog nets.

[@lethal_tempo]

That area already has the largest and oldest oases and the biggest fresh water reserve in the world flooding it with seawater spells disaster

[@emkoravo]

@@lethal_tempo could be mitigated by solar desalination plants and pumped into a series of Wadis and ponds upstream with shade and fog nets to reduce evap while using permaculture to establish the pioneer trees for shade and soil fixing/building. It's a commitment and needs timeline upwards of 1-2 generations. But the desert can be reclaimed.

[@Very_Angry_Citizen]

The Sahara was a tropical forrest and had rivers, lakes and ponds 12000 years ago. This undertaking is daunting but possible.

[@jacob4920]

Right. We simply need a new Ice Age to pull it off. lol

[@StayCoolKeto]

If you want the ocean and climate messed up and the destruction of the Amazon Forrest then yeah, wonderful

[@frankgesuele6298]

The price would be a big issue. How much?

[@benlewis5312]

Dust from the Sahara blowing over the Atlantic keeps the soil in the Amazon fertile. You can’t just massively change the climate of one part of the world without messing up another pet of it

[@patrickjordan7586]

@@jacob4920 Not an Ice Age, just a change in the Earth's tilt. The Sahara has a cycle where every 20,000 years(based on when the Earth's tilt changes) it goes "green" for the next 20,000 years before drying out again(with the last green period ending somewhere between 6,000 to 5,000 years ago). Funny enough, increased precipitation creating very large inland lakes is what usually starts the runaway effect that turns the Sahara green(and by green I don't mean tropical rainforest. The climate was "merely" lush savannah with grasslands, rivers and lakes). And it wouldn't destroy the Amazon rainforest either because the Amazon rainforest still existed during the last green Sahara period. The Saharan dust is helpful for the Amazon but it's not essential.

[@christineelisabethschmidtg8063]

Right idea

[@billotto602]

This would be a spectacular idea. And it would be great to see what effects it had on the weather patterns in Africa & Europe.

[@amb8274]

The Quattara depression is about 50 miles from the coast. Get some tunnel digging boring machines, dig a tunnel to the depression (and avoid all the overland difficulties) and then allow the Med to flood the tunnel. Recoup the tunnelling cost with the profits from creating vast new agricultural lands and tourism.

[@brianfraser2495]

The Egyptians have made some studies on just this concept. It is doable with today's technology but who knows if it will ever happen. The Dead Sea in Israel and Jordan is another good prospect.

[@tomdillan]

Or use the Qattaran depression for a desalination lake with solar covering the path for the energy for desalination. Also instead of dumping the brine sea water back into the ocean create basins long the path for sea salt harvesting.

[@zimriel]

Of all these plans the Qattara always struck me as the best of them. Problem is, what if Israel or Ethiopia or any other enemy of Egypt bombs the canal. Now there's a big salt flat blowing salt into the Nile's farmland.

[@catabakies69]

Switzerland had built 57km tunnel, costs around 10 billion dollars. With the dimensions of the tunnel and assuming the tunnel is half full with the water speed of 1m/s. Gathering the data of Lake Mead evaporation of 3.6km cubed per year evaporation, which equals to around 1.7 m cubed per second. Qattara Depression is 30.6 times larger, so let's assume it has the same rate of evaporation, the depression will evaporate 51.8m cubed per second. My conclusion, using a 9m diameter tunnel to the depression is just enough to fill it with water. The flow rate doesn't feel right in my brain, the water speed can be just 0.1m/s. Then it will be just enough to fill 1/5 of the depression with discharge of 6.3 m3/s

[@catabakies69]

you need 25.441 Khufu's Pyramid blocks to seal 1m length of the tunnel, the tunnel is 57090 meters long, you need 1,452,489. That number is remarkably less than Pyramids of Khufu's 2,300,000 limestone blocks. This project, with our current technology, is less ambitious than the extremely ambitious great pyramids.

[@picoallen]

The Atlantic Ocean is west of the Sahara and yet the Sahara is bone dry. This is because the atmospheric Hadley Cell desicates it, as it does the other mid latitude deserts in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Pumping in sea water will not change this. This is the same reason that the barmy idea to dig a canal to fill Lake Eyre in central Australia is pointless.

[@rolfjacobson833]

loved it

[@gord1911a1]

Sounds like a great plan 👍

[@johnandpearllewis8720]

Don't the countries along the north African coast all rely on the fresh water aquifers beneath the Sahara, so isn't there serious risk of polluting the fresh water reserve with salt water perculating down through the surface strata.

[@QuesoCookies]

Not really. Confined aquifers are non-renewable specifically because there is an impermeable layer of rock above them that prevents percolation. The bigger issue is being reliant on a confined aquifer for fresh water.

[@godisshanistrothers6528]

Did anyone ever ask the Africans about their own land???

[@tedsmith6137]

Yep, we'll get right onto that as soon as we finish the Nicaragua Canal.

[@docwild2867]

There were similar plans/propositions for some parts of central Australia.

[@acanthastertankmaster6190]

It's a cover up so no one trys to find atlantis

[@newman977]

I've never heard of the Sahara Dessert. I wonder if it's a tasty treat?

[@TalOfTheEast]

Spell checking has never been their forte. "Iniciative" is a new word they invented for this video.

[@johnhynes6094]

It's a bit dry and has an earthy taste but there's lots of it

[@paulrand7861]

The Salton Sea has entered the conversation

[@waragainstavg]

We need to hone our terraforming skills somehow, if they can make the desert bloom, it’s a start

[@basillah7650]

salt water not going to make the desert bloom

[@oneshothunter9877]

@@basillah7650 What about evaporation, No effect?

[@chriswilkerson4074]

I’m very curious about the idea of using inland seas as in effect giant hydraulic batteries to store energy. Pump water up during sun and wind, spin turbines as needed by draining water back down.

[@FuriousImp]

This! That and geothermal where possible seem like a great path forward.

[@farzad6908]

Such a better idea than building dams in lush areas which upsets delicate ecosystems

[@YliyahMessageTime]

40 years ago Lyndon Larouche was pushing for this 'megaproject'.

[@Familytreewoodworks]

Sahara dessert? Sounds sweet.

[@OlegLecinsky]

There is a bit too much sand in it for my taste.

[@scarcesense6449]

Australia definitely needs to do this with Lake Eyre. The only potential downfall I see is the last time it filled via natural means it was followed by the worst cyclone in our history.

[@maxschon7709]

The easier way to refill the lake is to raise the amount of rainfall. How? More plants. How watering them - solar desalination. At Port Augusta Sundrop farm has ONE plant usiung seawater from the Spencer Gulf and Sunlight to farm Tomatos. Now make hundred or a thousand of those plants - the make enough water to grow coastal forests which will evoporate water.

[@basillah7650]

salt water not good for growing stuff.... last time it filled was with rain water which is good for plants to grow

[@mehere8038]

The last time Lake Eyre filled was 1899???? Cause that's when Australia's worst cyclone in history occurred isn't it! I have no idea wtf you're on about, or how water in the south of Australia would cause cyclones over a thousand kms to the north! Not how weather systems work! Lake Eyre does frequently fill/part fill as a result of the extra water from cyclones though, but not the other way around

[@tealkerberus748]

Sit back and wait. Melting ice caps and rising sea levels will do 99% of the work for us. We'll still need to make sure the Eyre Sea doesn't turn hypersaline. A pipeline from somewhere in the north to pump the most saline water back out to the ocean will probably be required.

[@Alacritous]

So that first one wasn't a Mega-project so much as a pipedream.

[@aja9469]

Hell yeah 30 seconds in and Phoenix gets a Shout out from Simon. 602 BABY

[@MichaelSmith-ij2ut]

Nobody gonna mention the delicious typo in the video title?

[@sylviajoe9850]

Love how the "facts" get continuously more absurd as the video goes on. Nicely done, folks. 😂

[@alexander-mauricemillamlae4567]

oh girl if you liked this you should check out Brain Blaze, formerly Business Blaze, especially the older videos before Simon "sat down" and stopped roaming while he blazes. Also Charlotte ETA Salter, everyone's favourite married transgender blazement radiator that did unforrtunately disappear 😭 Danny must still be taking it hard

[@andrewgodly5739]

Hurl a large meteor into the desert

[@alesalter7653]

A one hundred megaton russian nuke will do...

[@ThomasHaberkorn]

*hurl*

[@docnightfall]

Yeah, the resulting dust cloud will improve the weather in Europe. 😂

[@123blakes8]

I think Africa has enough on its plate already…

[@wolfie7382]

ah yes not throw, but HURL a meteor AT AFRICA...thats one way to scare your enemies

[@tarzaan2603]

Gaf about the sahara,its 1:49 am right now.. im here to go to sleep and Simon is the man to help with that

[@chucku00]

What kind of dessert will it become? A cake? An ice cream? Oh, I get it : it will become an _île flottante!_

[@UncleFester84]

Problem: with all that evaporation those 'seas' would become quite quickly salt flats.

[@andrewsteinhaus8267]

Not having the sand blow into the Amazon across the Atlantic could severely impact the health of rainforests in South America

[@lumyre1706]

it would severly change the climate all around the world

[@Nik110512]

The Sahara was a savannah 7000 years ago. The Amazon, I assume thrived then?

[@aluminiumknight4038]

Bo hoo

[@johnclayton7471]

An inland sea would help to mitigate rising global sea levels.

[@mannyalejo772]

I thought this was going to be about recreating ancient Mega Chad lake by diverting part of Congo tributaries into the Chad basin. Maybe that could be a separate video.

[@iOnRX9]

the sahara used to be lush and green

[@user-cv3bv5or9m]

Great project, I’d love to see it come to fruition! 😎

[@binalith4898]

that's why we have all these big trucks in 'merica. build the sea!

[@ilghiz]

Reading la société as la society the me on the floor with laughter 🤣 Sounds funny and cute :)))))

[@Mr-G131]

How is this NOT an April fools joke video?

[@matsv201]

The only way this would be a april fools is that the project wouldn´t actually be that large. There would only need 2 tunnels, and the longest would only need to be 20km. That is not very long for a water tunnel. There is a dozen of them that is longer

[@matsv201]

A list of water tunnels in service of today. Delaware Aqueduct (US) - 137 km (85 miles) Päijänne Water Tunnel (Finland) - 120 km (75 miles) New York City Water Tunnel No. 1 (US) - 110 km (68 miles) Thirlmere Aqueduct (UK) - 96 km (60 miles) Orange-Fish Tunnel (South Africa) - 82 km (51 miles) Gotvand Tunnel (Iran) - 75 km (47 miles) Banks Tunnel (Australia) - 75 km (47 miles) Huitong Tunnel (China) - 67 km (42 miles) São Francisco River Integration Project (Brazil) - 63 km (39 miles) Eselsgrabenbach Tunnel (Austria) - 60 km (37 miles) Tahtali Tunnel (Turkey) - 58 km (36 miles) Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Project (India) - 49 km (30 miles) Kempervennendreef Tunnel (Netherlands) - 42 km (26 miles) Tansa Pipeline (India) - 42 km (26 miles) Mount Elbert Forebay Tunnel (US) - 40 km (25 miles) Bengal Nagpur Railway Tunnel (India) - 37 km (23 miles) Serra da Mesa Dam Tunnel (Brazil) - 36 km (22 miles) Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant Tunnel (Iceland) - 39 km (24 miles) Dahuofang Water Tunnel (China) - 34 km (21 miles) Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District Dam (US) - 32 km (20 miles)

[@mattm7798]

One thing...the Caspian "Sea" is a huge body of water in the middle of a giant desert...doesn't seemed to have really done much for that part of the world.

[@CarFreeSegnitz]

The Caspian does not connect with an ocean. The inhabitants around the Caspian can easily trade with each other, which isn’t nothing, but they can’t float anything out onto tidewater and thus the rest of the world.

[@drbuckley1]

It's not the sea, it's the oil.

[@kevin_mitchell]

I was thinking a similar thought - the vast coastline of the Mediterranean hasn't done much for the Sahara either.

[@IspettoreCatiponda1]

Aaaaah the sweet sweet Sahara dessert

[@mfreed40k]

Kicking the "uh" into overdrive aren't you? Uhwould uhflood uhthe uhsea

[@zeideerskine3462]

It would be possible to pump sea water into the Richat structure for evaporation and sea salt harvesting by digging a tunnel to the Atlantic and then use solar and wind powered pumps to bring the water up. That might work on a large commercial scale and may be attained without saltwater intrusion into ground water.

[@placeholdername0000]

Salt water can be used to create electricity through osmosis.

[@jamesdough6406]

@@placeholdername0000 After you reverse the flow of Entropy. That would be the tricky part.

[@JonMartinYXD]

But why?

[@placeholdername0000]

@@jamesdough6406 The reverse of reverse osmosis.

[@marktrain9498]

Lots of things become possible if you assume electricity is free. We're a long way from free electricity, however.

[@andreasl33]

But Simon, how could you miss the even more insane plan of building a railway tunnel under the Atlantic between the U. S. and Europe. I would recommend making another video about it today, not tomorrow.

[@kissthesky40]

What’s your rush?

[@muninrob]

@@kissthesky40 It's April Fool's day, so foolish ideas are extra appropriate today.

[@macrosense]

It is good to hear I was not the first guy to think about this

[@TheMaddBlackMann]

The Sahara desert is needed. This would change the weather globally causing unintended consequences

[@francisstephenperalta2823]

It was actually a sea, thousands of years ago.

[@huwzebediahthomas9193]

About 12. It was covered in grass and trees then too.

[@brucetownsend691]

It would have to be an extremely wide and deep canal because of the amount of water that would need to pass along it and the amount of evaporation from both the new lake and the canal itself. Hard to see how it’s possible to establish a sound business case even if the engineering is available to do it. Even the Chinese North South Water Diversion project is uneconomic and causing lots of adverse side effects.

[@williamshaneblyth]

The middle of Australia is below sea level and been talked about for many years digging huge ;one canal to the centre

[@TTiger75]

The Channel tunnel between the UK and France was also considered sience fiction for decades, if not centuries. But it also became true. I hope that in my lifetime I can also experience mankind achieving this technological marvel come true.

[@martinstallard2742]

1:05 opening up a continent 3:24 in come the French 8:45 an explosive idea 12:06 the dream that never dies

[@ColeDedhand]

This might even be as successful as the Salton Sea.

[@matsv201]

ITs not quite the same concept. The problem with salton Sea is that it use hard to get fresh water. This sea would use plentifull and free salt water.

[@acmeurquhart2814]

Mmmmm, Sahara dessert… Yummy

[@sspiby]

You have a lovely voice , so classic English !

[@liamwinter4512]

Wouldn't this dramatically effect the existing climate cycle and weather patterns?

[@ahmedshaharyarejaz9886]

Yes.

[@BaldHeadedManc]

We'll worry about that after, like we usually do.

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

A little maybe. But not necessarily. The Sahara was still pretty wet c.3000BC and still hosted a vast variety of animals and humans.

[@Aztesticals]

Not much. Would give Africa a bit more forest which would suck up a tiny bit more co2. But this isn't gonna change much of anything beyond a % or 2

[@namename9998]

1-You lose species that live in the desert and who knows what impact that will have on other animals 2- The desert provides nutrients to the amazon and before anyone uses the "the amazon is older than the sahara" argument, what life needed millions of years ago to survive is different than what it needs today so the amazon would get screwed. Someone said hurricanes could get worse because the nutrients arent available but I dont know how that works 3- albedo affect. Deserts reflect sun. Water and trees absorb sun causing areas to be warmer (thats why snowball earth was so successful) 4- The evaporated water would affect weather currents and it could green the sahara which would cause even more changes 5- People have talked about the salt water affecting existing aquifers Wouldnt it be easier if people just lived on cruise ships if they were concerned about rising sea levels (not that its going to be a problem since if all the ice melted only 4% of land would be lost and only 1/2 of all land is inhabited and thats with a pop. density of at most 200 people/sq mi. NYC has a density of 25k+/sq mi). And flooding the sahara is only moving water around its not stopping ice from melting.

[@sMVshortMusicVideos]

Could this help fight sea level rise. Help create evaporation and rainfall, sounds possible especially for the areas below sea level, easy to pump downhill. That would be a Megaproject!

[@namename9998]

No. If all the ice melted only 4% of land would be lost and thats assuming people dont build sea walls and other stuff. Only 1/2 of all land is currently inhabited and thats with a pop density of less than 200 people/sq mi. NYC has a pop density of 25k+/sq mi. If youre worried about rising seas then live on a boat. Flooding the sahara will do nothing but destroy all the 500+ species that live there. Why cant we just bulldoze your house and put a pond there instead.

[@emomuzz5883]

Not gonna like, it really is a cool idea.

[@alesalter7653]

Terrestrial terraforming in action)

[@spiritualantiseptic]

Qattara depression in Egypt is an actually a good spot for an artificial inland (desalinated) fresh water in Egypt. Make a serious film about this idea.

[@monkeydank7842]

Good point.

[@ciscoterres717]

I suspect this would end up being a giant Salton Sea.

[@billotto602]

Ive seen videos that show archeologists have show that once upon a time, there was a large sea in the Sahara.

[@leedale4008]

It would have one hell of a beach.

[@MarloSoBalJr]

Interesting!! I never knew that Sahara could produce dessert entrees 🤔... Do they have salted brown sugar desserts?

[@OriSnori]

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS

[@MichaelAndersxq28guy]

I've never thought of the Sahara as a dessert before. 😂😅😮

[@markmayfield2228]

Sahara pudding is served during monsoon season. A bit gritty for my taste.

[@user-bl1eg9hx8f]

Don't forget Gaddafi's Great Man-Made River (GMR), vast network of underground pipelines and aqueducts bringing high-quality fresh water from ancient underground aquifers deep in the Sahara to the coast of Libya for domestic use, agriculture, and industry. If memory serves me, Tube Wells by Brasilero and pipes by Dongwha.

[@ajm2872]

What's funny is that the Amazon rainforest only thrives because of an annual dusting of nutrient rich Saharan dust drifting across the south Atlantic Ocean.

[@johnathanmagliari8461]

That is not entirely true. 1. Parts of the Amazon are over 1 million years old, where as the Sahara is only 5,000 to 6,000 years old. So the Amazon can survive without it. 2. Every region of the Sahara has a different salt deposit. The Eastern regions have sodium cloride (indicating that a large area was once attached to the ocean but then was blocked off) . The sands that scientist are referring to as "fertilizer" comes from Western Sahara. That's an area with huge amounts of phosphate. That is the stuff that makes the Amazon robust. 3. If the Sarah sands were really as fertile as some articles claim it is, then the Sahara would obviously not be a desert. It would be a giant grassland.

[@MuddieRain]

And you know it rains there

[@freedomfighter22222]

Weird that the Amazon was around while the Sahara was a lush grassland then isn't it? Not to talk about the age of the Amazon being 50+ million years while the sahara is only a few million.... Nutrients from the Sahara might help, it is not the reason the Amazon thrives.

[@catabakies69]

@@freedomfighter22222 Amazon had receded and advanced in the eons. The species that reside adapts, even humans that lived there. When humans first came there, it seems to be much smaller than it is today. I'm implying that, even with a much drier amazon, when given time, it will recover.

[@jeanfalconer6377]

Wouldn't the environmental toll of this be huge?

[@StayCoolKeto]

and then some!