THE MEDITERRANEAN

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 130, 28 November 1929, Page 5

THE MEDITERRANEAN

AN EVAPOBATING SEA

RECLAMATION SCHEME

About 50,000 years ago the level of the Mediterranean was about 1000 metres lower than to-day, and more than half of its area was land, writes Herr Hermann Sorgen, of Munich, in the "Illustrated London News." Europe, Africa, and Asia were no isolated continents. Then, in the last glacial period, when the ice masses of the northern Atlantic melted : more and more, the rising flood poured at last, near what ■is now Gibraltar, into the lower-lying inland seas, which rose and overflowed the land until the Mediterranean expanded to its present size. Could that natural development be reversed to a. certain extent by modern technical means, in order to gain thereby new land and energy? A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. The Mediterranean is an evaporating sea; that is, its level would lower itself about two feet each year if there were no steady supply from outside. The current from the Atlantic might be stopped by dams at Gibraltar and.the Bosphorus, which would provide enormous water power. The narrowest passage at the Bosphorus is 600 metres wide, and at Gibraltar 1400 metres (a metre being a little more than 39in). My idea is to lower the surface of the Mediterranean by closing these two passages, and thus obtain new land, and. by the difference of level, water power vast enough to irrigate the Sahara. How could this project be carried out by engineering? The most- difficult and costly operations would doubtless be at | Gibraltar. The blocking of the Straits of Gibraltar -"-ould be the crux of the problem. The dam would be constructed, not at the narrowest, but at the shallowest part of the Straits, between the Bay of Tangier and the Cabezos cliffs. Here the greatest depth in the middle- is 320 metres. About 10,000,000,----000 cubic metres of material would be necessary to build a dam 50 metres wide at the top. The entire dam would be, 3525 times the bulk of tho Great Pyramid. To prevent its being swept away, the material would have to be sunk in large portions at once, and perhaps in huge pontoons, which, would be dragged into position partly loaded. The material could be provided by excavating canals leading to the power works. OUTLINE OF THE SCHEME. The course of the work would be sdmewhat as follows. After completely blocking the Mediterranean at Gibraltar, Constantinople, and the Suez Canal, power works, locks, and sluices would be built, and then a short canal dug near Gabes (in Tunisia) to the Chottel Jerid Lake, 29 metres below. Using this lake (•which has an area of about 200 square miles) as a reservoir, the Mediterranean water would be pumped into distributing canals, and, after extracting the salt, could be used to cultivate large parts of Northern Africa until the level of the sea had fallen about 25 metres. The power works at Gibraltar could then be set in motion, and other suitable parts of tho Sahara could be cultivated. Another canal would be dug from the south of the Mediterranean near Ceuta to the Atlantic at Tangier, and the difference in level would give flow to the water to drive the power station on the Mediterranean. By lowering the sea level 200 metres, a land bridge would arise between Italy and Tunis; Europe and Africa would be united! The emerging new land would be especially valuable, because, instead of the rocky shores of to-day, the Mediterranean would be bordered by rich and fertile soil, which could be profitably cultivated by means of the enormous electrical power. The world's attention to-day is attracted to tho Mediterranean by three matters: (1) The proposed tunnel below the Straits of Gibraltar—a valuable preparatory work to our project. (2) The irrigation of the lower Nile area towards the Siwa Oasis, 70 metres below sea level. (3) New railways from Morocco to the Niger and Congo already being built. The time is not far distant when enterprise will not have to seek for capital, but when, on the. contrary, the world's capital, immensely increased and concentrated, must look for an adequate field of operation. The Mediterranean offers such an opportunity. Modern engineering shows the way. Human energy, concludes this optimistic writer, may venture to-day on the highest technical tasks.