Deep in the Sahara Desert lies a city filled with treasure, and no one has been able to find it. The legend of Zohra tells of a mythical place guarded by giants with access to water in the otherwise uninhabitable desert. There's no shortage of legends of lost ancient cities, and most of those are just that legends. But other lost communities in the same region have been found. Could Zohra be out there waiting to be discovered? This is a study of strange. Welcome to the show.
I'm Michael May. This is where we cover all of all of my favorite strange mysteries from history. If you're new here, my usual format is to share one of these strange tales with a guest. But today is a minnesota in Minnesota. Or when it's just. It's just me and you listener. And I'm going to read a story that. Well, a story that's fascinating and strange. So let's dive right in.
Today I'm covering the legend of Zeus Zohra, a mythical city in the Sahara, akin to the city of Z, Shambala, and many other legends of lost cities that you've probably heard about. Most lost cities come with rumors of goals, of wealth, of treasure and lost technology. And Zohra is not that different. And adventurers have been searching for it in earnest since about 1840.
We also have an interesting Hollywood connection here because one of the lead characters in the search of Zeus, there is a character in an Oscar winning film, The English Patient. So that's a fun little connection, which I will explain a little later on in the story here. So what is 0000 is a mythical city said to lie in the vast deserts of the Sahara somewhere west of the Nile River in Egypt or Libya?
The first known references to Zeus zohra date back to the 13th century in Arabic manuscripts describing it as a white city and the desert guarded by black giants wielding golden swords and home to treasures beyond imagination. This is a reference likely to the taboo people, nomads in Chad and Libya, whose ancestors used to raid oases out in the Sahara. Quick, honest little comment. I couldn't figure out what the plural of Oasis was that it was like Oasis is oases osai. It is oases.
So, you know, fun fact that I just learned tonight Zora is a place that promised lush oases and peace starkly contrasting with the harsh surrounding desert, which is a largely uninhabited and inhospitable part of the Sahara Desert. The terrain is rugged and desolate, in stark contrast to the fertile Nile Valley, where ancient Egyptian civilization was based. The first documented mentions of 008 can be traced back to medieval Arabic manuscripts.
As I briefly mentioned a few seconds ago, which conjure an image of a mysterious oasis described as the oasis of little birds or an opulent white city in the desert. The earliest known reference to the era appears in a 13th century Arabic manuscript known as the Kitab Al Connotes or Book of Hidden Pearls. This work was part of a series of writings on geography by the scholars of the Islamic Golden Age, who compiled a vast amount of knowledge about the known world at the time.
This places the legend of Zohra within the Islamic period of Egypt's history following the Arab conquest in the seventh century A.D.. The text elaborates on the city's fortifications and its treasures, including gardens that never wither and buildings adorned with precious stones. This book serves as a geographical and fantastical travel guide, blending real observations with mythic elements, which was a common practice in literature at the time.
Another significant mention of Zohra comes from the writings of Alma Creasey, a 15th century Egyptian historian. In his work, El Ketut, he compiled a comprehensive histories and descriptions of Egypt, including references to mythical and real locations beyond the Nile Valley. He mentions Zohra briefly as part of the lore of the Libyan desert, noting it as a place of mystery that many had sought, but few, if any, had found.
The legend of this lost city entered European awareness during the age of exploration as explorers sought to map Africa's interior and its coastlines. They often referred to Arabic texts and guides. Zohra appeared in some European maps of the 16th century as a city in the interior of North Africa, marked in the vague expanses of the Sahara, illustrating both the fascination with and the mystery surrounding this oasis city.
These early references paint a picture of zuwara not just as a geographical place, but as a symbol of the ultimate unreachable paradise, a concept that resonated with both the medieval Arab world and later with European explorers. The blending of myth and geography in these accounts has helped cement Zora's place in the lore of Desert Mysteries.
Interestingly, the city is also depicted in some stories as being untouched by the world's calamities, with its inhabitants unaware of the existence of the world beyond their city. A narrative of isolation and an untouched civilization, contrasting with the turbulent history of Egypt, which was marked by invasions, conquests and cultural exchanges. Side note I cannot find specifics on where this specifically is mentioned. Just articles and parts of a book that I used as research.
Let's say there are stories like this, but where those stories are from mean, I'm not quite sure now where this legendary Lost City comes to fruition in a modern sense and creates a plethora of adventuring adventures. Comes from the book Modern Egypt and Thebes being a description of Egypt, which was published in 1843 by English Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson and his book was based on accounts from people he interviewed living in the Dakhla Oasis in Egypt.
Now, let me point out real quick, Oasis or always oases. They're not just, you know, what you see in movies or reading books as this like figment of your imagination or a mirage on the horizon. They are real and they are fertile areas in a desert that can sustain life, plants, water, etc. They can be found throughout the Sahara, typically in canyons, and they've been used for millennia for travelers and nomads and small communities.
So if there was an ancient city in the Sahara Desert, being at an oasis is an important detail in these stories because it makes it more likely to be real. Now, Wilkinson wrote in his book this a quote, Five or six days west of the Road to Farah, three is another oasis called Wadi Zohra, about the size of the Oasis Parva abounding in palms with springs and some ruins of uncertain date.
It was discovered about 20 years ago by an Arab while in search of a stray camel, and from seeing the footsteps of men and sheep, he supposed it to be inhabited. End quote. That being said, future expeditions and travels never found Zohra. One of the key figures in the search for this city during the 1800s was a German explorer, Friedrich Gerhart. Rolfes Roelofs embarked on several expeditions into the Sahara and the Libyan desert from the 1860s onwards.
In 1865, Rolfes made a significant journey across the Libyan desert, reaching places like Kumara, which later explorers hypothesized could be linked to the zoo or legend due to its relative isolation and the presence of water sources, an essential characteristic of the mythical oasis. Well, Rolfes did not find zero. His explorations contributed significantly to European knowledge of the Sahara as geography.
He created detailed maps and observations, which provided valuable information about the desert routes and conditions which would prove crucial for future expeditions. Another notable explorer of this era was Heinrich Barth, a German scholar and explorer who traveled extensively in North and West Africa in the 1850s. Barth was primarily an academic who focused on studying African languages, cultures and histories.
But he also paid close attention to the geographical descriptions he encountered in 1850 during his travels through Libya, Barth collected stories and legends from local tribes, including those about the lost cities and oases which could have been influenced by the zoo or legend. Towards the end of the century, other explorers also ventured into the Sahara, further charting its vast expanses.
In 1879 and Oscar Lynch traveled from Morocco to Timbuktu, passing through regions rumored to house hidden oases and ancient cities. He and other explorers of this era collected many local legends and geographical data, but none, of course, found Sir zero in the 1920s and thirties, the legend gained new life with the formation of the Zurich Club, a group of British army officers and adventurers based in Cairo who turned the search for the city into a semiofficial exploration.
Among them was Ralph Bagnall, who later founded the Long Range Desert Group during World War Two. Bagnoli and his colleagues utilized the latest technology of the time motor vehicles and aircraft to scour the Libyan desert. Though they made significant contributions to desert navigation and geography, Zohra remained elusive.
Some accounts from these adventures claimed desert dwellers spoke of a moving city, one that didn't stay in one place, seemingly possessing supernatural powers, making it hard for those unaware of its secrets to find it. The explorers in this era have amazing stories of traversing the desert using automobiles, struggling to find water, getting stuck in sand, deploying planes to scout ahead, having done a lot of offroad driving myself.
It seems like this would be a lot of fun, but I can't imagine venturing into the Sahara in cars from the 1920s or teens unsure of where you were actually headed or what you would find. And of course, no roads whatsoever and no gas stations. So that's fun. And now we move to the English patient Count Laszlo DMC. He was a Hungarian aristocrat, explorer and pilot. He played a significant role in the 20th century searches for Zeus era.
His life and adventures gained wide fame thanks to his portrayal in the 1996 Oscar winning film The English Patient, played by Ray Finds. However, the romantic and mysterious character portrayed in the film diverges significantly from the historical reality of almost his life. He became fascinated with Africa at a young age and almost moved to Cairo in the late 1920s and quickly joined up with these or Zamora Club.
Al Meses explorations focused on the Libyan desert, where he conducted several expeditions between 1926 and 1936 using aircraft and motor vehicles. Unlike the solitary and romantic figure in the English patient, the real al-Masri was a pragmatic and passionate explorer who collaborated closely with others, including British and German military officers and scientists.
During his expeditions almost, he helped map parts of the Libyan desert and was instrumental in locating the lost oasis of Unlocked, which I am going to just completely assume that I am misprint saying correct pronunciation or none. This was a significant geographical discovery, though not the legendary lost city of Zuwara itself.
All masses interest in zero is primarily geographical and adventurous rather than like treasure seeking his contributions to desert exploration were highly valued, and he published several works on his findings during World War Two. However, it is important to note that he, as a skilled pilot, led to him working with the Axis powers, specifically the German Afrika Korps, which adds a bit of controversy to the story, to say the least.
He did utilize his intimate knowledge of the desert for military purposes, which included assisting in espionage activities. Alma's personal life was complex, and it's subject to a lot of speculation. He never married, and he was rumored to have relationships with both men and women.
Though there's not really concrete evidence to either one of them, Regardless of his ties to Nazis and World War Two and controversies almost, he was in reality a dedicated and skilled explorer whose primary passion was understanding and navigating the challenging environment of the Sahara. And he never found zero. After World War Two, interest in this lost city waned, partly due to geographical shifts. Political changes across the world, and the harsh realities of desert exploration.
Modern satellites and aerial surveys have mapped the Sahara extensively nowadays, which leaves little room for undiscovered cities of significant size. So is there Zuber even real? Will we ever find it? Many historians and archeologists now believe that Zuwara was more of a metaphor than a physical, tangible place. However, some argue that Sir Zohra could have been based on a smaller, real oasis that gradually became uninhabited and was reclaimed by the desert sands.
This oasis could have served as a temporary refuge or trade stop and then embellished over centuries of storytelling and talking, and it became a legend or lost city. I, for one, am a believer in this theory. If Zuber did exist, it likely wasn't the city of immense wealth and strange guardians depicted in legend. More plausibly and logically.
It was a vital stopover for caravans, perhaps boasting a unique culture developed from various influences passing through its wealth could have been in its water sources and its location, which are obviously vital commodities in the desert. And then shifting sands in the Sahara make it hard for these types of places to exist for centuries. Despite the lack of evidence supporting the physical existence of Sir Zuber, the legend continues to captivate.
In a way, Zuzu represents the human yearning for discovery and the mysteries that lie just beyond the horizon, whether as a metaphor for paradise or a lost chapter of human history. Zohra still invites us to explore her question and imagine. Thank you for listening to the Minnesota The Study of Strange and to be very forthcoming. I intended Zo'or to be part of a of a much larger, deeper dive with a guest in a normal formatted episode.
But after reading some amazing books and doing a deep dive into all of the major expeditions for the Lost City, I realized just in terms of the content that I produce, it made more sense to be in Minnesota. But I do hope you enjoyed the story. It is a fascinating one. And if you like this type of content about specifically lost cities, send me a message.
A study of strange at gmail.com because there are more legendary lost cities, some of which are not quite as as well known as, you know, the more fantastical ones that you usually hear about. Next time I am returning to my normal format and we'll have a guest on. We have some interesting true crime episodes coming up very soon.
We also have after after gears of talking about it, I finally have a UFO episode where I will be sharing stories submitted to me that are real stories of people that saw something unidentified in the sky. So make sure you subscribe so you can stay up to date and get notified when those episodes release. You can support the show and get additional content and blogs and all sorts of stuff at our new substack, which you can find through our support tab on our website. A study of Strange Tor.com.
Thank you all again for listening. Goodnight.