Have you ever heard of the Richat Structure? No? Right, well, neither had I until 2018 when my cousin sent me a YouTube video to watch about the structure and its possible relation to the lost city of Atlantis. I was intrigued right away by the shape, the size, and the location of the structure. Initially, I was baffled and shocked that I had never heard of or seen the structure before. How did my western education miss this? After a bit of research, I found there were no formal publications that delved into the history or geology of the structure. Again, how did western academia miss this?

To give academia a bit of credit, the location of the structure is in a volatile part of Africa. So volatile that archaeologists have not been allowed past what are called “Free Zones”, along Morocco and the disputed territory of Western Sahara, for fear of kidnapping or worse. The structure is located in central Mauritania, near the town of Ouadane, in the Western Sahara. Ouadane itself is on UNESCO’s World Heritage list as the town was created to serve as a trading post and religious center for those traveling through the Sahara in the 11th and 12th centuries. With that in mind, I had a hard time believing that the Richat Structure had no significance to past cultures living near by or traveling through the area. This is where I began my adventure of exploring the structure using GIS technology, mainly Google Earth.

The physical properties of the Richat are evident and obvious to an extent. The structure itself has a diameter of 25 miles. It can be seen from viewing the structure from above that it is circular in shape and is comprised of concentric circles. This is one piece of physical evidence as to why those seeking the lost city of Atlantis believe the Richat is Atlantis itself as per Plato’s description. It is also evident, from 100 miles above the surface, that the structure is surrounded by plateaus and mountains to the North. The southern end of the structure is covered by blown sand. As you move closer, you can begin to make out many wadis (dry channels except for in the rainy season) some small and some very large. These appear to have cut deep canyons through the plateaus to the North over thousands of years. No doubt these wadis held more water thousands of years ago when the Western Sahara was a green and luscious landscape. Taking that into consideration, you can begin to imagine large wadis of water flowing around the structure. It is also apparent that there are large areas of white sediment covering the center and southeastern edges of the structure. This sediment is actually most likely salt. If this is correct, then analyzing ground layers should be able to prove that these locations were once covered by the ocean. As you move ever closer to the surface, you can begin to see fault lines. Many and many fault lines. This is evidence of tectonic activity and very volatile tectonic activity from the size, length, and number of fault lines running through the structure. This lends itself to the theory that the structure itself was formed by a volcanic uplift which hardened and then eroded over hundreds of thousands of years.

The physical evidence can be used to begin to date the structure and begin to provide a timeline of human activity within the structure. For instance, 11,000 to 10,000 years ago the Sahara desert was green and luscious with many plants and animals. No doubt humans would have settled in or around the structure, especially with its apparent large wadis. However, between 8,000 and 4,500 years ago, the once green landscape turned barren and arid. Humans would have still traveled through this area during this time but probably not to create settlements in numbers that would have been seen just 1,000 years before.

Once you begin to dissect the structure and open your eyes to see past the sand, you begin to gain an understanding of the history of how the structure was created and also how it must have looked in ancient times. Moving even closer and closer to the surface, one might be lucky enough to spot something unique. For the past two years, I have spent my time searching for and documenting the location of hundreds of what appear to be ancient burial mounds and cairns. In another post, I will dive more into the different types and styles of burials and begin to theorize about the importance of the structure to ancient African cultures of the Western Sahara. Thanks for taking a look and stick with me for more ancient evidence!