forming a continual source of power. Eventually this would result in a hypersaline lake or a salt pan as the water would evaporate and leave behind the salt that it contained. Plans to use the Qattara Depression for the generation of electricity date back to 1912 from Berlin geographer Albrecht Penck. The subject was discussed in more detail by Dr. John Ball in 1927, who estimated a hydroelectric potential of 125 to 200 megawatts. In 1957, the American Central Intelligence Agency proposed to President Dwight Eisenhower that peace in the Middle East could be achieved by flooding the Qattara Depression. The resulting lagoon, according to the CIA, would have four benefits: it is easier to extract oil from offshore platforms than in swamps the flow will turn the hydroelectric power station". fishing, resorts, pearls". It would get Egyptian president Gamel Abdel Nasser's "mind on other matters" because "he need[ed] some way to get off the Soviet hook". In the 1970s and early 1980s, several proposals to flood the area were made by Friedrich Bassler and the Joint Venture Qattara, a group of mainly German companies. They wanted to make use of peaceful nuclear explosions to construct a tunnel, drastically reducing construction costs compared to conventional methods. This project proposed to use 213 H-bombs, with yields of one to 1.5 megatons, detonated at depths of . That fit within the Atoms for Peace program proposed by US President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. The Egyptian government turned down the idea. Planning experts and scientists intermittently put forward potentially viable options, whether of a tunnel or canal, as an economic, ecological, and energy solution in Egypt, often coupled with the idea of new settlements. References Antonio Mascolo Die Kattara-Utopie http://www.kattara-utopie.de Further reading Annotations. Central University Libraries at Southern Methodist University. Vol. VI, No. 1, Spring 2004. Bagnold, R.A. 1931. Journeys in the Libyan Desert, 1929 and 1930. The Geographical Journal 78(1): 13–39; (6):524-533. Bagnold, R.A. 1933. A further journey through the Libyan Desert. The Geographical Journal 82(2): 103–129; (3): 211–213, 226–235. Bagnold, R.A. 1935. Libyan Sands: Travel in a Dead World. Travel Book Club, London. 351 p. Ramsar Sites Information Service (RSIS). Egypt. Accessed 21 August 2011. Rohlfs G. 1875. Drei Monate in der Libyschen Wüste (Three Months in the Libyan Desert). Verlag von Theodor Fischer, Cassel. 340 p. Saint-Exupéry, A. de. 1940. Wind, Sand and Stars. Harcourt, Brace & Co, New York.