Ancient Dikes, Dams and Reservoirs of the Kalahari Region

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by Walter L. Wagner, Mar 12, 2017.

  1. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    Ancient Dikes, Dams and Reservoirs of the Kalahari Region


    The Kalahari Region of Africa, and its vicinity, is modernly a desert with minimal animal husbandry, and agriculture primarily in the Orange River valley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahari_Desert

    Searches of the region via GoogleEarth reveal an ancient, extensive agricultural complex involving thousands of dikes, dams and reservoirs throughout the region extending several hundred kilometers north/south, as well as east/west, centered around the Kalahari.

    The area is well-known for what are called ‘pans’ or ‘floors’, being very flat areas. It appears that these are the remains of former extensive agricultural fields.


    For example, the Great Floor (Groot-Vloer in Dutch-Derived Afrikaans) shows the following views:

    https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9193231,20.4933112,422m/data=!3m1!1e3 dike with breach

    https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9217166,20.5103801,844m/data=!3m1!1e3 extensive ag-contouring on the floor – each contourvseparattion is about the width of a road.

    Scattered throughout that floor, and elsewhere in the region, are numerous dried water-troughs, such as this: https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.0053443,20.493229,227m/data=!3m1!1e3

    Another such breached-dike lies just to the east of Highway R-27 that crosses that pan. To its east are numerous abandoned fields. https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.0622829,20.6691658,2536m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9814929,20.696959,454m/data=!3m1!1e3 dikes and field contouring

    One will note that modern animal-husbandry operations exist in the area, but the fields are barely productive for grazing.

    The old straight-line roads are now heavily eroded and overgrown, and in most areas buried, though this one is on higher ground parallel to the neighboring field. https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9656284,20.6282408,227m/data=!3m1!1e3


    In the neighboring pan that the Dutch settlers named the Crazy Pan (Verneuk Pan), one encounters a unique style of farming contouring: https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.002613,21.1039536,908m/data=!3m1!1e3

    To the east is the start of a very long dike that runs straight across that pan, then turns south towards the spiral-pattern contouring. https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9478668,21.2236688,455m/data=!3m1!1e3 Jog in the dike. https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9514012,21.2086663,910m/data=!3m1!1e3 Portions of Dike erased. https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9606493,21.171086,227m/data=!3m1!1e3 Dike continues: https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9636903,21.1583173,228m/data=!3m1!1e3 Dike continues https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9755493,21.1115711,228m/data=!3m1!1e3 Dike turns south

    https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.0178329,21.1051813,227m/data=!3m1!1e3 Close-up of Crazy Contour

    https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.01...0aHv61KCGuJ4Oj_2uZD1A=w203-h152!7i2560!8i1925 Reported Ground-Level Photo of Crazy Contour (this appears more recent?)


    These types of contouring exist throughout these pans and side-valleys that empty into the pans, as for example here. https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.4576796,20.1628942,423m/data=!3m1!1e3 Likewise, there are thousands of individual dikes in the side-valleys emptying into the pans that are silted-over, or breached, and clearly not in use. https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.9525214,20.6452866,454m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.3726709,20.1078741,1696m/data=!3m1!1e3



    Several Hundred Kilometers to the North, away from those pans above of South Africa, in the land of Namibia, we find the same. https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.0042126,18.6762441,227m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.3797789,19.3011143,455m/data=!3m1!1e3 Contour Farming with breached dike https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.3256738,18.8014928,398m/data=!3m1!1e3 breached diked with contour farming. https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.3493676,18.781828,398m/data=!3m1!1e3 non-breached dike at head of pan. It appears that many, if not most or all, of the pans of the Kalahari are artificially produced as former diked fields that have since silted-in, dried-up, and become dry flat pans.


    This brief report is to show that there once existed an extensive agricultural complex surrounding the pans of the Kalahari region. This ties in to the report of the extensive Highway system further north and east that supported that former agricultural region.


    This appears to be quite ancient, as the last time this area was ‘wet’ to support agriculture was prior to the rise of the Egyptian dynasties, circa 10,000 years B.C., though there is evidence of repair and modification of the dikes, etc. that might indicate that agriculture continued long after it started getting drier, but before it became as dry as modernly.


    The question is, how old are these dikes, reservoirs, and field-contouring systems?


    I have developed GoogleEarth links to about 1,000 such view of dikes and reservoirs throughout the region, if anyone is interested.
     
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  3. sculptor Valued Senior Member

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    <---is interested.
     
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  5. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Quite interesting Walter L. Wagner!

    Off the west coast of Africa, around/between the Madeira Plain and the Canary Basin :
    @ 36 degrees 52'45.64" North by 22 degrees 54'07.56" West
    Could these also be "old straight-line roads(that) are now heavily eroded and overgrown, and in most areas buried"?
    I have wondered for a few years what these "marks" were/are?

    Walter L. Wagner, you seem to be quite adept at divining these geometric marks/designs, so any ideas about the ones in the Atlantic?
     
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  7. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    Here's a view that might help explain the undersea component, which is not from visual satellite imaging as the landmasses are.
    https://www.google.com/maps/@21.8850439,-47.0098266,800928m/data=!3m1!1e3
    In this view, there are several 'lines' going generally at about 45% from east-west. In those lines, one sees the floor more sharply. Those lines are an artifact of the imaging process.
    Conversely, at the top of the image, one sees the mid-ocean ridge where it has slipped along an east-west fault line. The fault line is not perfectly straight, and is natural.

    I'm not certain which undersea lines you were referring to. Generally, the detail is so poor it would not be possible to see any submerged roads. Likewise, the rise of the oceans circa 10,000 BC would have caused wave-damage during the submersion process, so most stuff would have been destroyed (the stuff on what are now continental shelves, but were formerly likely farmland, etc.), with possible rare exceptions (such as protected bays, certain regions if the rise was rapid (hours/days such as giant glacier dams giving way, etc.)
     
  8. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks for replying
    The undersea lines that I am referring to are at : https://www.google.com/maps/place/31°17'34.1"N 24°16'10.8"W/@31.5334329,-24.6447789,256986m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d31.292797!4d-24.269681
    and : https://www.google.com/maps/place/31°02'32.9"N 21°58'58.3"W/@30.4220935,-22.4389292,430073m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d31.042483!4d-21.982857

    Might have to zoom in or out to better see them...?!
     
  9. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, I've seen that before. They appear to be an artifact of the imaging process. Certainly the second one, with the single turn, appears to be an artifact. The sharp edges are where two images are processed/stitched together, giving a straight-line edge effect. The first one you reference is a little harder to understand how that came about. Likely the same thing, but on a smaller scale.

    You have to realize the GoogleEarth is an ongoing process, where the images are continuously being refined. We should have far better detail a decade from now. The undersea images are poor quality, as they are acoustic, rather than electromagnetic. Light only travels a few hundred feet through water, you know. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/light_travel.html
     
  10. Walter L. Wagner Cosmic Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    The less-accurate mapping is actually from gravity-variations, and was done quite some time back: https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/bathymetry/predicted/explore.HTML
    The more accurate mapping is acoustic: https://www.bing.com/images/search?...607992105778482624&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0
     
  11. origin Heading towards oblivion Valued Senior Member

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  12. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Thanks, Walter L. Wagner, for replying.
    In reference to the "first one", as you call it, one could almost imagine a city plat or layout...
    Again, thanks for your considered opinion.
     

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