The cradle of humankind

There are fractures in the continental rock that foreshadow the destiny of a species. That of the human species in this case. Like the great East African Rift which extends over more than 6000 kilometers, from the Zambezi to the Red Sea.

Fifty kilometers wide, several thousand meters deep, it divides the Horn of Africa into two parts: the African plate on the west, the Somali plate on the east. At the interface between these two tectonic plates, numerous mountainous reliefs, some great lakes - such as the Lake Victoria where the Nile partly originates, and volcanoes for the most part active - except Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. These geological and hydrological structures appeared shortly after the start of the Great Rift digging, four million years ago. The increasing spacing between the two continental plates was accompanied by rapid and continuous sedimentation, a necessary condition for the burying and preservation of many hominid fossils, of stone ruins as well, that erosion has gradually let appear. Thus, this region of Africa is one of the cradles of humanity. And it is precisely this region that the crossing of the Red Rocks of the Upper Valley of the Aude evokes ...