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The
White Desert:
 Location
The White
Desert is located between the Bahariya and the Farafra oasis. Most
safaris into the desert are arranged between the three locations.
Sightseeing at the White Desert
The White
Desert covers an area of about 6,000 square kilometers on the southwest
of Cairo. It is a place that no visitor to the New Valley should miss.
It gains its amazement form its white sands, in contrast with the yellow
sands elsewhere. The Massive weird rock formations in white, cream color
are the main attractions of a desert white in color.
Watching a desert white is like traveling to the other end of the world.
Considerably high chalk-colored hills make the white desert look like an
Arctic landscape with icebergs. However, it is remarkable how deep blue
the sky is there.
What
makes the white desert part of Egypt travel adventure is its state as an
open museum for geographical phenomena, fossils, and wild life. It is a
natural reserve not only for being a desert white in color, but also for
being the land of rare plants, acacia trees, calcified trees, and
springs. The white desert is the home for many animals on the verge of
extinction. There you will watch the Egyptian gazelles, white gazelles
and rams.
It
hosts monuments that go back to the era before the Christ and the Roman
era. The white desert is also the location for rare caves, graveyards,
as well as mummies and carved inscriptions.
Sightseeing
in your Way to and from the White Desert
Bahariya
Bahariya
Oasis is set in a depression of 2000 square kilometers, surrounded by
black hills. Bahariya is known for its hot spring wells and incredible
monuments.
The Roman Fortress
The Roman
Fortress is the largest in the Western Oasis. It hosted large numbers of
soldiers and local rulers who undertook the responsibility of protecting
Egypt against the desert attackers and securing the trading routes. The
fortress is mostly built of Mud bricks.
The Roman Palace
Near the
Roman Fortress, visitors will find a structure of a Roman Palace
covering four acres of land. The palace has a maze of mud bricks
surrounded by walls putting the visitor in Egypt travel adventure. These
walls were decorated with hunting paints and various colored plants. The
Roman Palace is believed to have been the residence of the local Roman
ruler.
The Wine Factory
The Win
Factory was discovered in 1988 near the Roman Palace. Its structure is
much like that of the Roman baths. The existence of a hot spring
directly under the area suggests that the structure might have included
a bathhouse as well.
Walls
are built of mud bricks and covered with a thick layer of plaster,
probably intended to prevent the grape juice during fermentation from
socking into the walls. The Factory has many rooms, the largest of which
was probably used for receiving, cleaning and sorting the grapes. A
number of small rooms were used for the phases of processing.
The Basilica
The remains
of a Coptic church built on the classical basilica style are found near
the Roman Fortress. It was probably built at the end the 5th Century AD.
The church has whitewashed walls and two floors with staircases.
Beside
this basilica, remains of a much older building are found. This building
is believed to have been a place of Christian worship.
The Valley of the Golden Mummies
The Valley of
the Golden Mummies is one of the major discoveries in the Bahariya Oasis
making it a prominent Egypt travel adventure. It is the largest cemetery
of its kind. The 2000-year-old cemetery was discovered in 1996. In first
season of excavation started in 1999, four tombs where found with 108
mummies. The mummies were covered with gilded or painted coffins; some
wore golden masks and jewelry. The tombs include as well wine jars,
coins, pottery and amulets for use in the afterlife.
In the
second and third seasons of excavation (2000/2001), ten tombs with 125
mummies were discovered. The mummies in some of these tombs wore golden
masks with uraeus -the spitting cobra- as a symbol of sovereignty.
Farafra
The Farafra
is located 45 km south of the White Desert. It is characterized by its
simple life and isolation from the complicated life of the city. In the
Pharaonic times, it was called Taahat (the land of the cow). Most of the
inhabitants there are Bedouins living in small mud-bricked homes. Houses
are mostly painted blue and decorated with landscape, bird, and animal
sceneries. In the center of Farafra, you will find remains of palaces
built of clay, plain tombs of rock, and remnants of a Roman temple at
the area of Ein Bess. Visitors, as well, must not miss enjoying the hot
springs of the Farafra.
Kharga Oasis
The Kharga
Oasis must be one of the most beautiful places in the world, especially
at sunset; everything you see at this “green island
in the middle of a yellow ocean of sand”, is natural! Whether you are
sleeping under the stars, or just relaxing between the high palm-trees,
you will find a feeling of integration with the environment. The first
time I saw the El-Kharga Oasis, a bright light came to my eyes and I
could not overcome the emotion, even I wondered “what better place to go
than El-Kharga Oasis?” During my short stay in this splendid place I
realized that I did not look at my watch as often as I usually do in
Cairo, since it seemed that time did not matter here; I even walked
around more than I do in the city, the fantastic, pure, atmosphere
encouraging me to explore, as I found that I was feeling less tired than
normal. No doubt the stay in that wonderful place was a kind of
recuperation from the gloomy crowded life of the Egyptian capital.
Everything around me was clean, quiet, and simple, and for a moment a
thought came into my head about buying a house there.
El-Kharga
Oasis is about 550Km from Cairo, but it is nearer to Luxor than any
other Egyptian town, and was called the Oasis of Thebes by the Ancient
Egyptians. There are several monumental sites here, the most important
being the Temple of Hebes. It is situated 3Km north of the Oasis, and
was dedicated for the worship of the Triad of Thebes, Amon, Mut and
Khonso, dating back to the 26th Dynasty.
Another
one of the interesting monuments in the area is El-Zayan Temple, which
is situated near the small village of and dates back to the Ptolemaic
Period. It was dedicated for the cult of Amon-Ra, the God of El-Kharga
at the time.
The
cemetery of El-Bagawat also deserves a visit; situated behind the Temple
of Hebes, these tombs date back to the Early Christian Period, and on
the some of the walls there are very interesting coloured scenes,
depicting religious events such as: the Exodus, Adam and Eve, various
Prophets, Angels, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus.
 The
Oasis of El-Kharga was a prosperous place during ancient times and was
linked with the Nile Valley by many routes. The Greek historian
Herodotus mentioned that the great Persian King, Campuses, sent a huge
army (about 50,000 men) from Thebes in order to destroy the Oracle
Temple of Amon-Zeus at Siwah. The huge army reached the El-Kharga Oasis,
was provided with food and water, and then they continued their march
towards Siwah, but the campaign vanished and no one can tell what really
happened, even today! Some historians suggest that the Persian army was
lost in the desert and were sunk in the Great Sea Of Sand, which extends
along the borders between Egypt and Libya.
Nowadays El-Kharga is famed for the large number of palm-trees,
pigeon-houses, farms, fields, monuments, wells, artisans, traditional
handcrafts, and honey-coloured hills, which can be found here. There is
also another attraction - riding camels, which is considered by many
tourists and visitors, an adventure in itself. On the rocks of some
sites some graffiti, left by tourists to commemorate their visit to that
beautiful Oasis. Pure springs and natural wells completely unpolluted by
chlorine or other chemicals are scattered in several locations in the
Oasis. The local people seem to be “at your service“; they are very kind
and give visitors the feeling that they are very welcomed. The life
there is simple, but extremely satisfying!
There
are no sophisticated communications at the Oasis, but who needs
technologies there anyway? On the other hand it suffers from the lack of
many fundamental services and needs.
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