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Atlantropa: The Megaproject That Wanted To Dam And Drain The Mediterranean Sea
Mar 31, 2025
A bit of a different episode for the channel today! As opposed to focusing on population, we're going to dive deep into a very specific proposed megaproject called Atlantropa. This wild machination would have drained large parts of the Mediterranean and physically connected Europe and Africa. But while that might sound good in some ways, the geographic consequences would have been staggering! It's not too much to say that, had this project been built, the world would be very different today and not for the better.
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The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most important geographic features on the planet
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With 22 countries and over 200 million people living on or near the sea
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its impact on the past and present can't be understated. So why did one prominent engineer want to dam and drain the sea in the early 1900s
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And what would have happened had he been successful? Damming the Mediterranean Sea is perhaps one of the most ambitious megaprojects the world has ever conceived
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and had it been completed, its impacts would have been felt globally
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Today, we're going to run through the vast geography of the region, the history of the project
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and why building it would have been one of the worst mistakes humans could have ever made
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Also, feeding into the Mediterranean Sea is the Nile River, which is what today's podcast is all about
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You can learn all about the mighty Nile River and why one particular dam could end up killing it
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right here on YouTube or on whatever app you use to listen to podcasts
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All links are in the description below. The Mediterranean Sea, a vast and historically significant body of water
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forms a natural boundary between three continents. Europe to the north, Africa to the south, and Asia to the east
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This geographic location has not only shaped the physical landscapes of the surrounding countries
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but also the cultural, economic, and political developments of nearby civilizations over millennia
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Geographically, the Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the narrow
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Strait of Gibraltar to the west, and to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea via the Dardanelles
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and the Bosporus in the east. Its coastline, characterized by a mixture of rugged cliffs, sandy beaches, and extensive
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deltas, stretches over 46,000 kilometers, and is shared by more than 20 countries
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Altogether, it spans approximately 2.5 million square kilometers, making it one of the largest
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seas in the world by area, and the largest sea with only a very narrow connection to the wider
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ocean, which is very important for the topic of this video. The Mediterranean region is renowned
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for its biodiversity, both marine and terrestrial. The sea itself is one of the most important marine
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biodiversity hotspots in the world. It hosts an array of species, many of which are endemic
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meaning that they are found nowhere else on Earth. And this biodiversity is supported by a variety of
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habitats, from coral reefs and seagrass beds to coastal wetlands. But while the sea is very
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important environmentally, it's just as important economically to the surrounding countries. The Mediterranean Sea has been a crucial resource for the surrounding countries through thousands
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of years of history. It has facilitated trade routes that connected diverse civilizations
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promoting the exchange of goods, ideas, and cultural practices. Even today, it remains a
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vital route for commerce. Major ports like Barcelona, Marseille, and Alexandria are hubs
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of economic activity, supporting millions of jobs directly and indirectly. And the region's
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mild climate and scenic beauty also make it an extremely popular destination for tourists
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further contributing to the local economies. But also, the Mediterranean Sea is very rich
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in natural resources, including fish and natural gas. Fishing has traditionally been an important
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economic activity for many coastal communities, although it is now under pressure from over
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exploitation and environmental changes. Recent decades have seen an increase in energy exploitation
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activities, particularly off the coast of Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus, where significant deposits of
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natural gas have been found. Culturally, the Mediterranean has long been a melting pot of
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civilizations, languages, and religions. This diversity is reflected in the region's art
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music literature and culinary traditions From the ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians to the Greeks and Romans many of the world most influential cultures have thrived around the Mediterranean leaving a rich historic legacy that continues to attract scholars artists
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and tourists. The Mediterranean Sea also plays a significant role in the climate of the region
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It acts as a moderating force on the climate of the coastal communities, giving them mild wet winters and hot dry summers, a climate pattern that is known as the Mediterranean
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climate. This climate is ideal for agriculture, supporting crops like olives, grapes, and citrus
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fruits, which are crucial to local diets and economies. The Mediterranean Sea has enabled
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countless civilizations and peoples across thousands of years, making it arguably the
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most important geographic feature on the planet, which is why it's so crazy that someone actually
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floated a plan to drain much of it in the name of more arable land and energy production
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But before we get to the history of the Atlantropa project, if you're enjoying this video, hit that subscribe button
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More fun geography videos are just a single click away. The Atlantropa project, a grandiose vision from the early 20th century, remains one of the most audacious engineering and geopolitical proposals ever conceived
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Dreamed up by the German architect Hermann Sorgel in the 1920s, Atlantropa was a colossal plan to partially drain the Mediterranean Sea
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and create a supercontinent by physically connecting Europe and Africa. This project was not only aimed at transforming the physical landscape
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but also at addressing some of the most pressing issues of the time, including the perception of overpopulation, energy shortages
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and geopolitical tension caused by a lack of land in Europe. Hermann Sorgel, driven by a worry that Europe was being outcompeted by the Americas
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and a potential Pan-Asian entity, proposed the construction of giant hydroelectric dams
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across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, and between Sicily and Tunisia
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The most ambitious part of this plan involved lowering the Mediterranean Sea by up to 200 meters
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In theory, this would have exposed vast new lands for agriculture, settlement, and commerce
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significantly increasing Europe's land mass, and purportedly solving the need for Lebensraum
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or living space that was a significant political issue for Germany in post-World War I Europe
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Sorgel's motivations were manifold and reflected the complex interwar period he lived in
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Firstly, he was deeply influenced by the catastrophic impacts of World War I
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and sought a solution that could ensure peace in Europe. He believed that by merging European and African economic interests
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Atlantropa would bind these continents in mutual dependency and would make war undesirable
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Economically, the project was intended to rejuvenate a beleaguered Europe through the generation of enormous amounts of hydroelectric power
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which Sorghal thought would be sufficient to make Europe entirely energy independent
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Moreover, Atlantropo was seen as a humanitarian project that could redistribute populations and provide ample new territory for settlement
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addressing the perceived overpopulation of Europe at the time. This aspect of the project reflected the era's colonial mindset
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assuming European control over African territories in disregarding the impacts on local populations and ecosystems in Africa
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Despite its grand vision, Atlantropa faced numerous criticisms and practical challenges. The scientific community questioned the feasibility of such massive alterations to the landscape
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noting the potentially catastrophic ecological impacts on the Mediterranean basin. Lowering the sea level would have altered climates, destroyed the existing ecosystems
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and potentially unleashed unknown environmental consequences on a global scale. Furthermore the political implications of the project which included the effective colonization of parts of Africa and the displacement of numerous communities were widely criticized The project also failed to garner substantial support from governments which viewed it as too risky politically and economically
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In essence, Atlantropa was a reflection of its time, an era that was characterized by both the hope of utopian projects
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and the shadow of imperial ambitions. While never realized, the Atlantropa project was pretty far along in its conception
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so much so that we can show almost exactly what was proposed and what those impacts would have been
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The Atlantropa project was an audacious engineering and architectural undertaking to say the very least
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While the core idea was to dam the Mediterranean Sea at the Strait of Gibraltar to generate electricity
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there were many additional smaller projects that would emerge as a result, all of which would foundationally impact the entire geography of Europe, Africa, and potentially the planet
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The geographic modifications proposed by Atlantropa were extensive and profound. The project centered on the construction of several massive dams
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the most significant of which would be placed at the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow passage connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean
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This dam, estimated to be around 35 kilometers long, would control the inflow of Atlantic water into the Mediterranean
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thus reducing the sea level gradually over time. The drop in sea level was projected to be up to 200 meters
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which would expose thousands of square kilometers of new land along the coastlines of Mediterranean countries for agricultural use
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settlement, and new infrastructure development. Another major dam was proposed for the Dardanelles
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the strait that connects the Sea of Marmara to the Asian Sea, further controlling the water levels
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in the basins and maximizing the potential for hydroelectric power generation. Additional
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proposals included a dam between Sicily and Tunisia, which would separate the Mediterranean
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into two distinct bodies of water. The eastern part would continue to be fed by rivers
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while the western part, more isolated, would see a more significant reduction in water levels
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The construction of these dams would not only generate power and create new lands
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but also physically connect the continents via two new major highways. One would go from Paris through Spain and over the Strait of Gibraltar down to Dakar and Senegal
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while the other would travel from Berlin through Italy, across the new dam connecting Sicily and Tunisia
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and all the way down to the southern part of the continent to Cape Town. These new roads, it was promised, would increase the connectivity of the two continents
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in a way that they never could before. Sorgel also envisioned extensive engineering projects on the new lands
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including new cities, agricultural areas, and transportation networks that would bind the supercontinent together
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He imagined a pan-European African economic zone that would be powered by the electricity generated from these mega dams
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The newly exposed lands were expected to alleviate population pressures in Europe by providing new space for communities to grow
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although this aspect of the project significantly overlooked the displacement of North African communities and the environmental impacts
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Obviously, Atlantropa's proposal to reshape the geography of the Mediterranean basin were never realized
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But if they had been, the negative ramifications would have been staggering
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The Atlantropa project was incredible in its scale, and while its original intentions were based on ensuring peace throughout Europe
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had it actually been built, Europe and Africa would have been irreversibly changed
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and not for the better. One of the most significant negative impacts of Atlantropa
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would have been on the Mediterranean environment itself. The project's proposed dams at the Strait of Gibraltar
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the Dardanelles, and between Sicily and Tunisia would have lowered the sea level of the Mediterranean Sea by up to 200 meters
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While this reduction in water would have exposed new land for agriculture and urban development
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it would have come at catastrophic ecological cost The lowering of the sea level would have drastically altered the salinity and temperature of the sea disrupting marine ecosystems that are among the most diverse in the world Species endemic to the sea would face extinction and the altered conditions would
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lead to the collapse of fisheries, a vital source of food and economic activity for millions of
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people in the region. Which is a bit ironic, considering one aspect of the plan was to have
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more land to grow food. Beyond the marine environment, the project would have also
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altered the climate of the surrounding regions. The Mediterranean Sea plays a crucial role in
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moderating the climate of the area through the regulation of temperatures and weather patterns
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This is the same impact that many coastal communities enjoy. Maritime climates are
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often much more regulated. Consider the consistent temperature of San Diego, California, for example
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as compared to Denver, Colorado. A significant reduction in the size of the Mediterranean Sea
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would bring about more continental climates to both continents and lead to more extreme temperatures
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both hotter and colder, which would adversely affect the existing agriculture in Europe
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particularly the cultivation of climate-sensitive crops like olives, grapes, and citrus fruits that are iconic to the region
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The social and political impacts of Atlantropa could have been equally severe
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The project was envisioned at a time when European colonial attitudes towards Africa were still prevalent
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Sorgel's plan implicitly treated African territories as resources to be exploited for the benefit of Europe
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This could have intensified colonial tensions and suppressed the sovereignty of North African nations
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leading to social unrest and conflict. In fact, this plan likely would have led to even more conflict in the overall region when
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starting in the mid-1950s, countries all across Africa began clamoring for independence
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Moreover, the creation of new land through the draining of the sea would have led to the displacement of coastal and island communities throughout the Mediterranean
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Many of Europe's most prominent and beautiful cities are located on the coast
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Venice, a beautiful and historic city of cs off the Adriatic, would suddenly be over 500 kilometers from the sea
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And while there were plans to protect the city's overall look and feel, it would simply not be the same
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Naples, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Tunis, Tripoli, Athens, and many more cities would be equally impacted
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Additionally, the Suez C, a c that took 10 years to create between 1859 and 1869
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would suddenly need an additional 100 kilometers of c built to continue being a shipping lane
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a lane that would also be far less valuable given that it would no longer connect to the wider ocean
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Finally, and economically, while the project aimed to provide new areas for development
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and an abundance of hydroelectric power, the initial costs and ongoing maintenance of such massive dams
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and other infrastructural elements would have been astronomically high. The Hoover Dam in the United States cost about $760 million to build
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when adjusted for inflation, and requires about $3 million in maintenance every year
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This is a dam that is only 220 meters high and 379 meters wide. The dam at the Strait of Gibraltar
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would be exponentially more costly given that the narrowest point between Europe and Africa
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is 14 kilometers wide. And this is just one part of the Atlantropa project. Even if all the economic
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benefits proposed by the project were realized, it very likely wouldn't have been enough
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Atlantropa is a fun project to think about, but less so to commit to. The idea that
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megaprojects can solve all of our problems is something that, at least for the time, has subsided
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Still, it's worth keeping in mind all of the very negative consequences of such a megaproject
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should anyone try to push it forward once again. I hope you enjoyed learning all about Atlantropa
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and its geographic impacts. If you did, please subscribe to my channel. If you want to watch
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more videos, click here. If you want to listen to the podcast, click here. Thanks for watching
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See you next time
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