Despite being just 8.9 miles from each other at the shortest point, Africa and Europe do not link because of one massive thing in the way – the Mediterranean Sea.
But there was once a massive (and rather bizarre) plan for the two to be joined.
Originally proposed by a German architect 100 years ago which actually involved draining the ocean, the Lebensraum, or Living Space, involved creating more space for the German people and the rest of Europe.
As populations skyrocketed prior the the World War II era, a significant lack of space plagued many European countries.
Energy issues were another crisis facing many of these countries as raw materials such as coal and oil demands grew.
Herman Sorgel thus proposed the idea in the 1920s of the Atlantropa which involved super dams and draining the Mediterranean, which is eight times larger than Germany, by emptying its body of water to help free up land for Europeans and creating more living space.
His idea involved using vast swathes of land from beneath could be formed into fertile lands with magnificent networks of towns and cities further allowing easy travel from Europe to Africa.
Civil engineering was proposed to help this idea to build a dam across the strait of Gibraltar to stop the Atlantic water from reaching the Mediterranean sea, thus freeing up land.
His plan also involved another dam being built between Sicily and Tunisia cutting the Mediterranean into two halves increasing land reclamation of 700,000 km square of land,double the size of Germany
Hydro electric power stations were also proposed by Sorgel to help with Europe’s power supplies.
His idea involved these power stations generating electricity to support any surrounding cities and provide power to other parts of Europe.
Sorgel wanted the Mediterranean to be turned into a water powered battery with all his ideas proving to be popular among most despite its absurdity.
Published books and leaflets were all created by the architect further pushing his ideas with a few politicians even backing his ideas
Civil engineers and architects began working out ways to allow this idea to become a reality with a new plan coming into fruition involving blocking the strait of Gibraltar using a series of dams rather than just one single dam reducing pressure and less risks.
Connecting Europe to Africa was his main plan creating a single continent known as Eurafrica with another proposed dam in the Congo river for a freshwater inland sea to irrigate the Sahara desert turning into more precious land
A series of railways from Europe into Africa would allow but public safety and the displacement of Africans plagued much of Sorgel’s plans but the overall cost proved to be the biggest hindrance of this mega plan
Eventually the plan’s feasibility proved to be its biggest downfall with Sorgel’s plans never seeing the light of day despite a lifetime of campaigning.