Ancient desert cities

Has anyone else noticed that all of the most desolate places on earth boast an ancient civilization or ruins? In all of the deserts of the world (Subtropical, Cold winter, or cool coastal) there is some form of architecture that seems to be beyond the ken of modern man. Now, I understand that alot of these places are thought to have been more habitable once upon a time; but isn't it strange to note that these ancient civilizations/ruins are now all so inhospitable? It's also interesting to note that alot of these same regions contain abandoned mines of one kind of another? (Some, I believe may still be active.) Or that some of these places were actually highways and byways for trade? Are we missing something here? I have some half postulated ideas, but I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this phenomena. Comments?

I noticed this too. Im guessing that perhaps these cities were so massive that plantlife was never able to flourish again. Perhaps they were heavily polluted or maybe too many materials from artificial construction prevented it.

However if you look at ancient sites in south america we see a different story. Many of these sites are covered under dense jungle. These sites are far more numerous. Then the ancient sites in africa and the middle east. We have only uncovered maybe 10% of what's reaaly there. Satellite imagry has found many hundreds of sites we previously hadn't known about.

What's puzzling about the south american sites is supposedly early man had colonized it later than the sites in the middle east. If so why does south america have far more.sites and are much larger. And why does the workmanship seem way more advanced.

Either the sites in africa and the middle east suffered a huge catastrophe that pulverised many of the sites and rendered the place unlivable or the south american continent was populated much earlier than we think it was.

Either way one thing is certain. There are way more questions than answers regarding the ancient civilizations.

With all of the mud that was created as a result of Noah's flood, it's no wonder those ancient cities are now located in the most desolate, deserted parts of the world. They were, in their time, flourishing with plant life and prosperity. The flood destroyed all of that.

reply to post by jeramie


This is true. But one has to wonder. What else did the flood destroy??

The shorelines and sea levels were different then. Also, in Africa the Nile once flowed west into the Atlantic. It flowed through where the Sahara Desert is now. Just saying I believe the fact that the sea levels had changed plays a huge part.

Noahs flood was more like a localized flood and the story of Noahs flood comes from a much older story. Gilgamesh comes to mind and even that story was taken from an older story.

P.s. Google

reply to post by kimish

The shorelines and sea levels were different then. Also, in Africa the Nile once flowed west into the Atlantic. It flowed through where the Sahara Desert is now. Just saying I believe the fact that the sea levels had changed plays a huge part.

Sorry but that never happened. It's meandered quite a bit over time, and they do have a good idea when and where (paleo-channels indicate it's ancient course), the one thing is certain is that the Nile never flowed into the Atlantic. That's more of a Cayce thing than a science thing. (however there was once a large lake in the area now occupied by the Sahara - see Ancient lakes of the Sahara).

The Sahara had been quite green at one time, the ancient peoples of North Africa living in that region would eventually be driven east to the remaining green area along the Nile as the encroaching desert followed the changing climate.

reply to post by SumerianSoldier


A good example of cities lying in ruins in a 'desert' might be several of the Sumerian cities, which originally lay along the ancient Persian Gulf shoreline, but due to siltation the gulf shoreline has migrated far to the south, leaving these cities now high and dry and seemingly now "lost in a desert".

Some ancient cities were situated where they were to take advantage of trade routes (like Palmyra in Syria) or for defensive reasons (like Hattusha), and when they were abandoned or destroyed, they look incongruous sitting forsaken in a desert region. Hattusha in particular was situated far from any waterways or shorelines in a very hostile region to make it more defensive from sieges as the Hittites went about carving out their empire. A siege army could die of thirst before gaining entry into Hattusha. If you didn't know Hittite history and why the city was built there, you might wonder how it came to exist in such a remote and arid region, which might lead to the wrongful speculation that it must hale from a time when the region's climate was much different.

They have also found neolithic petroglyphs, artifacts and cemeteries that show humans once lived in the Sahara, along the shores of ancient lakes, that must now look odd found deep in a hostile desert. These finds however stop well short of being signs of a civilization or even cities. (see Stone Age Cemetery, Artifacts Unearthed in Sahara

Agricultural civilizations are not friendly to certain ecosystems, and they revert to desert, especially after the aquifers are exhausted. We can see this today in the American southwest. I remember seeing a parcel of land in Texas which belonged to some friends. It was near Weatherford, not desert country, but drier than my native Missouri. In the back of the property was an odd little hillock, and when I examined it, I realised that it was an old sand dune. I took it as a warning from the past.

I've always wondered how these deserts were formed and how the ancients could have lived there.
Were they caused by some cataclysmic event or naturally formed? And what about those ruins in England that changed into glass which shows that they were exposed to tremendous heat?
I'm not buying the mainstream lecture on that.

I might just be easier to locate ancient cites that are revealed by shifting sands as opposed to those concealed by heavy vegetation or modern habitation. Those areas that become arid may also preserve artifacts better than regions with more precipitation.

I think its probable that we just don't get to excavate extensively in built up areas therefore we dont see whats under them.

Ancient sites are both more accessible and visible in deserts and open areas.

and as iforget said.....

Originally posted by iforget
I might just be easier to locate ancient cites that are revealed by shifting sands as opposed to those concealed by heavy vegetation or modern habitation. Those areas that become arid may also preserve artifacts better than regions with more precipitation.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, some of them run parallel to my own! Anyone have an opinion on how these "unadvanced" people were able to build these marvelous cities? How they carved and fit the stones of Machu Picchu, The Pyramids, The Castle of Montezuma, Petra, or (My favorites) Ajanta and Kailasa. To name a few... It truly boggles the mind that these people created these using the hand tools of their era. (This is if we go under the assumption that aliens didn't have anything to do with it.) What technology have we lost that allowed us humans to engineer these feats?

Howdy SumerianSoldier

Something to puzzle, how did the middle age Europeans build a hundred+ cathedrals and how did the Romans build the dome of the Pantheon?


Answer: hard work, long experience, and skill. A similar answer probably applies to the ancients and not so ancients who made nice stone work.

Hans

reply to post by SumerianSoldier


Trust me we could build the pyramids today if we wanted too in a fraction of the time so no we haven't lost anything. It's been explained how these have been constructed, mutlitple ways in fact, but I do agree that it was definetly a project back then to do it.

I wouldn't be surprised that the Sahara Desert has many hidden treasures. People in North Africa would have to inhabited the Sahara before the land became dryer.

People lived on the edge of the desert thousands of years ago since the last ice age. The Sahara was then a much wetter place than it is today. Over 30,000 petroglyphs of river animals such as crocodiles survive, with half found in the Tassili n'Ajjer in southeast Algeria. Fossils of dinosaurs, including Afrovenator, Jobaria and Ouranosaurus, have also been found here.

Source
Discover Mag article
Crocs found in the Sahara

Originally posted by SumerianSoldier

What technology have we lost that allowed us humans to engineer these feats?

Slavery

Complete obedience to the State, even when not a slave.

Religion

And, meanwhile, we've discovered computer games and movies and rock concerts and reality TV - lots of better things to do with our time than obeying the will of God

Originally posted by Essan

Originally posted by SumerianSoldier

What technology have we lost that allowed us humans to engineer these feats?

Slavery

Complete obedience to the State, even when not a slave.

Religion

And, meanwhile, we've discovered computer games and movies and rock concerts and reality TV - lots of better things to do with our time than obeying the will of God

.......or more correctly following those who say they speak for god(s) or can understand what (t)he(y) want!

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by Essan

Originally posted by SumerianSoldier

What technology have we lost that allowed us humans to engineer these feats?

Slavery

Complete obedience to the State, even when not a slave.

Religion

And, meanwhile, we've discovered computer games and movies and rock concerts and reality TV - lots of better things to do with our time than obeying the will of God

.......or more correctly following those who say they speak for god(s) or can understand what (t)he(y) want!

Funny. That's how those cathedrals got built as well, wasn't it.


Harte

Originally posted by Harte

Originally posted by Hanslune

Originally posted by Essan

Originally posted by SumerianSoldier

What technology have we lost that allowed us humans to engineer these feats?

Slavery

Complete obedience to the State, even when not a slave.

Religion

And, meanwhile, we've discovered computer games and movies and rock concerts and reality TV - lots of better things to do with our time than obeying the will of God

.......or more correctly following those who say they speak for god(s) or can understand what (t)he(y) want!

Funny. That's how those cathedrals got built as well, wasn't it.


Harte

Exactly- men built for the glory of gods, defense and ego satisfaction which a lot of the best stuff going to the gods