Only 14 km Separate Europe and Africa. Why Can’t You Drive Across?

Europe and Africa are just 14 km apart. You can see one from the other, a swimmer has crossed it in under three hours, and about three hundred ships squeeze through every day. So why is there still no bridge between Europe and Africa? The answer starts five and a half million years ago, when the Strait of Gibraltar closed and the Mediterranean Sea dried up into a salt desert two kilometers deep. Then the Atlantic broke back in, in what may have been the biggest flood in Earth's history: the Zanclean flood. From there: the Pillars of Hercules and "Non plus ultra", the Phoenicians of Cadiz, Tariq ibn Ziyad and the year 711 that gave Gibraltar its name, the British rock with a runway, monkeys and fifty kilometers of tunnels, Hitler's Operation Felix and the secret cave of Operation Tracer, Atlantropa, the insane 1920s plan to drain the Mediterranean, and finally the real engineering reasons there's no Gibraltar bridge, and what's happening with the Spain–Morocco tunnel. If the tunnel opens, would you take the train from Europe to Africa? Tell me in the comments. Chapters: 0:00 Europe and Africa: 14 km apart 0:53 Salt at the bottom of the sea 1:46 The Mediterranean dried up 3:05 The ocean breaks back in 4:19 The Pillars of Hercules 5:18 711: the mountain of Tariq 6:26 Whoever holds the door 7:19 Tunnels, Hitler and a forgotten cave 9:00 Atlantropa: the plan to drain the sea 10:25 Why there's no bridge 11:44 The Spain–Morocco tunnel 12:48 The scorecard 13:26 The twist Sources: Hsü, Ryan & Cita, "Late Miocene desiccation of the Mediterranean" (Nature, 1973); Garcia-Castellanos et al., "Catastrophic flood of the Mediterranean after the Messinian salinity crisis" (Nature, 2009); Herman Sörgel, Atlantropa (1932); Treaty of Utrecht (1713); records of Operation Felix and Operation Tracer; SECEGSA / SNED studies on the Strait of Gibraltar fixed link. Flood rates and future dates are scientific estimates and are presented as such. Legends are presented as legends. Visuals: AI-generated miniature dioramas and stock footage from Pexels. Narration is AI-generated. Sound effects: Mixkit. #europe #africa #geography