The Birth of the Sahara as told by Ahmed Temiicha

 A long time ago, when the earth was very young, it was one huge garden covered in tall palm trees and perfumed jasmine, and the songs of nightingales flooded the landscape with their gently melodies. At this time, all men were loyal, trustworthy and honest. In fact, the word ‘lie’ did not even exist.

But one day, someone told a lie. It was a very small lie and of no importance, but it was the end of man’s childhood and the age of innocence.

So God summoned all the men on earth together and said to them, ‘Each time one of you lies, I shall throw a grain of sand onto the earth.’

The men looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and said to themselves, ‘A grain of sand? What difference will that make? You can hardly see a grain of sand.’

And so lie after lie, little by little, the Sahara gradually came into existence, as God threw grains of sand onto the earth from the heavens above. But here and there the odd oasis can still be seen. These are the traces of the original garden, because not all men lie.

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It was Andrea from the Marrakech Riad AnaYela who brought me on the Storytellers.

Story was originally shared on moroccoonthemove.com