Down in the Bottomlands

Down in the Bottomlands is a novella written by Harry Turtledove which takes places in an Alternate 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.

Down in the Bottomlands was first published in Analog Jan. 1993, then reprinted in The New Hugo Winners, Volume IV: Science Fiction's Roll of Honor (1997), edited Gregory Benford, and again in Down in the Bottomlands and Other Places, 1999. It won the best Hugo Award for Novella in 1994.