The Sahara Sea: A Hypothetical Project To Create A Sea In The Sahara Desert
The Sahara Sea was a hypothetical project proposed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to flood the Sahara Desert's endorheic basins with water from the Atlantic and Mediterranean Seas, aiming to create a more hospitable climate for agriculture. Initiated by British engineer Donald Mackenzie in 1877, the project involved creating a 60,000 square mile sea in the El Djouf basin. Similar proposals followed, including one by Francois Elie Roudaire and Ferdinand de Lesseps for the Chott el Fejej in Tunisia, which was rejected due to cost and feasibility concerns. The idea resurfaced in 1910 with Etchegoyen's plan for a deeper channel, also unfunded. Operation Plowshare considered using nuclear bombs for this purpose, but international treaties halted the project. Other desert sea projects, like flooding the South Australian desert and the accidental creation of the Salton Sea, also emerged around the same time.
Creating a Saharan sea has always been fascinating to me.
One ongoing project, sort of, is plans to fill in the Chott El Djerid in Tunisia which is a depression that occasionally fills up with water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chott_el_Djerid
Of course this would probably kill a lot creatures who live in temporary salt lakes but still interesting to think about.