A Man Once Wanted to Drain the Mediterranean Sea. Here's Why.

A German man in the 20th century proposed draining a sea to produce a treasure house of hydroelectricity. Herman Sörgel, an architect wanted to drain the Mediterranean Sea to join Europe and Africa and use the hydroelectric energy accumulated in the process to set up irrigation projects, Discovery reported.

The architect spent his entire life promoting the project. The utopian project was given the moniker 'Atlantropa' by Sörgel, Atlas Obscura reported. The man defended his larger-than-life idea in four books, over a thousand publications, and countless lectures. All of Sörgel's works have been recorded in the archive of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

Plan of Atlantropa

Sörgel wanted to build three gigantic dams to facilitate the Atlantropa project. The first dam would have been across the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, separating the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. The second one would be placed in such a way that it would block the Dardanelles and shut the supply of the Black Sea. The last dam was planned to be spread across from Sicily to Tunisia, which would cut the Mediterranean in two, with different water levels on either side.

He claimed that even though the Mediterranean Sea was fed by many rivers, its main supply came from the Atlantic Ocean. Hence a simple separation would do the trick and lower the water level of the Mediterranean Sea.

Prospects of Atlantropa

Sörgel claimed that the three dams would produce enormous amounts of hydroelectric energy, Atlas Obscura reported. As per his estimates, the quantity of hydroelectric energy produced by the Atlantropa project would be enough to fulfill the electricity demand of the whole of Europe.

Another benefit would be lower sea level, which would create new farmlands along the current coastline, providing several European countries with the opportunity to expand their horizons.

The plan was presented in 1928 and had been optimistically received by multiple luminaries. The proposal could have provided the European countries with the relief they needed after the despair of World War I.

Sörgel claimed that Atlantropa would guide Europe into a brighter future, away from war and poverty. To promote his plan, Sörgel established the Atlantropa Institute. 

Atlantropa Never Took Off

Sörgel's project was loved by the German public and gained a lot of support in the media, Atlas Obscura project. Despite its popularity, Atlantropa never took off.

The Nazis took over Germany, and unlike the previous regime weren't interested in the idea. The project was rooted in a modern architectural movement that focussed on building, Discovery reported. Nazi authorities were against such concepts.

Even after the Nazi government disappeared out of the picture, Sörgel's project was not given a chance because of the investment it required. The Allied powers prioritized other things, and with the rise of nuclear energy, the appeal of hydroelectricity also waned, Discovery reported. 

Atlantropa in Popular Media

Sörgel died in 1952 and the institution closed down in 1960, and with it, any possibility of the project coming to life. Though Sörgel's idea never took off in real life, it was recreated in multiple fiction pieces. Soviet sci-fi writer, Grigory Grebnev, in his novel, The Flying Station, imagines a world where Atlantropa was constructed by the authorities. Gene Roddenberry’s book version of Star Trek shows Captain Kirk standing on a dam located in the Straits of Gibraltar.