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Ain SukhnaRas Sidr

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Berenice

Shalatin

Halaib

Farafra Oasis

Ain Dalla

Abu Minqar

Regenfeld

Abu Ballas

Pharaohs Island

Rafah

Nuweiba

DahabRasGharib

Qus

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Gabal El Mawta

CleopatraBath

GabalEl Dakrur

Taba

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Shayyb Mount

Al Kharga Oasis

El Arish

El Tur

Damanhur

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Wadi El-Furaq

Wadi SouraMestikawy Cave

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Are the prehistoric humans of the Egyptian deserts the origin of the Pharaonic

civilization in the Nile Valley?

The Egyptian deserts are now extremely arid and almost uninhabited, receiving less then

a quarter of an inch of rainfall each year, but was this always the case?

Scattered everywhere are signs of human habitation, indicating a wider cultural history

then believed until recently.

Very long ago, humans were able to live in these desert regions due to different weather

conditions.

The oldest known civilization in Egypt dates back to the Palaeolithic Age 300,000 BC

indicated by the discovery of Acheulean tools made of int, quartzite or sandstone typied

by their large oval shape. Many of them found in Gilf El Kebir and the Sandsea. They

were used for hunting and gathering of wild plants. This hunting people travelled great

distances after their food in savannah- like regions and already used re.

Climate conditions are proven to have greatly

reversed over the years between Wet periods

and Dry Periods.

During Dry Periods, these people went down

into the valleys where their tool making

technologies improved according to the

different purposes they needed them for.

Some 150,000 years ago, specialized tools

started to emerge and a culture known as

the Playa civilization(Playa: low areas near

water) to be dated back to approximately

70,000 to 35,000 years ago, began usingmore advanced ways of semi cultivating

lands, capturing and holding animals within

their groups.Then in the Upper Palaeolithic Age, about

33,000 years ago man discovered the

making of blades, which helped him greatly

to develop better tools for his use like the

microlith, a tiny int tool indicating a vital

evolution in the renement of production

methods and food storage.

During the Neolithic Age, alternating wet

and dry cycles continued but people started

taking refuge in the NileValley and rst

evidence of Prepastoral cultures followed,

not only around the Nile River but also in

other valleys scattered on the high plateaus.

The most famous is the Nabta Playa lying

only 100 Km west of Abu Simbel.

The last wet climate cycle began around

9,000BC and ended 3,200BC. Very dry

climate set in and forced people to leave the

higher regions forever heading east toward

the oases and the Nile bringing with them

their accumulated various knowledge of semi

agricultural techniques, artcrafts and basic practices of village- like social organization.

These are the ancestors of the Pharaonic ethnic group, developing over the years to a

great Civilization.

The ancient prehistoric drawings in Gilf Kebir and Uweinat can be linked through the later

carvings and engravings in the various desert valleys to the more sophisticated arts of thefamous Pharaonic Temples in the Nile Valley.

International road

Dual carriage road

i rack

City

International boundary

Topography and Geological Aspects of the Western DesertThe land of Egypt forms a one million square kilometre in the northeastern corner of Africa.

The Nile Valley splits this land from south to north, east of it is occupied by the Eastern

Desert and the Sinai Desert, west of it lies the Western Desert, which is the eastern part of

the Great Sahara. In the depressions of this desert, the Oases lie in a curved row almostparallel to the Nile River dened by the lines of convergence at the weaker points in the

earth crust between the various geological eras. The topography and geology shows

that the regional dip of the strata is towards the north, which means that the southern

regions are the oldest exposed features declining in height and age into a younger north.

Therefore Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir in the south form the Palaeozoic Sandstone Plateau

rising 1000 meters above sea level, they merge into the Eocene Limestone plateau at

Dakhla and Kharga at about 500 meters above sea level, followed by the central desert

formations of the Cretaceous era at Farafra and nally to the lower northern Miocene

limestone plateau about 130 meters below sea level in the Qattara depression. To the

east of the Oases runs the Nile and to the west lies one of the most arid territories of

the Earth, the Great Sand sea, characteristic of its innite parallel rows of high dunes

extending sometimes for as long as 150 kilometres. They slope gradually from northwest

to southeast with a 172-degree angle, following the path of the northwestern wind that

blows almost all year round.

The Western Desert elevated from the bottom of an ancient shallow tropical sea called

Thetys some 40 Million years ago at the end of the Eocene period, forming a great plateau

covered by limestone beds

During the long period of time since then, many enormous changes have created its

present shape. The desert was formed in gradual steps, its contours and rocks emerging

due to big tectonic events, continental drifts, advancing and retreating of glaciers, volcanic

activity and changes in atmospheric circulation along with masses of sand deposited by

erosion. Finally the imprints of the basic elements, especially the sharp wind blowing

usually low and shaping the earth surface and any stable obstacle, explaining the many

coned hills scattered all over the desert. All this has made this desert what it is today, a

vast expand of a diverse topography, one of its kind in the whole world.

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

Printed InEgypt ByUPPD Tel.:23928815

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Special thanks for

General Ahmed El Mestikawy,

Mervet AzmiFor Their Great Help