When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be

The little-known history of how the Sahara was transformed from a green and fertile land into the largest hot desert in the world

The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant land, fed by rivers and lakes. The Sahara sustained abundant plant and animal life, such as Nile perch, turtles, crocodiles, and hippos, and attracted prehistoric hunters and herders. What transformed this land of lake...