Eden in the Sahara

Scientists uncover skeletons thought to be as old as 10,000 years, when monsoon rains created a 'green Sahara.'

By Thomas H. Maugh II,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The tiny skeletal hand jutted from the sand as if beckoning the living to the long dead.

For thousands of years, it had lain unheeded in the most desolate section of the Sahara, surrounded by the bones of hippos, giraffes and other creatures typically found in the jungle.

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  Photos: When the Sahara was green

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  National Geographic video

A chance discovery by a team of American scientists has led to the unearthing of a Stone Age cemetery that is providing the first glimpses of what life was like during the still-mysterious period when monsoons brought rain to the desert and created the "green Sahara."

Read the article: LA Times

A fascinating piece on what many do not realize ... that the Sahara desert at one time was a paradise and could that it is remembered as Eden, Shangra La, Utopia, etc., in our collective consciousness.