Down in the Bottomlands is a novella written by Harry Turtledove which takes places in an alternative history in which the Atlantic Ocean did not reflood the Mediterranean Sea 5.5 million years ago in the Miocene Epoch, 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. A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... Harry Turtledove at Worldcon 2005 in Glasgow Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949), is a historian and prolific novelist who has written historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction works. ... Alternative history or alternate history can be: A history told from an alternative viewpoint, rather than from the view of imperialist, conqueror, or explorer. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ... The Miocene epoch is a period of time that extends from about 23 to 5. ... The Messinian Salinity Crisis, also referred to as the Messinian Event, is the name given to a period when the Mediterranean Sea evaporated partly or completely dry during the Messinian period of the Miocene epoch, approximately 6 million years ago. ... For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise. ...

Plot

The story concerns a field biologist working at "Trench Park" named Radnal vez Krobrir. He is a citizen of Tartesh, a Homo neanderthalensis nation which seems to take in much of the west part of the Bottomlands and what in the real world is France and Spain. He is doing a two-year stint as a field guide to tourists from his and other nations who are visiting the Park to see the plants and animals there. During one of those tours, a military officer of the "Kingdom of Morgaffo" (real-world Britain) is killed by one of the other tourists in his party. Binomial name Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 The Neanderthal or Neandertal was a species of genus Homo (Homo neanderthalensis) that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia from about 230,000 to 29,000 years ago (in the Middle Palaeolithic, early Stone Age). ...

Radnal must call higher authorities to investigate the matter, and in the course of their investigation, they determine that the deceased man had a microprint in his effects outlining a plot by another nation to set off a "starbomb" (nuclear weapon) near the "Barrier Mountains" (a range of mountains joining the Sierra Nevada (Spain) and the Rif across where the real-world Strait of Gibraltar is), thereby setting off one of the many geologic faults in the area, knocking a gap in the mountains, and reflooding the Bottomlands to form a new central sea, instigated apparently by Krepalga (a Homo sapiens nation occupying all or part of the Middle East, which would have benefited by having a real-world-type Mediterranean Sea up to its west border). The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ... The Sierra Nevada, meaning snowy range in Spanish, is a mountain range in the region of Andalusia in Spain. ... This is about a region in Morocco: RIF is also an acronym/initialism. ... The Strait of Gibraltar as seen from space. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Composite satellite image of the Mediterranean Sea. ...

Radnal and other characters eventually find who killed the Morgaffo officer and with the unwitting help of a koprit bird (similar to a shrike) native to the Park, track down the location of the bomb, where it is defused. Koprit birds apparently have a habit of stealing bright shiny things; it stole the fuse from the bomb and used it to decorate its food-hoard bush to attract a mate, as the fuse had been disguised as jewelry to smuggle it in past security. Genera Lanius Eurocephalus Corvinella A shrike is a passerine bird of the family Laniidae which is known for its habit of catching other birds and small animals and impaling the uneaten portions of their bodies on thorns, so that it can tear them into smaller, more conveniently-sized fragments. ... Look up fuse in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Jewelry (the American spelling; spelled jewellery in Commonwealth English) consists of ornamental devices worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. ...

The conspirators had sabotaged all the tour party's transport, leaving them stranded far below sea level on the hot dry abyssal plain. This leaves a squad of Tarteshan secret police and police and army with the job of evacuating the tour party, by giving each member a big backpack tank of drinking water and marching them out; partway up to sea level a helicopter finds them and flies the party the rest of the way. (The author realises that in such an ordeal, people cannot live on such small rations as a capful per day from a water bottle, as too often found in stories and in attempted survival in the real world.) Abyssal plains are flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. ... // Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state. ...

The story ends with Radnal being honored by his fellow subjects of the "Hereditary Tyrant" (i.e., King) of Tartesh at a great festival in Tartesh's capital Tarteshem, for saving the Bottomlands from certain destruction where he meets again a woman named Toglo vez Pamdal, who was in his tour party. She had told him she was a "distant collateral relative" of the Hereditary Tyrant but it turns out is actually his niece. They shake hands at the story's conclusion and presumably begin a romantic relationship.

The story is told from Radnal's point of view and we see him describe Trench Park and its animals and plants to the tourists. Through these descriptions, we come to understand the unique geography and ecosystem contained within the Bottomlands and its Trench and how animals and plants would have adapted to a desert environment two kilometers below average sea level. We also see how the geography of the area would have been different from our timeline, including things like deep river canyons as the rivers around the Mediterranean would have incised such canyons in their descent down the old continental shelf; hydroelectric dams on such rivers generated 80% of Tartesh's electricity. An ecosystem, a contraction of ecological and system, refers to the collection of components and processes that comprise, and govern the behavior of, some defined subset of the biosphere. ...  Sediment  Rock  Mantle  The global continental shelf, highlighted in cyan The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent, which is covered during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas (known as shelf seas) and gulfs. ... Hydroelectric dam diagram The waters of Llyn Stwlan, the upper reservoir of the Ffestiniog Pumped-Storage Scheme in north Wales, can just be glimpsed on the right. ...

The novella first saw print in January 1993 in Analog magazine and has been reprinted twice since then, once in 1997 in The New Hugo Award Winners, Volume IV and then again in 1999 with a couple other novellas in a book called Down in the Bottomlands. A novella is a short novel; a narrative work of prose fiction somewhat longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. ... Astounding Stories was a seminal science fiction magazine founded in 1930. ...