10 Bizarre Things Found In The Desert

Deserts are often home to many intriguing and exciting discoveries. Archeologists and scientists routinely search deserts for artifacts and generally know what they can expect to find in a particular location. For instance, if they are in a desert in Egypt, they are most likely to discover a pyramid or two. However, sometimes they make bizarre and unexpected discoveries. Check out this list of mysterious desert discoveries that have left many people in awe.

A Spiral Cone Pattern

A clearly defined spiral pattern of cone shapes was found in Egypt near the shores of the Red Sea. Several Internet users stumbled upon this image on Google Maps in 2014. To some people, the pattern looks like a landing area for an extraterrestrial spacecraft. It is, however, an environmental art installation. Since it was built in 1997, many tourists have wondered about this massive piece of artwork (approximately 100,000 square metres). Stella Constantinides, Alexandra Stratou, and Danae Stratou teamed up to design and construct this piece, which is called the Desert Breath. The creators, who have a keen eye for symmetry, originally designed the stunning art piece with a small lake in the centre. But as time passed, the sand slowly covered the cone-shaped hills.

A Huge Burial Boat

It is common practice for ancient Egyptian royals to include their vehicles in their tombs. For instance, the grave of King Tut has six chariots in it. The elites, on the other hand, preferred placing boats in their tombs. Even members of the peasant class did their best to have boats, albeit inexpensive ones, interred in their tombs. But the large boat found buried under the Saharan desert was owned by only a commoner. The archeologists were curious when they discovered it and have speculated about how a peasant was able to afford a boat made of high-quality wood and have it placed in his or her grave. When it was unearthed, the boat was still relatively intact. The desert sand preserved the sixty-foot wooden boat for more than 4,500 years.

Massive Chinese Desert Patterns

In 2011, a couple of keen-eyed Google Earth users discovered a series of large, mysterious shapes in the Gobi Desert areas of China’s Gansu and Xinjiang provinces. Though some can be identified as buildings, the collection of tangled white lines in a remote area sparked suspicion. They were not just small patterns either, which prompted speculation about their true purpose. It turns out that the purpose of the unidentified patterns is to orient the Chinese government’s spy satellites and calibrate the lenses. Understanding the angles and distances for different areas of the massive pattern allows the operators of the satellites to determine if they are accurately reading specific distances. According to reports, some patterns are as much as 0.5 miles to 1.15 miles long.

Sea Mammal Graveyard

During a road repair in 2010, crews who were responsible for expanding the Pan-American Highway unearthed fossils of forty whales, dolphins, seals, aquatic sloths, and fish related to swordfish. Many people were confused about how a collection of sea mammals could have died and ended up in the Atacama Desert, which is forty metres above sea level. In an interview, paleobiologist Nick Pyenson explained that this is "the richest site for fossil marine mammals in the world." Experts believe it was formed when numerous fish and mammals washed up on the Cerro Ballena hill and were killed by an algae infection. Nature preserved the fossils for six to nine million years.

Fossils Of 'Weird Kangaroos'

In 2002, a vast dig unveiled a collection of 'horned' kangaroo fossils under Australia’s Nullarbor Desert. This new species of kangaroo had digging claws and strange protrusions above the eyes. At first glance, these protrusions look like horns, but experts believe they were more likely to be an eye guard. Also, the shape of the skulls suggested that this species had odd bulbous noses. A palaeontologist at Flinders University said it was an amazing discovery because it is rare to discover new species that existed millions of years ago. The collected fossils still need to be examined to identify the age of the site. However, current estimates reveal that they are around 200,000 to 500,000 years old.

A Mystery Lake

When people think of Tunisia, they usually imagine shrubs, wells, palm trees, lots of flowers, and thousands of kilometres of sand desert. Most people would not expect to see a lake in the middle of the desert. That is exactly what many people found back in July 2014. The lake spans about 2.6 acres and is located in an area that is about twenty-five kilometres from Gafsa. It is estimated that the lake is between ten and eighteen metres deep. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs considers Tunisia to be a 'freshwater scarcity country,' so the presence of a large lake in the desert has surprised and puzzled many. Despite not knowing the answer to its true nature, many locals and tourists visit the lake to cool off and have fun.