The Conquest of the Sea

#### The Conquest of the Sea was the last novel published during Jules Verne's lifetime, in 1905. It is no less significant than his other, more famous works and is considered one of his most enigmatic.

In the 1880s, the French geographer François Élie Rodier sought to flood part of the Sahara Desert with Mediterranean water by digging a canal from the Gulf of Gabes to a series of salt lakes in North Africa. His aim was to alter the region's landscape and create a local climate suitable for agriculture. The idea was abandoned due to technical difficulties, but it inspired Jules Verne to write The Conquest of the Sea, one of his lesser-known works in his visionary Anthropocene series, which focuses on the catastrophes caused by humanity's excessive interference with nature.