Bahariya Oasis

Description

Lush verdant gardens around the “valley of the Golden Mummies “
While its history goes far back as a far as pharaonic times, this oasis at Bahariya . Consisting of eight villages 360 km south west of Cairo, was hardly known until the end of 20th Century. The main attraction were the temple built to Alexander the Great during his lifetime, the 400 hot and cold mineral and sulphur springs, and the peaceful pastoral oasis setting. Then in 1996, a sensation was caused by the chance discovery of an archaeological treasures when a donkey fel through the roof of a burial chamber on the border between the twin settlements of El-Qasr.
It was subsequently discovered that this was part of a Ptolemaic-Roman necropolis, in which thousands of intricately, individually decorated mummies were stored. Ehile the excavation site is not opened to the puplic, some mummies are exhibited en El-Bawiti. Other local attractions include the old British fortifications on the Jebel Al-Ingleez, the Jebel Maghrafa, where a gigantic dinosaur skeleton was discovered, and the rock formations of the black desert. Last but not least, an overnight stay in a Bedouin tent under the wondrous twinkling night sky is entirely un forgettable .

At Bahariya itself the main town you drive through is Bawati. There are other smaller villages clustered within the depression of the oasis, many of them mentioned in Roman times. Bahariya has been inhabited for many centuries and it was here that the so called Golden Mummies were unearthed a few years ago.Some of the mummy cases can be seen in the museum in Bawiti which you drive past on the way in. There are shops selling most things- here you can buy your Bedouin scarf’s and rugs. Look out for the traditional shops such as the bakery which is a small blackened hole in the wall through which hands pass to receive their daily bread. 

The hills behind the town include Gebel Dest- this was where important dinosaur remains were found by German paleontoligist Eric Strommer nearly a hundred years ago. He discovered a tyrannosaurus- like carnivore called Spinosaurus, which, if you have seen ‘‘Jurassic Park III’’ does battle with T-Rex towards the end of the film.

All around Bawiti there are ancient sites waiting to be visited. When one tires of sightseeing the oasis is well equipped with hot springs that gush from the earth and cleanse you of the sand of desert traveling.

Temple of Alexander

On the road going in the direction of Siwa is the temple dedicated to Alexander- the only one that still exists in Egypt- perhaps he came back through Bahariya after visiting the oracle at Siwa. After the dusty atmospheric town of Bawiti one drives through the Black Desert, called this because the air has oxidized the manganese in the rocks making them black.

• White Desert and Bahariya Oasis day tour from Cairo