Libyan Desert’s Yellow Glass – How We Discovered the Origin of These Rare and Mysterious Shards

The Great Sand Sea Desert stretches over an area of 72,000km2 linking Egypt and Libya. If you find yourself in a particular part of the desert in south-east Libya and south-western parts of Egypt, you’ll spot pieces of yellow glass scattered across the sandy landscape.

It was first described in a scientific paper in 1933 and is known as Libyan desert glass. Mineral collectors value it for its beauty, its relative rarity – and its mystery. A pendant found in Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb