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In the Sahara Desert in Western Egypt, there is a depression – or rather a sunken landform – called the Qattara Depression that covers an area of more than 7,500 sq. miles (comparable to the size of New Jersey). The depression sits 436 ft below sea level and is relatively close to the Mediterranean Sea (about 34 miles at its closest point).
While today the Qattara Depression consists of salt pans, sand dunes and marshes, there have been proposals to transform the area into a major hydroelectricity project. These proposals center around creating a series of canals connecting the depression with the Mediterranean sea.
See the interactive Google Map at the bottom of the post!
Three key facts about this map
There have been multiple canal routes proposed as part of this plan
Various researchers and companies over the years have proposed different routes for canals that connect the Mediterranean Sea and the beginning of the Qattara Depression – the shortest canal length was about 37 miles total. These canals would exploit the elevation difference of 436 ft. to build hydroelectric power facilities. While most proposals were research agencies and institutions, Siemens was one multinational company that participated in developing a canal route proposal in 1950.
Nuclear explosives were proposed in the 1950s as a method to create the canals
Plans to create canals to fill the Qattara Depression were abandoned in the mid-1900s due to cost concerns. Before this happened, there was one plan to leverage unused WW2 explosives left in Northern Egypt to create the canal.
Another proposal was the use of more than 200 nuclear explosives (more than 100x the strength of the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima). This was quickly scrapped for environmental and human concerns, as well as a risk to destabilize the Red Sea Rift tectonic plate.
If the Qattara Depression project moves forward in the future, it is unlikely to create a massive lake in the middle of the Sahara
Because of the salinity of the inflow from the Mediterranean and the intense heat of the Sahara, water inflow from proposed canals would evaporate quickly. This would result in a small, hypersaline lake. Because of this, the canals would likely not result in major opportunities for agriculture or fishing industries to flourish.
Note: boundaries of Qattara Depression in above Google Map are approximate
Additional links and sources
- Evolution of energy projects surrounding the Qattara Depression (link, published in 2014)
- Research paper around the hydroelectric capabilities of the Qattara Depression (link, published in 2019)
Have you ever heard of the Qattara Depression plans before?
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