The first question that springs to mind on opening the book is, how
can anyone write 326 pages about 3.32 million square miles of sand?
The answer lies in the second part of the title - the Sahara
supports a vast quantity of life, some of it so primitive that we
can learn much about human evolution from a study of it. Marq de
Villiers and Sheila Hirtle have spent many years looking beyond the
dunes. To them, the sand is a mere cover for a wealth of history
both natural and ancient. But more than that, they see the desert
itself as a living thing. 'The desert seems a shifting, capricious,
wilful entity, obliterating all in its path,' they write. In poetic
vein they describe 'dunes as smooth as silk, the colour of honey
caramel, golden billows to the far horizon'. Potent stuff, but the
majesty of this place does not blind them to its dangers. They go
on to describe the winds that scour new horizons by the day, change
landscapes and make orienteering difficult, and of course the
constant need for water in a place where it seems none should
exist. The authors trace the Sahara's history back long before the
sand, revealing that this was once a landscape rich in plant life
and rivers. Rock paintings show that humans occupied the area many
thousands of years ago, perhaps living the sort of lives still
practised by the Tuareg nomads. As well as recording their own
observations the authors pass on accounts from other travellers
over a period of 500 years. The terrain may be harsh, the
environment almost impossibly hostile, but it seems that beauty and
even a form of bliss await those willing to seek it. De Villiers
and Hirtle know their subject well and pass on the information in a
stimulating way. One has to agree with them - the Sahara is
infectious. (Kirkus UK)
A glittering geographic tour of the remarkable history, peoples,
climate, creatures, sights and sounds of the largest and most
austere desert on earth. Ten thousand years ago, the Sahara was a
temperate grassland - petrified trees mark where forests used to
stand, and former riverbeds are rich in the petrified bones of
hippos, elephants, zebras and gazelles. Then a slight shift in the
earth's axis transformed it into the greatest desert in the world
with astonishing speed. Massive sand dunes are continuously formed
and dissolved by fierce winds, making the ever-shifting topography
of the desert more uncertain and hazardous to navigate. The
inhabitants of this desolate terrain barely eke out a living.
Throughout the millennia, diverse populations have struggled to
make this severe landscape home. Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
chronicle the desert's nations and peoples and legacies they have
left to the sand: stone circles older than Stonehenge; Roman
aqueducts; remnants of Greek fields and vineyards, and the ruins of
palaces and temples along the Royal Road, a once busy trading route
for gold and salt, resources that fuelled the economies of the
great empires of Old Africa before centuries of conquests,
religious wars and tribal turf battles destroyed them. Illuminated
by written testimonies of past travellers, 'Sahara' conveys the
majesty, mystery and abundance of the desert's life in an evocative
biography of the land and its people.
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