As shown by a new study, this vast strip of North Africa flips from arid desert to lush green woodland every 21,000 years or so. The last period in which the Sahara was a green woodland occurred between 15,000 and 5,000 years ago. Their work notes that the humid periods did not occur during the Ice Ages when much of the Earth’s high latitudes were caked in thick glacial ice sheets. The cyclical transformation of North Africa isn’t just a big deal for the Sahara, it also has huge implications for our own story. After all, some of humans’ biggest early feats – the migrations out of Africa – were largely dictated by the condition of the Sahara.

Source: The North Africa Journal September 20, 2023 23:09 UTC