alternatehistory.com

Every other African River is screwed up some way for human use, lets screw up the Nile.

POD: 25,000BC. An earthquake in southern Egypt topples Gebel Tingar and blocks the Nile at the approximate location of the Aswan Dam.

Possibility A (Less Likely). The Nile turns sharply east or east northeast, cuts though the eastern desert coastal range and has an outlet in the southern red sea. It river valley between Gebel Tingar and the sea has *many* rapids and is completely useless for boat travel.

Possibility B (More Likely). The Nile turns West-Northwest into a relatively low lying area and does not have an outlet to the sea. The Nile feeds into an Endorheic basin like the Great Basin in North America.

In either case, there is a ceaseless tract of desert stretching from the West edge of Africa to the Red Sea.

Effects? The Old Nile Valley itself probably still remains a natural travel corridor between the Mediterranean Sea and the truncated Nile. In Possibility B, I think the large size of the resulting lake probably leads to a habitable shoreline, but I'm not sure which way the winds would carry the moisture, (west, I *think*).

Ideas from here?
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