The Shifting Sands of Tanzania
The Shifting Sands in Tanzania
There
is a quite unusual sight on the Serengeti Plains, several miles from
the Ngorongoro Crater.Innocuously small from a distance, an apparently
unremarkable and incongruous pile of blackish sand has somehow found its
way to this particular piece of earth and formed into a sand dune where
none other exist.But there is nothing ordinary about this sand. Today,
tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year it will surely have moved
somewhere else.The sand is magnetic, and moves with the wind, but the
magnetic attraction between the grains keeps the sand together, an
isolated dune that shifts with the winds.Markers have been set up by
researchers to denote its location on a given date and one can trace its
past movements over the weeks and months and years by following the
trail of stakes that denote the date the dune had passed a given spot on
the windswept plain.
The
‘Shifting Sands’ of Tanzania, as they are known, consist of volcanic
ash that the winds have blown out of, and deposited here, from the dead
Volcano, Oldonyo Lengai.Once on the ground, and in the presence of other
ash, the magnetic charge of the particles has allowed the ash that
continues to fall to accumulate into a sizable and growing dune.The
blowing winds are strong enough to move the ash, but not strong enough
to defeat the magnetic forces that keep the grains attached. Wind merely
shifts the dune’s shape as it crawls slowly across the plains, at the
rate of about sixteen feet per year.
Discovered
and first tracked by researchers in 1969, this peculiar ‘Shifting Sand
Dune’ has traveled about two kilometers over the past thirty-nine years.
Local Masai, familiar with the moving sands, believe the shifting sands to be blessed with special powers.Decades ago, Masai women would leave goat’s blood in a container in front of the dune, as an offering to the Gods. They would return to find the jug gone.A year later, the empty jug would reappear, apparently untouched, but empty of its contents on the other side of the dune.The Masai legend grew that the Gods were pleased with and had accepted their offering.Hence, the gift became ritual in nature.Even today the sands are still considered a ‘holy place’ by the Maasai People.
Your welcome in tanzania we will guide you, Or if your looking for tourist guide just contact with us by call us or E-mail.
phone number +255 621 026430,
E-mail:kalungura555@gmail.com.