In 1938, the scientific community was shaken by an extraordinary event: a one-and-a-half-meter-long coelacanth was caught off the coast of South Africa. Until then, it was believed that this species of fish had gone extinct millions of years ago.
Just 12 years later, the sea washed ashore an unknown creature near the Suez Bay. It resembled a small whale but had enormous tusks measuring two and a half meters long.
An equally astonishing discovery was made in the scorching Sahara Desert. While drilling for an artesian well, a stream of water burst forth from the depths—and a live fish flopped onto the sand.
Experts identified it as tilapia, one of the common inhabitants of Africa’s rivers and lakes. Ancient Egyptians cultivated tilapia in ponds over 5,000 years ago.
But how did tilapia end up in an underground reservoir? How did it survive and thrive without sunlight? For now, these questions remain a mystery.