The Sahara Desert is so vaste that the Romans could have built enough ships to walk across the Atlantic.
The Sahara Desert was a Desert long into the time of the Ancient Eygptians who pre-date the Romans by thousands of years.
The Temple was made of Stone, by the way.
the floor was of 'firwood overlaid with gold'
Cedars of Lebanon were felled for the temple
just as now the trees of Lebanon are being burned
like babies by Lockheed bombs.
Desertification is the process of growing further desert
through tree cutting. Just as humankind created deserts,
we can eliminate them through the planting and irrigation
of zillions of trees.