climate change | And the hippopotamus lived in the jungles of the Empty Quarter! .. And the amazing discoveries of rivers that were dividing the Arabian Peninsula 9000 years ago

The weather of Arabia - Sinan Khalaf - who looks at the climate and nature of the Arabian Peninsula does not see it today except as a vast, arid and dry desert in which temperatures rise to record levels, it is difficult for many living creatures to adapt and live with it, but it is surprising on the other hand that the same desert was once Days are jungles of green forests, crossed by rivers and filled with lakes! Which means that its climate was completely different from its current climate.

What proved this and raised a lot of astonishment and astonishment was that a team of researchers from the University of Oxford found the tusk of a giant elephant of the extinct (mammoth) species in the Nofud desert in Saudi Arabia! It dates back more than 300,000 years, and the length of the tusk is 2.2 meters. Researchers believe that the elephant weighed between 6-7 tons and was 3.6 meters high at the shoulders.

And the matter did not stop at this point, as multiple fossils of different types of tigers, rhinos, turtles and other living creatures and animals that only live in forests and jungles were found, and perhaps the strangest thing that was found is the bones of a hippopotamus that only lives near lakes. And rivers! Was the Arabian Peninsula divided by rivers and dotted with lakes, forests and jungles?

The answer is yes, as those fossils confirm that the climate of the Arabian Peninsula was completely different from its current climate. It was a rainy climate suitable for the growth of forests and jungles and making the surrounding environment suitable for life for many creatures.

Geological surveys confirm the existence of a river with a length of 1,200 km that used to divide the Arabian Peninsula into two halves. This river dried up only 5-7 thousand years ago.

Dr. Farouk indicated that there was another river that used to cut through the desert of the Empty Quarter, and this river existed 9000 years ago, with a width of 8 km and a length of 800 km, and it crossed the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. This river had its source in the Hijaz Mountains.