Egypt Western Desert

Bahariya Oasis

El-Waha el-Bahariya or Bahariya 
(Arabic: ?????? ??????? meaning the “northern oasis”) 
is an oasis in Egypt. It is approximately 350 km away from Cairo and the least technologically advanced Oasis in the country. Located in Sixth of October City Governorate, it has an art museum and the main agricultural products are guavas, mangos, dates, and olives.

The White Desert

The Egyptian Western Desert borders on Libya in the West, Sudan in the South and the Mediterranean in the North, and is a vast world of desolation and astounding natural beauty.
This awe inspiring expanse of desert stretches as far as the eye can see, interrupted only by the glittering crystals which are scattered on the desert floor.                                                                       

At the northern end of Ain el-Ris is the only well-preserved early Christian church in the Western Desert, though it has much deteriorated since its paintings were described by Belzoni and Cailliaud in the early 19th century and even since Fakhry wrote about it in the 1930s. The church is a basilica type, constructed in two stories of mudbrick and was probably dedicated to St George, suggested by descriptions of a man riding a horse in the paintings; he was a popular saint in the oases. The roof and the fresco paintings have now vanished, as has the upper floor, but its plan is easy to follow and there are still a few remains of decorations incised into the remaining plastered walls. Fakhry suggested that the date of the church was no later than the 5th to 6th century.

Not far from the Church of St George, Fakhry excavated several small mounds under which he discovered remains of a large mansion or palace in 1938. The walls at the time were still coated with a white plaster and decorated with geometric designs. Further excavations between 1939 and 1945 revealed several more structures, suggesting that el-Hayz was heavily populated by a wealthy community. About half a kilometre south of the church are the remaining walls of an irregularly shaped Roman camp, which was probably an outpost of the larger military structure at Qasr Masuda, 2km further south. Qasr Masuda is an imposing multi-storied fortress about 18m square, containing thirteen rooms with a well in its open court, built on a rocky knoll above the desert floor.

The Snow – White Desert

The richness and variety of Egyptian landscape is endless. At least if you ever decide to visit the White Desert, that’s the message you’ll get. It is a vast stretch of land in the Western Desert that borders Bahariya Oasis to the north and Al-Farafra to the south.
The snow-white desert is actually made of chalk that has been exposed for years to what geologists call “differential weathering,” the erosion of soft particles that results in eerie protrusions of hard rock. This explains the very beautiful forms that now fill the White Desert including shapes like domes, minarets, castles, towers and so forth.
The destination has proved a great attraction to all travelers who camp in the few oases, watch the fauna and flora and enjoy the mild winter weather.

Faiyum Oasis

is a depression or basin in the desert immediately to the west of the Nile south of Cairo. The extent of the basin area is estimated at between 490 mi² (1,270 km²) and 656 mi² (1700 km²). The basin floor comprises fields watered by a channel of the Nile, the Bahr Yussef, as it drains into a desert depression to the west of the Nile Valley. The Bahr Yussef veers west through a narrow neck of land north of Ihnasya, between the archaeological sites of El-Lahun and Gurob near Hawara; it then branches out, providing rich agricultural land in the Faiyum basin, draining into the large saltwater Lake Moeris (Birket Qarun). Lake Moeris was freshwater in prehistory but is today a saltwater lake. It is a source for tilapia and other fish for the local area. Differing from typical oases, whose fertility depends on water obtained from springs, the cultivated land in the Faiyum is formed of Nile mud brought down by the Bahr Yussef, 15 miles (24 km) in length. Between the beginning of Bahr Yussef at El-Lahun to its end at the city of Faiyum, several canals branch off to irrigate the Faiyum Governorate.

The drainage water flows into Lake Moeris.
Over 400 mile² (1,000 km²) of the Faiyum Oasis is cultivated, the chief crops being cereals and cotton. The completion of the Aswan Low Dam ensured a fuller supply of water, which enabled 20,000 acres (80 km²) of land, previously unirrigated and untaxed, to be brought under cultivation in the three years 1903-1905. Three crops are obtained in twenty months. The province is noted for its figs and grapes of exceptional quality. Olives are also cultivated. Rose trees are very numerous, and most of the attar of roses of Egypt is manufactured in the province. Faiyum also possesses an excellent breed of sheep.

History
When the Mediterranean Sea was a hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of a canyon (which was 8000 feet deep or more (where Cairo is today). After the Mediterranean reflooded at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching inland further than Aswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled with silt and became the Nile valley.
Eventually the Nile valley bed silted up high enough to let the Nile in flood overflow into the Faiyum hollow and make a lake in it. The lake is first recorded from about 3000 BC, around the time of Menes (Narmer). However, for the most part it would only be filled with high flood waters. The lake was bordered by neolithic settlements, and the town of Crocodilopolis grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge.

In 2300 BC, the waterway from the Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal which is now known as the Bahr Yussef. This canal fed into the lake. This was meant to serve three purposes: control the flooding of the Nile, regulate the water level of the Nile during dry seasons, and serve the surrounding area with irrigation. There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the natural lake of Faiyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use during the dry periods. The immense waterworks undertaken by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty to transform the lake into a huge water reservoir gave the impression that the lake itself was an artificial excavation, as reported by classic geographers and travellers [1]. The lake was eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile dwindling in size from 230 BC.

Faiyum was known to the ancient Egyptians as the twenty-first nome of Upper Egypt, Atef-Pehu (“Northern Sycamore”). In ancient Egyptian times, its capital was Sh-d-y-t (usually written “Shedyt”) [2], called by the Greeks Crocodilopolis, and refounded by Ptolemy II as Arsinoe.

This region has the earliest evidence for farming in Egypt, and was a center of royal pyramid and tomb-building in the Twelfth dynasty of the Middle Kingdom, and again during the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Faiyum became one of the breadbaskets of the Roman world.

For the first three centuries AD, the people of Faiyum and elsewhere in Roman Egypt not only embalmed their dead but also placed a portrait of the deceased over the face of the mummy wrappings, shroud or case.

The Egyptians continued their practice of burying their dead, despite the Roman preference for cremation. Preserved by the dry desert environment, these Faiyum portraits make up the richest body of portraiture to have survived from antiquity. They provide us with a window into a remarkable society of peoples of mixed origins —Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Syrians, Libyans and others — that flourished 2,000 years ago in Faiyum. The Faiyum portraits were painted on wood in a pigmented wax technique called encaustic.[3]

In the late first millennium AD, the arable area shrank, and settlements around the edge of the basin were abandoned. These sites include some of the best-preserved from the late Roman Empire, notably Karanis, and from the Byzantine and early Arab Periods, though recent redevelopment has greatly reduced the archaeological features.

For late-period Ancient Egyptian names of the Faiyum oasis and places within it, see http://fayum.arts.kuleuven.be/general/name.html . “Colonial-type” village names (villages named after towns elsewhere in Egypt and places outside Egypt) show that much land was brought into cultivation in the Faiyum in the Greek and Roman periods.

Archaeology
There are, especially in the neighborhood of the lake, many ruins of ancient villages and cities. Mounds north of the city of Faiyum mark the site of Crocodilopolis. In January 2008, Egypt’s supreme council of antiquities announced the discovery of an ancient city of farmers dating back to 5200 BC. The site, which probably sat at the edge of Faiyum lake at the time, is still largely buried in the sand, although excavations have revealed walls and houses built of terracotta and limestone, along with foundations of ovens and grain stores. [4]

Birket Qarun lake
In the Faiyum oasis is Birket Qarun ,which abounds in fish, notably bulti, of which considerable quantities are sent to Cairo. In ancient times this lake was much larger, and the ancient Greeks and Romans called it Lake Moeris.

Cities and Towns
The Faiyum oasis contains the city of Faiyum. It also comprises several other towns, among them Sinn?ris and T?m?ya to the north of Faiyum, and Sanh?r and Ibshaw?i on the road to the lake.

El-Kharga Oasis

El-Kharga’, also known as Al-Kharijah, (meaning the outer oasis)  is the southernmost of Egypt’s five western oases. It is located in the Libyan Desert, about 200 km to the west of the Nile valley, and is some 150 km long. It is located in and is the capital of El Wadi el Gedid governorate. [1] This oasis, which was known as the ‘Southern Oasis’ to the Ancient Egyptians is the largest of the oases in the Libyan desert of Egypt and “consists of a depression about 160km long and from 20km to 80km wide.”[2]

All the oases have always been crossroads of caravan routes converging from the barren desert. In the case of

 Kharga, this is made particularly evident by the presence of a chain of fortresses that the Romans built to protect the Darb el-Arbain, the long caravan route running north-south between Middle Egypt and the Sudan. The forts vary for size and function, some being just small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation. Some were installed where earlier settlements already existed, while others were probably founded anew. All of them are made of mud bricks, but some also contain small stone temples with inscribed walls.

Kharga is the most modernized of Egypt’s western oases. The main town is a highly functional town with all modern facilities, and virtually nothing left of old architecture. Although framed by the oasis, there is no oasis feeling to it; unlike all other oases in this part of Egypt.
A regular bus service connects the oasis to the other Western oases and to the rest of Egypt. A railway line Kharga – Qena (Nile Valley) – Port Safaga (Red Sea) has been in service since 1996.

Archaeological sites:

The Temple of Hibis is a Saite-era temple founded by Psamtik II which was erected largely by the Persians (Darius the Great and Darius II) during their rule over Egypt ca. 500 BC. It is located about 2 kilometres north of modern Kharga, in a palm-grove. There is a second 1st millennium BC temple in the southern most part of the oasis at Dush.. An ancient Christian cemetery at Al-Bagawat also functioned at Kharga Oasis from the 3rd to the 7th century AD. It is one of the earliest and best preserved Christian cemeteries in the ancient world.

Siwa Oasis

is an oasis in Egypt, located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert, nearly 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 800 km from Cairo About 80 km (50 miles) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide, Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt’s isolated settlements, with 23,000 people, mostly ethnic Berbers] who speak a distinct language of the Berber family known as taSiwit. Its fame lies primarily in its ancient role as the home to an oracle of Amon, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction and gave the oasis its name.

Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of connection with ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. The ancient Egyptian name of Siwa was Sekht-am “Palm Land”.

Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BC), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek Zeus Ammon, who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. Herodotus knew of a “fountain of the Sun” that ran coldest in the noontide heat.[6] Prior to his campaign of conquest in Persia Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds

The first European to visit since Roman times was the English traveler William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the ancient temple of the oracle. The oasis was officially added to Egypt by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1819, but his rule was tenuous and marked by several revolts.
Siwa was the site of some fighting during World War I and World War II. The British Army’s Long Range Desert Group was based here, but also Rommel’s Afrika Korps took possession three times. German soldiers went skinny dipping in the lake of the oracle, which was considered a sacrilege.

Agriculture

Siwa is popular for its palm and olive trees, producing huge volumes of dates and olives. Extra virgin olive oil is one of Siwa’s popular products used in Egypt and exported to Europe. Jew’s mallow is also a reputable Siwa product in Egypt.

Crystal Mountain

If travelling north from Farafra to Bahariya, it is worth stopping at Gebel el-Izaz, or ‘Crystal Mountain’, about 25km before reaching the escarpment on the modern road down into Bahariya Oasis. This small mountain is formed with a large proportion of quartz crystal, and gives a wonderful view over the desert from the top. One of the nearby rocks has a hole in the centre and there are lots of small pieces of crystal strewn around.

Farafra Oasis

The Farafra Oasis ‎ is the smallest oasis located in Western Egypt, near latitude 27.06° North and longitude 27.97° East. It is located in the Western Desert of Egypt, approximately mid-way between Dakhla and Bahariya.

Farafra has an estimated 5,000 inhabitants (2002) living within its single village and is mostly inhabited by the local Bedouins. Parts of the village has complete quarters of traditional architecture, simple, smooth, unadorned, all in mud colour. Local pride has also secured endeavours to secure local culture. Also located near Farafra are the hot springs at Bir Setta and the El-Mufid lake.

A main geographic attraction of Farafra is its White Desert (known as Sahara el Beyda, with the word sahara meaning a desert). The White Desert of Egypt is located 45 km (30 miles) north of Farafra. The desert has a white, cream color and has massive chalk rock formations that have been created as a result of occasional sandstorms in the area. The Farafra desert is a typical place visited by some schools in Egypt, as a location for camping trips.

Dakhla Oasis

known colloquially as the inner oasis, is one of the Five oases of Egypt’s Western Desert (part of the Libyan Desert). Dakhla Oasis lies in the New Valley Governorate, 350 km from the Nile and between the oases of Farafra and Kharga. It measures approximately 80 km (50 mi) from east to west and 25 km (16 mi) from north to south..

History
The human history of this oasis started during the Pleistocene, when nomadic tribes settled sometimes there, in a time when the Sahara climate was wetter and where humans could have access to lakes and marshes. But about 6 000 years ago, the entire Sahara became drier, changing progressively into a hyper-arid desert (with less than 50 mm of rain per year). However, specialists think that nomadic hunter-gatherers began to settle almost permanently in the oasis of Dakhleh in the period of the Holocene (about 12 000 years ago), during new, but rare episodes of wetter times. In fact, the drier climate didn’t mean that there was no more water in what is now known as the Western Desert. The south of the Libyan Desert has the most important supply of subterranean water in the world, and the first inhabitants of the Dakhla Oasis had access to surface water sources.

Pharaonic Period
First contacts between the pharaonic power and the oases started around 2550 BCE.
After 1800
The first European traveller to find the Dakhla Oasis was Sir Archibald Edmonstone, in the year 1819.[1] He was succeeded by several other early travellers, but it was not until 1908 that the first egyptologist, Herbert Winlock, visited Dakhla Oasis and noted its monuments in some systematic manner.[1] In the 1950s, detailed studies began, first by Dr. Ahmed Fakhry, and in the late 1970s, an expedition of the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale and the Dakhla Oasis Project each began detailed studies in the oasis.

Geography
Al-Qasr at Dakhla Oasis
Dakhla Oasis consists of several communities, along a string of sub-oases. The main settlements are Mut, Al-Qasr, Qalamoun, together with several smaller villages. Some of the communities have identities that are separate from each other. Qalamoun has inhabitants that trace their origins to the Ottomans.

Gara Oasis

The inhabited oasis of Qara lies on the western side of the lowlands. 
Approximately 300 people live in the settlement perched on a scenic fortress-like cliff. The cultivation of date palms is the most important source of income. Qara was used by Alexander the Great as a resting place on his return from the oasis of Siwa. During the Middle Ages, the oasis was an important base for slave traders.

Our Trips:

The desert is a place for contemplation.
The majesty of the landscape, the total silence and the purity of the environment give you an irresistible feeling of inner peace and quietness.
Also desert expeditions can be challenging, both physically and mentally, but however long or short, they leave you with feelings of exhilaration that no other expedition can bring.

Our tours are planned to give you the right mix of adventure and leisure, with plenty of expert guides to show you the way, but also allowing for free time to explore on your own.

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