The Western Desert

The Western Desert of Egypt, also known as the Libyan Desert covers about 2/3rd of the total area of the country’s one million odd square kilometers (450.000 square miles approximately). Lying west of the Nile valley, it is basically a very wide expanse of sedimentary rocks and sand dunes. The terrain is fairly flat, with limestone plateaus and small cliffs or “munqar” surrounding areas of low ground or depressions. The five main inhabited oases of the Western Desert lie in those depressions. In the western part of the desert, along the Libyan border, is the Great Sand Sea, an immense field of giant sand dunes that are constantly shifting with the winds. The dunes are bordered on the North by the Mediterranean coastal plain and on the south by the Gilf Kebir plateau

The main tribe of Bedouins in the Western Desert is Awlad Ali, originally Berbers from Libya and North Africa. Within them, the Senoussi religious clan was born and became almost a tribe in its own right. Several smaller tribes or clans have formed over time, which can all trace back their ancestry to Awlad Ali. Bedouins of the Western desert called themselves “Arabs” and make a strict distinction between them and the “Valley People”

Life in the Western Desert, although seemingly peaceful and uneventful, has seen quite some turbulence over the history of mankind. It is in the Great Sand Sea that the army of Cambyses, consisting of 50.000 men with full battle gear, met a fierce sandstorm that buried them all, never to be found until this day. The Qattara Depression, a series of uninhabited small oases has witnessed some of the most decisive battles during WW2. Bodies of soldiers, mummified by the hot dry climate can still be found, together with rusted military vehicles. The most dangerous remnant of this war is the minefields, which still claim several lives every year.

A recent discovery in the oasis of Baharia, namely an underground mass burial site of mummies dating from the late Graeco-Roman period has brought this desert into the limelight.

Water comes mainly from underground springs, these can be either pleasantly cool or fuming hot. They keep gushing out their apparently inexhaustible supply of fossil water day in day out over the years. Varying amounts of different metals are dissolved in the water; sometimes a spring will have an eye-stinging smell of sulfur, or a reddish color due to high iron content. Some of these springs, and especially in Siwa, produce highly pure drinking water that is bottled and sold throughout Egypt.

The Western Desert, during the Eocene age was the ocean bottom; this is evidenced by the marine fossils lying on the sand or imbedded in rocks. The fossils are those of invertebrates normally living at 1000 – 1500 m (3000 – 4500 ft) depths. Later the water level receded forming lakes in the low grounds, which over the centuries became pockets of water. Large animals such as whales and sharks were stranded and died from a non-regenerating ecological system.
Attesting to this theory, scores of fossilized whale carcasses and thousands of shark teeth (the only part that survives of this cartilaginous fish) can be found in the Fayoum desert and near Farafra. At a later geological age, the desert became lush tropical forest; large chunks of petrified wood can be found with diameters suggesting that the trees may have been over 30 m (90 ft) high.

The famous White Desert, an eerie lunar landscape of chalk rocks eroded into strange shapes is arguably the most visited area of the Western Desert. Legend has it that on one special night every year, one of these solitary white rocks called “gara” splits open, pouring jinns and other evil creatures out into the human world. Incidentally, the rock also acts during this night as a direct communication line between the sky and people’s wishes.
A wish made on that night was guaranteed to come true provided of course someone can muster the courage of being in the vicinity of an open gara when expressing their wish. This theme of a place with beneficial magical powers, side by side with evil forces can be found in most Bedouin cultures. In Shalatin, in the Eastern Desert, a tree, believed to be inhabited by hundreds of evil spirits, has the power of bringing good fortune if a single branch is picked on the night of the new moon and placed in a house. Approaching the tree is the hardest part as you will be repelled by the Jinns, or even worse, might be snatched into their world, never to be heard of again.