What Turned the Sahara Into a Desert?

The Sahara still carries the outlines of a world that no longer exists. Ancient shorelines cross dry ground, lake sediments survive beneath desert dust, and archaeological sites preserve traces of people who lived while northern Africa was far wetter than it is today. This documentary follows that lost landscape through Lake Mega-Chad, the Takarkori rockshelter in Libya, and the unusually detailed sediment record of Lake Yoa. Together, they reveal a Green Sahara shaped by stronger monsoon rainfall, shifting lakes and vegetation, severe droughts, and environmental changes that did not happen everywhere at the same time or at the same speed. The evidence ranges from worked plant fibres and chemical traces inside pottery to annual lake sediments, ancient shorelines, freshwater organisms and material now carried from the Bodélé Depression as dust. Rather than a simple story of a green Sahara turning suddenly into desert, the landscape records repeated changes, thresholds, recoveries and long transitions stretching across thousands of years.