The Eye of the Sahara
From orbit, astronauts saw a giant blue eye staring up from the Sahara, about 40 km across.
What was reported
In the Sahara in Mauritania lies the Richat Structure, a series of rings about 40 km wide. On the ground it is hard to notice, but from space it looks like a giant bullseye or eye. Astronauts used it as a landmark from the 1960s onwards.
It was first thought to be a crater made by a meteorite. More recently, some writers have claimed it is the lost city of Atlantis described by Plato.
Explanations offered
Geologists found no signs of a meteorite impact. They explain it as a dome of rock pushed up from below about 100 million years ago, then worn down by wind and water, so that rings of harder and softer rock are exposed, like the cut layers of an onion. There is no archaeological evidence of a city.
- When
- Noticed from space in the 1960s
- Where
- Richat Structure, Adrar, Mauritania
- Witnesses
- Astronauts and geologists
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.