A team of archaeologists has discovered a series of rock art engravings in caves in ancient Nubia, today the territory of Sudan, in the heart of the hottest region of today's African desert.
The paintings, which date back five thousand years, depict ships and herds of cattle from the first peoples, who later abandoned the area under the pressure of desert conditions, reports Cosmos magazine.
The presence of cattle in ancient rock art is one of the most important pieces of evidence establishing that the Sahara was once green, Julien Cooper, an archaeologist at Australia's Macquarie University who led the research, said in a statement this month.
The specialist and his colleague, Dorian Vanhulle, from the Institute of Oriental and Mediterranean Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences, published an article in the Journal of Egyptian Archeology about the discovery of rare, and highly artistic for the time, rock art. in a cave in the Atbai Desert, east of the Sudanese city Wadi Halfa, located near the bank of the Nile.
Judging by the images, at one time the desert was a savanna full of ponds, rivers and swamps, where many animals lived. Now in this region there is practically no rain. The average annual rainfall in Wadi Halfa is estimated to be only 0.5 millimeters.