Down in the Bottomlands

Blurb

Down in the Bottomlands is a novella written by Harry Turtledove. It takes place in an alternative history in which the Point of divergence occurs 5.5 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch when the Atlantic Ocean did not reflood the Mediterranean Sea, as it did in our history. The Mediterranean Basin thus remains dry to the present day in this time line, as a vast sunken desert called the Bottomlands, averaging nearly two kilometers below mean sea level, with summer temperatures reaching well above 40°C and with little or no rainfall, and brine lakes.