SUDAN

LIB

YA

Ras Banas

T imsahLake

Gu

lf o

f A

qa

ba

Gu l f o f Suez

L a k eN a s s e r

N i l eR i v e r

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

R

ed

S ea

•Bahar iyaOases

FayoumOasis

Gi l f Kebi r

Gilf El-Kebir Protectorate

T ropic of Cancer

S iwa Oasis

Borg•El Arab

Ras Mohammed

St Cather ineArea

WadiE l Rayyan

•S i t ra

White Desert ProtectorateThe Great

Sand Sea

Wadi el-Natroun

Dep

ressi

on

Qatta

ra

New Valley

S i n a i

We

s te

r n

De s e r t

De

s er t

Ea

s t er n

DANDARA•

KARNAK

TEMPLE OF SOBEK& HAREORIS

VALLEY OF THE KINGS

PYRAMIDSOF GIZA

Qarun Lake

PYRAMIDSOF SAQQARA

ST ANTHONY’SMONASTERY

ST PAUL’SMONASTERY

SUEZ CAN

AL

ABU SIMBEL

MOUNT MOSES

WADI

HAMMAMAT

MONSPORPHYRITES

PHILAE

SAAD EL-ALI,THE HIGH DAM

KALABSHA

UWEINAT MOUNT 1 934 M

Sallum• Sidi Barani•

•Siwa

Qara Oasis•

•Bawiti

Za’farana•

Ain Sukhna• •Ras Sidr

Oyoun Musa

•Marsa Alam

•Baris

Tushka

•Berenice

•Shalatin

•Halaib

•Farafra Oasis

Ain Dalla•

Abu Minqar

Regenfeld•

Abu Ballas

Pharaoh’s Island

Rafah•

•Nuweiba

Dahab•RasGharib•

•Qus

•Sidi Abdel Rahman

Gabal El Mawta

CleopatraBath

GabalEl Dakrur

Taba•

•QenaQena

Shayyb Mount

•Al Kharga Oases

El Arish•

•El Tur

•Damanhur

•Beni Suef

El Minya•

•Zagazig

•El Mansura

•El Fayoum

•Tanta

•Banha

Sohag•

Esna

Asyut•

Suez•

•El Alamein

•Rosetta•Kafr El-Sheikh

Marsa Matruh••Damietta

•Port Said

•Ismailia

•Luxor

Edfu

Aswan

Aswan

Sharm el-Sheikh

Hurghada•El Gouna•

Safaga•

•El Quseir

Giza•

Alexandria•

•Cairo

Westen White Desert

Easten White Desert

Siwa ProtectorateMiddle Sector

Siwa ProtectorateEastern Sector

Siwa ProtectorateWestern Sector

El RayyanProtectorate

QarunProtectorate

Whale Valley

El-MoghraProtectorate

•Nuwamisa

Line

Ea

st 2

5

Wadi Abu El Malik

Wadi Wissaa

Line North 22

Memorial•Wadi Furaq

Wadi SouraMestikawy Cave

•Tarfawi Well

•Dakhla OasesSilica Valley

Peter and Paul•

•Karkur Talh

El-A

rbai

en R

oute

Abu Muharek Dune

•El Bahrein

25° 26° 27° 28° 29° 30° 31° 32° 33° 34° 35° 36° 37°

25° 26° 27° 28° 29° 30° 31° 32° 33° 34° 35° 36° 37°

22°

23°

24°

25°

26°

27°

28°

29°

30°

31°

22°

23°

24°

25°

26°

27°

28°

29°

30°

31°

Scale 1:2.000.000

Cultivated area

Sea LevelArea below sea level

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AVERAGE YEARLY TEMPERATURE CHART OF THE WESTERN DESERT

Month Min MaxJANUARY 4 22FEBRUARY 5 25MARCH 7 29APRIL 8 35MAY 10 37JUNE 15 38JULY 18 40AUGUST 17 39SEPTEMBER 15 37OCTOBER 12 35NOVEMBER 8 29DECEMBER 5 25

Temperatures in Celsius

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 flint, quartzite or sandstone typified 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 fire.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 using more 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 flint tool indicating a vital evolution in the refinement 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 first 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 the famous 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 almost parallel to the Nile River defined 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 finally 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 infinite 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

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