The vast territories of our planet are covered with deserts. In total, they occupy 20 million km 2. There are many of them in Africa, Australia, North and South America. Deserts of Asia also occupy considerable territories - there are 22 in this part of the world. Among them are the sandy desert of Karakum in Turkmenistan, the sandy-stony Syrian desert in Syria, Iraq and the Jordan, the stony-clay desert of Dashti Margot in Afghanistan and many others.
Gobi Desert Geographical Location
But the largest in Asia and the second largest in the world is the Gobi Desert with an area of \u200b\u200b1,300,000 km 2. Its territory covers the entire south of Mongolia and a good part of China. But the completely deserted Gobi cannot be called. Here, 200-300 mm falls in a year. precipitation, and this is one and a half times more than in classical deserts. In addition, the Gobi’s height above sea level is 900 meters, and winters are more severe than in the neighboring deserts of Kyzylkum and Karakum. Also, due to its high-altitude position, regions that are different in appearance and climate, completely dissimilar to each other, have formed in it.
Gobi Variety
For example, the northern Gobi desert begins south of Ulaanbaatar and extends to the Mongolian Altai. This is an ordinary steppe, which is covered with tall herbs, among which herds of animals graze. The Altai Gobi lies east of Altai, and dry stony steppes predominate here, on which one wormwood and semi-desert grows with dry river beds and lonely wells. In addition, there is the Gaushanskaya Gobi, the Dzungarian Gobi, the Eastern Gobi Desert and the Gobi Altai - each of these areas has its own unique look. Here there are high mountains and flat plains, salt and fresh lakes, fast transparent rivers and salt marshes.
The historical role of the Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert also played an important role in the history of mankind. Genghis Khan passed through it, trying to conquer the Chinese Jin Empire. And in August 1945, the Soviet Army passed through this desert, which defeated the Kwantung Army, ending the Second World War. Also, for many centuries, the Great Silk Road ran through the Gobi - it passed through small villages in oases and rare cities, the remains of which have survived until now thanks to the dry desert climate.
Gobi - Former Dinosaur Paradise
Even the Gobi desert is a place where you can still make scientific discoveries. Here, scientists for the first time managed to unearth not individual parts of prehistoric animals, but large cemeteries of perfectly preserved skeletons. So, in 1946, an expedition led by Ivan Efremov found here the remains of dinosaurs. These lizards weighed tens of tons during life and reached a 25-meter length. Excavations came across bones that weighed tens of kilograms, and in the process of research, paleontologists found out that 130 million years ago in these places was not a desert, but a swampy lowland. And here lived ancient mammals, turtles, crocodiles, carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs. And their remains are so well preserved only because of the desert, heat and lack of moisture in it.
Gobi Desert - Excavations Continue
Efremov's expedition managed to unearth three large cemeteries with prehistoric animals. Now in the Central Museum of Ulan Bator and in the Moscow Paleontological Museum you can see the huge skeletons restored by scientists. Excavations in the Gobi desert are still ongoing, recently paleontologists managed to find almost a whole skeleton of a tarbosaurus, which lived 70 million years ago. Archaeologists have found treasures belonging to one of the Buddhist monasteries of the 19th century - in the 30s of the last century they were hidden from the communists who ruined the monasteries.
A lot has been written about the Gobi desert and its findings, but one of them is especially worth mentioning. A skeleton was discovered in an extremely remote area of \u200b\u200bthis arid zone, supposedly belonging to a giant humanoid. During life, the growth of this individual was equal to 15 meters! So whose skeleton was discovered by paleontologists - a giant man or a space alien?
At the end of the last century, a team of researchers led by Professor Higley excavated in the Gobi Desert - a habitat. The choice of the place of excavation was influenced by the legends of a huge giant, who once lived in a local gorge. Among the Mongols, this place was considered damned, and people bypassed it.
All that remains of the giant
According to paleontologists, the legends could have a very real foundation and, in the end, it was decided to start excavations. It was assumed that it would be possible to find the bones of some that the local ancient inhabitants could mistake for a giant. But the find was completely unusual - scientists discovered the skeleton of a giant man.
Incredible, but his growth was about 15 meters! Unlike the skeleton of an ordinary person, the giant's bones were more elongated, and his skull had both monkey and human features. According to the shape of the skull, scientists determined that the humanoid had organs of hearing and speech, as well as a fairly developed brain. It is possible that the creature's intellect was higher than human.
Perhaps the giant’s bones came to the surface in the process of erosion by the rains of soft rocks, and this was the reason for the legend of the giant giant. It is possible that the ancient Mongols could meet still living giants.
Local or alien?
An unusual-looking skeleton allowed one of the expedition members to make a statement about the discovery of the remains. As expected, the scientific world was skeptical of this statement.
The authoritative journal "Natural" recalled the facts of fake antique statues, crystal skulls and many other "scientific" sensations. But who could need such a laborious and far from cheap hoax? According to experts, it would take millions of dollars to bring it to life! The mystifiers would have to make the skeleton of a giant, age their craft, bring it to the remote edge of the desert and place among ancient rocks. According to representatives of the special services, keeping such an operation secret is an unrealistic task.
Some scientists nevertheless tried to explain the unusual finding. Some of the researchers considered that the skeleton belongs to the space alien, others - to the biblical giant, and others - to the representative of the ancient race of giants. The Englishman D. Stanford said that it is necessary to reconsider the whole history of mankind, since such a find contradicts the well-known order of things.
Stanford spoke of the earthly origin of a giant whose skeleton was found in the desert. But the English professor Townes attributed it to aliens. He stated that, most likely, such a creature was not developed according to the laws of our evolution. Ufologists were most pleased with this statement.
Canadian R. Wingley advised reckoning with the results of recent research. It turns out that in the past the earth rotated faster, the day consisted of only nine to ten hours, and their number in the year reached 400. This could cause the formation of natural gigantism. As an example, we can recall about once inhabiting our planet. The possibility of the existence of giant humanoid individuals cannot be ruled out.
As for ufologists, many of them still believe that the skeleton found in the desert belongs to a space alien. The remains of giants were found on our planet more than once, but specimens of such sizes had never been seen before. To some extent, a humanoid of this type is unnatural for our environment. It is possible that this is really a space alien, for example, a Martian. In the meantime, the Gobi Desert is in no hurry to part with its riddles.
She was a little over twenty. One child - five, and another - eight. Maybe they suddenly overtook a sandstorm or a mysterious disease. Or maybe they just could not live without each other. And someone who loved them buried them in such a way that even after five thousand years, the mother reaches out to meet her children in order to forever wrap them in her arms on a carpet of flowers.
Of course, we will never know for sure what happened to this family. But how interesting, armed with archaeological evidence, to try to restore the picture of the life of our ancestors!
Rather, not really ours. We are talking about the Sahara, where an international group of researchers is excavating the burial sites of the Stone Age. Several thousand years later, the story of the vicissitudes of the fate of the ancient inhabitants of Africa was published in the journal PLoS ONE.
A bird's-eye view of the excavation site. In the foreground: Pleistocene dunes (that is, those that arose before the end of the last ice age about 10 thousand years ago), where settlements of Stone Age people were discovered. In the background on the right: archaeological camp (photo by Sereno et al./PLoS ONE).
In those days, the Black Continent was not yet divided into two parts by a vast desert, and fertile lands bloomed in these places, antelopes grazed and hippos frolic. And people settled around large, but shallow (up to 8 meters) lakes - with fish and crocodiles.
In total, about two hundred graves were found in Gobero, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Niger River. These excavations are the rare case when scientists managed to reconstruct in sufficient detail the picture of people's lives over several millennia.
Ancient Africans left behind not only burial sites, but also landfills (very valuable for scientists) and household items, in particular ceramics.
Merciless to the living desert mysteriously preserved the traces of a vanished civilization. Up to the table sets of that time - neatly arranged by the mistresses of mollusk shells.
And the people in these parts, after the Sahara swallowed them, were few enough - which could not but affect the safety of the remains.
The numbers on the map above indicate the excavation sites (there are 13 in total). Below - the reconstruction of the relief in the Gobero region about 8 thousand years BC (illustration by Sereno et al./PLoS ONE).
A group of paleontologists stuck in local sands back in 2000 - in search of dinosaur bones. The work was already drawing to a close when one of the band’s members, Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago, convinced his colleagues to continue excavation - he really liked the elusive outlines of something on the horizon.
The flair did not fail the scientist. Getting closer to the suspicious place, the researchers found human remains that were visible to the naked eye under a layer of sand. In appearance - very ancient.
About fifteen skeletons were excavated on the fly. And almost a dead man's chest - ancient artifacts that can be more valuable than any treasures.
In general, paleontologists were forced to give way to anthropologists and archaeologists. And some have retrained themselves.
Dr. Sereno managed to connect the National Geographic Society to the project, under the patronage of which excavations began in 2003 (photo by Mike Hettwer / National Geographic).
Using the findings on the search for dinosaurs, the researchers did not dig in the traditional way - with a shovel and a brush, but resorted to a new technique: the sand around the remains was fixed with a special compound, and then they made a “mummy” using a patch and removed the whole skeleton.
Despite the relative safety of the settlements, the desert climate also had drawbacks: dry winds prettyly battered the remains, saving them from the smallest particles of fabric so needed by archaeologists. Sands also created other difficulties: they are loose, which excludes the dating of the remains from rock sediments.
Scientists had to use the analysis of strontium isotopes in the intraosseous material - primarily taken from the teeth. Another important source of information was the remains of plant pollen on ceramics, stone tools, bones, and in general.
In the end, despite all the difficulties, this is what we managed to find out.
Garbage heap dated to the middle Holocene. In addition to the analysis of isotopes and pollen at individual sites, a comparative craniometric analysis of the remains with other human remains found in Africa was carried out, as well as luminescent analysis for dating various objects - for example, this garbage heap (photo Sereno et al./PLoS ONE).
The “human” history of the Sahara began about 10 thousand years ago, when the last ice age finally ended, giving birth to a new geological era - the Holocene.
The first hunter-gatherer-fishers came to Gobero about 8 thousand years ago and lived there one and a half thousand years - until about 6200 BC. Scientists attributed them to the Kiffian culture.
These were people of the so-called transitional period - from a nomadic way of life to a sedentary one, and they had already buried their relatives. By the way, one of the burials has become the oldest known object of its kind in Africa - it dates back to 7500 BC.
By the way, some scholars have suspicions that the Tenerian culture could be influenced by the ancient Egyptians: during excavations, minerals were found that can only be found in the northern Mediterranean (photo Sereno et al./PLoS ONE).
Despite the fact that agriculture had not yet reached the Kiffians, they differed in a surprisingly impressive physique: the growth of both men and women averaged about two meters.
Apparently, the Africans also felt confident on the fish diet - harpoons were discovered at the excavation site for hunting giant five-meter catfish. In the Sahara then it was completely different. The retreating glacier filled the desert with life.
But then again the great land came and lasted a thousand years: from 6200 to 5200 BC.
What happened during this millennium is not entirely clear, but after the drought, when the water returned to the desert again, completely different people began to live there. They were less outstanding growth, more slender and had elongated narrow heads.
But the "kids", which scientists called the Tenerians (named after the Tener Desert), have become more advanced. The hunters developed sophisticated weapons, and art objects, including ivory and mollusk shells, were wound up in their homes.
But the greatest surprise was the complexity and variety of funeral rituals. It was the Tenerians who so touchingly buried the young woman and her children.
“Sahara is one of the most interesting laboratories for studying human responses to climate change,” said anthropologist Susan Keech McIntosh from the University of Houston. “In this case, the quantity and quality of the remains give us an unprecedented level of detail in understanding what was happening then” (photo Sereno et al./PLoS ONE).
On a fabulous carpet of fragrant buds. These paleontological skills of Dr. Sereno came in handy: the researchers found a large amount of pollen in the burial, with completely different colors.
However, impressive ritual practices are not the most surprising. For burials, people who have been separated for several thousand years have chosen the same place: their graves, interspersed with each other, are scattered across two ancient dunes.
But not everyone is convinced of the independence of the two populations. Some researchers, on the contrary, see this as the main discovery and the main mystery at the same time.
For example, Joel Irish from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, believes that a more detailed comparative analysis of the “old” and “new” Goberians is needed. In his opinion, it could well be the same people who first left and then returned. True, slightly modified.
About 9000 years ago, a humid climate prevailed in parts of the Sahara Desert - the New Stone Age (Neolithic), the time of the appearance of metal tools and weapons. For several thousand years, Sugar Green has been home to many animals and humans. During excavations, archaeologists and anthropologists established the presence of two cultures - Kiffian (8-6 thousand years) and Tenerian (5-3 thousand years). About two hundred graves were found, some of which were decorated with beads, with stone tools and ceramic vessels. During an expedition by a paleontologist Paul Sereno in Niger in 2000, dinosaur fossils were discovered, and hundreds of skeletons, including children’s, were also discovered. Hunting tools, ceramics and bones of large land animals and fish were found.
In the Sahara desert in Niger (a state in West Africa), a skeleton was found (6000 years old), his middle finger was stuck in his mouth for an unknown reason.
In In Gall, Vodaabe men dance and sing at the Gerevol festival at a fast pace. Their movements may imitate the suddenness of sandstorms. Gerevol is an annual courtship festival where men try to look as beautiful as possible to be chosen by the opposite sex of this tribe. Women can choose up to four men, and anyone who stays at this festival without a couple will be lonely the whole next year.
(see what else are)
Archaeologists have excavated far in Gobero. This area of \u200b\u200bthe Sahara is completely deserted. A small group of archaeologists have set up camp here and are engaged in research. It is hard to imagine that a few thousand years ago the Sahara was buried in greenery, which is why it was called Green.
The dinosaur Suchomimus froze in a throw. This valuable find was donated by paleontologist Paul Sereno to the inhabitants of Nigeria, in honor of the end of the five-year civil war. Suchomimus is a carnivorous dinosaur with a crocodile head that lived 110 million years ago. More than 20 species of dinosaurs were found by the expedition for three months in the desert.
The Nigerian army provided security for the expedition and valuable finds from possible looters in the Sahara desert. Archaeologists clear the skeleton of a man who is six thousand years old. At the excavation site, more than 250 skeletons, thousands of tools, weapons, pottery shards and various ornaments were found.
Six thousand years ago, a mother and her two children were buried in this place, holding hands. Scientists have discovered that flowers were neatly arranged around the deceased. The cause of their death remained a mystery.
Frequent storms in the Sahara desert, with wind speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, quickly covered the finds with sand and archaeologists had to clean them up in a new way.
The well-preserved skeleton of a Tenerian looks like he just fell asleep in the sand six thousand years ago.
Dr. Chris Stojanowski and a student at Arizona State University are studying a woman who died at the age of 20 in the area of \u200b\u200bGobero, Sahara.
This skeleton of a Tenerian man was found with a head placed in a pot. In the place of his burial, a crocodile ankle bone and a wild boar tusk were also found.
The image of a giraffe carved in stone is eight thousand years old. The giraffe had something like a leash in his nose. This indicates that in those days, a certain level of taming of these animals already existed. A unique find was discovered on the top of a granite hill by local Tuaregs, who are about 7000-9000 years old.
Two perfectly preserved skeletons of Tenerians were found among the first. The skeleton on the right was found with the middle finger in the mouth, and the one on the left was buried in the grave, in which there were the remains of several more burials.
Interestingly, the ancient sand remembers when he last saw the light. A scientific expedition took samples of this sand itself, digging a hole several meters deep. Later, the US laboratory found out that there was a lake at this place in the desert, 15 thousand years ago, during the ice age.
A Wodaabe boy drives a herd of cows to a watering hole to a well five miles from his house every night. Perhaps this is what his ancestor looked like, the remains of which were discovered by archaeologists.
Renowned paleontologist Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago fights a severe sandstorm at a speed of 80 mph. Unfortunately, he lost and the tents of the expedition, ripping off the place, incurred through the lifeless part of the desert. The expedition members are accustomed to such a confluence of circumstances; they often wake up with a centimeter layer of sand on their faces.
Two archaeologists cut burlap into strips, which are later saturated with gypsum and wrapped in a hippo skull. This will strengthen and protect the remains of the animal during transportation. This find totals 1.9 million years. Over the past fifty years, hundreds of different fossils of 1-4 million years old have been found in these parts of the world.
Pictured is the skeleton of a woman who lay in the sands of the Sahara for several thousand years. On this excavation site there was a cemetery the size of two football fields, where 250 skeletons were discovered.
Deserts occupy about a third of the Earth’s surface. These natural areas continue to reveal the secrets of our past and inexplicable present phenomena. At the same time, deserts do not cease to expand, bombarding the history of the world with the sands of time. Well, archaeologists will never be left without finds that can change our understanding of the past of the planet.
15. Tarim mummies
In 1899, the Swedish traveler Sven Gedin stumbled upon the ruins of the 4000-year-old city of Loulan in the Takla Makan desert. In 1980, in the vicinity of the ancient settlement, a mummy was found, which was nicknamed "Loulan Beauty." It belongs to a young Caucasian woman (high height 180 cm and locks of blond hair). Approximate age 3800 years. Near the Loulan beauty was found the burial place of a 50-year-old "Cherchen man." These findings indicate the widespread occurrence of Caucasians in Inner Asia 2000-3000 years ago.
14. Shell's Secret in the New Mexico Desert
An oil spill occurred in one of Shell's pipelines in the 1990s, but the company quickly sold it. To avoid litigation, executives decided to bury 190 boxes of documentation at a depth of 12 meters in the New Mexico desert. But the secret always becomes apparent. The information about the buried dirt was leaked to the authorities by a former employee of the oil giant.
13. Mysterious circles in the Namib desert
An unusual phenomenon can be found in the Namib desert - hundreds of miraculous circles with a diameter of 2 to 10 meters on rocky soil. The local population is confident that the dragon lives underground, and his breath burns out these circles. Scientists believe that the phenomenon is caused by termites, radioactive soil or toxins secreted by a particular plant.
12. Purple balls
In 2013, during a walk, the couple discovered thousands of purple balls in the Arizona desert. They were sticky, watery and translucent. About the mysterious spheres, the plot was even filmed. Botanists suggest that it could be slime mushrooms or jelly-like molds.
11. Giant alien brush
In 2016, a group of self-proclaimed paranormal researchers said they discovered a three-fingered brush in the excavations of Cuzco's caves in Peru. In addition, the group found an elongated skull with fragments of skin. An X-ray showed that there was something in the hand that looked like metal implants. Scientists still find it difficult to answer who could belong to a three-fingered brush.
10. The Ghostly Lights of Martha
For many years, wandering lights appear at night in the Chihuahua desert, near the city of Martha, Texas. Indians consider them shooting stars, and ufologists - the ghosts of the Spanish conquistadors. Experts, however, believe that methane and phosphine, which for some reason or other, light up, come out.
9. Lake from nowhere
A few years ago in Tunisia, 25 kilometers from the city of Gafsa, a lake formed in the middle of the desert. Scientists could not explain how a mysterious reservoir appeared. Perhaps the fault is seismic activity.
8. Dead Sea Copper Scroll
The Copper Scroll is a list of places where various objects of gold and silver are supposedly hidden. The manuscript was created by the Essenes in the years 50-100 AD and was found in the cave No. 3 of Qumran on March 20, 1953. After deciphering the text, the search for treasures began, but nothing was found.
7. Chinette libraries
Chingetti, Mauritania, was once a medieval metropolis with a population of 20,000 and even a gathering place for pilgrims on their way to Mecca. In the heyday of this city in western Sahara, there were 30 libraries with the works of mathematicians, astronomers and doctors. Over time, there were only five of them, but today 6000 valuable manuscripts have been preserved. Unfortunately, after 30 years, these manuscripts will not remain due to climate change.
6. Bizarre patterns in the Gobi Desert
In 2011, Google Earth users saw fancy patterns in the Gobi Desert in China. These objects on the border with the Xinjiang region and Gansu province one seemed the creation of aliens, others generally suggested that China is preparing an air strike on the United States and for this conduct exercises in the desert. In fact, these images once served as markers for satellites so that spacecraft could orient themselves and calibrate their lenses with them.
5. The funeral boat
In January 2016, archaeologists from the Czech Republic excavated in Abusir, Egypt, an 18-meter ship about 4.5 thousand years old. The Egyptian custom of burying boats near tombs dates back to the Early Kingdom. Until the recent discovery, not a single boat of this size was found next to the deceased not from the royal family. The appearance of the vessel indicates a very high social status of the owner, but he was still from ordinary people.
4. Whale Cemetery in the Chilean Desert
In 2010, scientists found 75 whale skeletons in the Atacama Desert. Among the species were finwal, minke whale, blue whale and even the long-extinct walrus-shaped dolphin. It was also possible to establish the cause of the death of mammals - toxic substances released during the flowering of water.
3. Geoglyphs in Jordan
These patterns in the Black Desert in Jordan were first discovered by British Air Force lieutenant Percy Maitland in 1927. He published a report of what he saw in Antiquity magazine. Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the two giant "wheels" from Wadi Al Kattafi and the Visad Ponds are at least 8,500 years old, and they are 6,000 years older than the famous Nazca lines in Peru. However, the purpose of the drawings remains unclear.
2. Atacama humanoid
The Atacama humanoid is a small 15 cm human mummy found in 2003 in the abandoned village of La Noria in the Atacama Desert. This mummy has only nine pairs of ribs, in contrast to the twelve ordinary for a person and a very elongated skull. DNA analysis showed that the find is a rare mutation of a male person. The boy suffered from the most severe type of dwarfism and lived for about seven years.
1. Kangaroo with horns
In 2002, animal skeletons resembling a kangaroo were found in the Australian desert of Nullarbor. The species was distinguished by unusual processes above the orbits, resembling horns. Apparently, these were special superciliary arches that protect the eyes from injuries.