That 1970s map of Africa that had Lake Chad the size of a sea

I was digging through a box of old stuff my dad left behind last month and found a National Geographic map from 1975. The borders were all kinds of wrong, like a bunch of countries that don't exist anymore and weird colonial lines. But the craziest thing was Lake Chad, it covered like a third of the region on the map. I checked online and it's almost gone now, just a tiny puddle compared to what they drew. Anyone else stumble on an old map that shows a totally different geography than today?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamies451mo ago

Oh man, that's wild but I gotta say the border thing might be a bit off. Most of those 1970s borders are actually pretty close to what we have now since most African countries got independence in the 60s. But yeah, Lake Chad is the real shocker for sure.

webb.jordan1mo ago

Lake Chad drying up is just nature's way of telling us we shouldn't have built so many dams and irrigation projects upstream. Makes you wonder if anyone actually thought that one through, right? Like, maybe we could have shared the water instead of watching it disappear. But hey, at least the borders stayed the same while the lake ran off to find a cooler retirement spot. Guess the cartographers were the only ones who didn't screw up their job back then. Still can't believe we let a whole lake just peace out like that.