Chapter 816 Mural
As if just to comfort Bifang, the captain left after a brief exchange.
Then the air fell into silence.
Until eight o'clock in the evening, Bifang didn't see him again.
In the office, the brand new ceiling fan worked hard but could not reduce the heat at all.
Sitting in his chair, Bifang glanced at the policemen in the police station and couldn't help but point his index finger at the armrest of the chair.
Some were reading newspapers, some were drinking tea, some were chatting, and they completely forgot about this "spy".
Helplessly, Bifang had to grab a middle-aged policeman who was about to refill his cup. This middle-aged policeman was also one of the policemen who brought him here.
“How long will it take to confirm my identity?”
"Um, what?"
"I said, how long will it take for them to confirm my identity and then let me go?"
Bifang wondered if his Arabic was not standard enough, but then he thought again and it was unlikely, after all, it was a system product.
The middle-aged police officer paused and said, "Uh, tomorrow, tomorrow will be fine."
[It’s over. I have a bad feeling.]
[It actually takes so long?]
[After all, he is a spy, so he should be more cautious, right? Maybe]
[I don't feel their caution at all? ]
Bifang had the same worry when he saw the barrage. He frowned slightly, but didn't know what to say.
"Tomorrow?"
One day is still within his acceptable range.
Let's wait and see.
…
the next day.
"How long will it take?"
"Well, we are trying to contact China, but we haven't found the phone number yet..."
"If it was just a phone call, I'd probably know."
Bifang sighed.
…
No one could have imagined it.
Bifang was found by the police at noon and taken to the police station in the afternoon. The result was not announced until the morning of the third day, and it was already the fourth day when he was finally released.
During this period, he was questioned by several groups of police officers, and his passport was taken away by the police for verification.
But no one knows what the efficiency is in the middle.
In the end, it was the netizens in the live broadcast room who were reliable and informed the Shanghai Contact Center. The staff of the Contact Center immediately contacted the Chinese Embassy in Algeria and sought help from them.
Bifang escaped successfully with the help of the Chinese Embassy.
Looking back, the whole process was extremely exhausting.
Bifang usually seldom talks about problems in other countries, but this time he was really exhausted, especially the procrastination and low efficiency of the A country, which almost drove him crazy.
The so-called "tomorrow" is never the real tomorrow, but "a day in the future".
If it weren't for the help from the embassy, Bifang suspected that he might not be able to get out for four or five days. Fortunately, he had some food reserves, otherwise he might really starve to death in the police station.
“It finally came out.”
After expressing his gratitude to the visitors from the embassy again, Bifang walked out of the police station. He felt that the air was much fresher and filled with the smell of freedom.
[Fang Shen never thought that the longest delay after he set out would be being suspected of being a spy. Hahahaha, I almost died of laughter.]
[Brother, you're talking so much in one breath, aren't you tired?]
[We've been waiting for several days, let's go! 】
"That's right. We have wasted more than three days. We need to continue on our journey."
"And this is also a valuable experience, isn't it? When you travel abroad in the future, especially to some special countries, it's better to be fully prepared."
Being mistaken for a spy was just a minor incident on the journey.
After settling the matter, Bifang took Alpha out of the town and continued along the original route.
“There is still a long way to go.”
Twenty days later.
After leaving Algeria, Bifang crossed Niger, witnessed the grandeur and beauty of the Niger River, crossed an area of half grassland and half desert, and now arrived in Libya.
With such a large span, the audience finally understood what the rocky desert that Bifang originally described was like.
There are no longer endless sand dunes all around, but towering rock walls. Everywhere there are huge rocks that have been eroded by wind and have become strange shapes. It is so strange that it seems like being on an alien planet.
A wide canyon is on Bifang's right, while on his left is a brightly colored red train speeding along the track.
The train leading to the canyon is painted red, and this color turns into curves that wander and twist between the yellow Gobi and the white desert, so this train has a nice name - the Red Lizard Express.
After eating sand for nearly a month, they finally saw some modern technology, which made the audience in the live broadcast room feel a bit of the long-lost popularity.
Watching the train leave, Bifang continued along the track.
After passing through several tunnels, the surrounding scenery suddenly became strange. It was clearly the towering Grand Canyon of Colorado copied to the African desert.
There is also a stream in the valley. As the water flows, the mountains near and far become lively.
It was thought that green life would be seen wherever there was water, but this rule obviously does not apply to streams with extremely high salt content.
It is its flow that has exacerbated the continuous deterioration of local sand quality and made the already barren land even more desolate.
Bifang rode a camel to the top of the canyon. At this time, the canyon was like an open door, and the sunlight poured in through the cracks in the door, reflecting the stream in the canyon as if it were reflecting the light of mercury, making people suddenly think that there was a treasure there.
[This canyon is so fucking big]
【Do you want to go in? 】
[To be honest, I want to go in and take a look]
Bifang nodded. Even if the audience didn't say anything, he would not miss the opportunity to enter the canyon.
Driving Alpha to slide down the rock step by step.
At first, Alpha was a little scared and reluctant. Finally, Bifang had no choice but to come down and lead it down little by little.
Bifang found a clean pool along the stream, reached in to taste some water, and was surprised to find that the water in the pool was actually fresh water.
"It shouldn't be the same water system. This pool of water is groundwater, and the stream just now should come from somewhere else."
After finding the water source, Bifang put the kettle deep into it and watched the clear fresh water pouring into it. Before he even drank it, he already felt a hint of coolness in the heat.
It is now mid-July, and standing under the Sahara sun is enough to drive people crazy. Even Alpha is rubbing his hooves, looking a little restless.
Bifang had no choice but to take it to a cool place to rest at around ten o'clock.
After searching for nearly an hour, Bifang finally found an excellent shelter several kilometers away from the oasis.
It was a huge cave. Just by standing at the entrance, one could feel a cool feeling that was completely different from the outside world.
And near this cave, there are other caves, two or three, about a dozen in total.
Such a huge cave, coupled with the quiet and unfamiliar environment, is bound to make people feel a little scared.
[Hiss, what a big hole]
[Is this a natural formation? It doesn’t look like it.]
[It was dug by humans, right? It seems to have been abandoned? ]
[I see there seem to be other caves nearby. This must be a human settlement, right?]
【Will there be any monsters inside? 】
[Lizardman, right?]
[My comment is, watch less horror movies]
After entering, Bifang looked around to see if there were any snake ants hiding, then pulled Alpha in. Facing the audience's doubts, he did not find it strange.
"I don't know if you have seen Star Wars. The planet Tatooine in the movie is desolate, cold, and barren. Skywalker was born and raised on that planet."
"The residence of Skywalker in the Star Wars movie has a prototype. In reality, it is the home of the indigenous Berbers in North Africa. They have lived here for thousands of years and have developed a complete living system based on local conditions."
"There is also an underground village called Matmata near Tatooine. There are about 500 large holes like meteorite craters on the ground in that area."
"The entrance of the cave is surrounded by guardrails. That is the underground residence of the Berbers. It takes four people two years to dig a large cave. The diameter of the cave entrance is about 10 meters. Then, bedrooms, kitchens and other living quarters are dug deeper into the cave wall. Usually, a large cave can accommodate five or six families. This kind of building structure allows people in the desert to have a cool and comfortable experience."
"Although we don't know whether this one was also built by the Berbers, and why it was abandoned, the principle is the same. I think it is also evidence that humans lived here long ago."
Bifang touched the rock wall. Even the vertical rock wall was covered with a thin layer of gray soil.
The dust on the ground is several millimeters thick, and one step would leave a very deep footprint.
Obviously, no one had visited for a long time before Bifang visited today.
The cave is very deep, and Bifang also saw some murals on the walls. The brushstrokes were very simple, like children's stick drawings.
Due to its age and the fact that it is covered with a layer of dust, the picture is a little blurry, but the general content can still be seen.
The murals show herds of cattle and sheep, as well as some scenes of people hunting. The pigments are basically red and white.
After looking at a few paintings, Bifang was a little surprised.
"This has been around for at least four thousand years."
[Fuck, so long? ]
[True or false]
【What is the basis? 】
【Textual research experts are online】
Bifang shook his head: "I don't know much about archaeology. I just made some judgments based on the contents of the murals, which may not be accurate."
"Look at the content of the murals. There are only cattle and sheep, no elephants, and no camels. This is consistent with what I said before about the climate change in the Sahara."
【Ah, what's changed?】
【Did I miss class again?】
[I didn't miss class, but I have forgotten everything (dog head)]
Bifang laughed and didn't care. Instead, he explained the climate change process in the Sahara again, and then explained the possible stages and periods of the murals.
"Based on the rock paintings found in the Sahara Desert and the climate changes in the Sahara, we can actually divide these different rock paintings into several stages."
"The first is the Buffalo Period, which lasted from about 35,000 years ago to about 8000 B.C."
"The rock paintings of this period were painted on the rocks using pigments mixed with the milk of some animals that are now extinct in the area."
"These include buffalo, elephant, hippopotamus and rhinoceros. The people use clubs, axes, bows and arrows, and clubs to hit their prey, but usually without javelins. They often wear round helmets."
"These rock paintings are mainly distributed in southeastern Algeria, as well as in Chad and Libya, which is where we are now."
"The second is the Yellow Oxen Period, which was from about 7500 BC to about 4000 BC."
"During this period, local residents began to lead a nomadic life, herding cattle and sheep. Pottery and polished stone axes, stone mills and arrowheads from the Neolithic Age were discovered, as well as some bows and arrows used for hunting."
"The animals used for grazing were introduced from Asia. Later on, some remains of villages were discovered that could gather a large number of people and livestock."
“The third is the Horse Period, which is from about 3000 BC to 700 BC.”
"There are already signs during this period that horses, camels and cows were introduced and large-scale agriculture was practised."
"They learned to use and forge iron tools from the Phoenicians, probably around 1220 BC. The Phoenicians established a large empire alliance spanning the entire Sahara to Egypt."
"If you want to record it with murals, there must be this scene. It's just that this time point is quite recent, so it is generally not expressed with murals."
After hearing this, the audience in front of the screen has basically understood.
The content of the murals neither shows the prosperous scene before the climate change nor the prosperity after the change, but is in an intermediate state.
Then the time point it describes is most likely in the middle period.
[So the people who originally lived here have left? ]
[It is also possible that they were killed by people from other tribes (dog head)]
"Maybe."
Bifang did not give a positive answer.
Since 2500 BC, the Sahara had become a vast desert like its current state, becoming an insurmountable obstacle for humans at the time, with only a few residents in the oases.
The only exception is the Nile Valley. Due to the abundant water resources, it has become an area with lush plant growth and one of the birthplaces of human civilization.
And before all this happened, naturally many people made their own choices.
Faced with environmental degradation, human beings will never sit idly by.
[By the way, has Master Fang discovered something incredible again?]
"Not really. There are actually a lot of murals in the Sahara Desert."
"During the last ice age, the Sahara was not yet a desert and its climate was similar to that of East Africa, so the number of murals left at that time was extremely large."
"Archaeologists have discovered about 30,000 ancient rock paintings in the desert, about half of which are in the En-Ajer Plateau in southern Algeria, depicting river animals such as crocodiles."
"There are many that have not been discovered yet, and what we see in front of us may be just one of them."
"Maybe not even one of them."
