Lost City of the Kalahari: Experts Search for Traces of Ancient Desert Civilization

Today, the Kalahari Desert is known as a very dry place. The word Kalahari in fact comes from a Tswana word which means ‘great thirst’. As a result, it seems an unlikely location for an ancient city. Nonetheless, there is a legend that the ruins of a lost city lie somewhere within the ancient sand-sea, waiting to be discovered.

Origin of the Legend

In 1885, an American entertainer turned explorer named William Leonard Hunt traveled to the Kalahari under the pseudonym, Guillermo Farini. He traveled with a team that included his son Lulu.
While traveling through the semi-arid wasteland, Farini is said to have come across what appeared to be ancient ruins consisting of large stones held together by cement and stone walls, which formed semi-circular structures. He also looked for any symbols or evidence of a writing system but found none. Farini claimed that this represented the remains of a lost civilization which had once existed in the Kalahari Desert.

Kalahari Desert, Namibia, Africa. Source: Dmitry Pichugin / Adobe.