Topography and Geological Aspects of the Western Desert The 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

1. ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT
25° 26° 27° 28° 29° 30° 31° 32° 33° 34° 35° 36° 37° Topography and Geological Aspects of the Western Desert
The 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
M e d the Great Sahara. In the depressions of this desert, the Oases lie in a curved row almost
i t e r r a n e a n S e a
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
Sallum • Sidi Barani • that the regional dip of the strata is towards the north, which means that the southern
•Rosetta regions are the oldest exposed features declining in height and age into a younger north.
•Kafr El-Sheikh •Damietta Therefore Uweinat and the Gilf Kebir in the south form the Palaeozoic Sandstone Plateau
Marsa Matruh • Alexandria• •Port Said El Arish•
Rafah • 31°
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
31°
•Sidi Abd •Damanhur •El Mansura
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
SUEZ CANAL
el Rahman AVERAGE YEARLY TEMPERATURE CHART east of the Oases runs the Nile and to the west lies one of the most arid territories of
• El Alamein Borg
•
El Arab •Tanta OF THE WESTERN DESERT the Earth, the Great Sand sea, characteristic of its infinite parallel rows of high dunes
Month Min Max extending sometimes for as long as 150 kilometres. They slope gradually from northwest
El-Moghra
Protectorate
•Zagazig •Ismailia JANUARY
FEBRUARY
4
5
22
25
to southeast with a 172-degree angle, following the path of the northwestern wind that
blows almost all year round.
MARCH 7 29
Wadi el- •Banha Timsa h APRIL 8 35
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
Natroun MAY 10 37
Lake covered by limestone beds
JUNE 15 38 30°
30° PYRAMIDS During the long period of time since then, many enormous changes have created its
OF SAQQARA JULY 18 40
present shape. The desert was formed in gradual steps, its contours and rocks emerging
Giza• •Cairo Suez• AUGUST 17 39
due to big tectonic events, continental drifts, advancing and retreating of glaciers, volcanic
a n
ar ssio
PYRAMIDS Oyoun Musa SEPTEMBER 15 37
activity and changes in atmospheric circulation along with masses of sand deposited by
OF GIZA OCTOBER 12 35
erosion. Finally the imprints of the basic elements, especially the sharp wind blowing
Sinai
pr t
Qarun NOVEMBER 8 29
DeQat
•
e
usually low and shaping the earth surface and any stable obstacle, explaining the many
Siwa Protectorate Qara Oasis Protectorate DECEMBER 5 25
Western Sector Whale Valley Ain Sukhna • Taba • coned hills scattered all over the desert. All this has made this desert what it is today, a
Qarun Lake •Ras Sidr Pharaoh’s Island
Temperatures in Celsius vast expand of a diverse topography, one of its kind in the whole world.
Gabal El Mawta
Siwa Protectorate •Siwa Cleopatra
El Rayyan •El Fayoum International road
Middle Sector
Protectorate
29° Siwa O asis Gabal
Bath
Wa d i Za’farana • 29°
Dual carriage road
El Dakrur
Siwa Protectorate
Eastern Sector
El Rayyan •Beni Suef •Nuweiba i rack
City
•
lf of Aqaba
Nuwamisa
• El Bahrein
•S i tra Fayou m International boundary
L I B YA
Oasi s S t Cath e rine
Are a
Gu
ST ANTHONY’S Ras Dahab •
rt•
•
lf
Gharib fS MOUNT MOSES
o
Bawiti MONASTERY ue
•El Tur
Gu
se
•Bahariya ST PAUL’S
z
Oase s
e ert El Minya•
28° MONASTERY 28°
Ea se
The Great es
Sand Sea D ten W hite
D
ra
te
Sharm el-Sheikh
De
s t o MONS
tec
st
We
R as Mo h amme d
rn
Pro PORPHYRITES
White De sert
n
e
r t
e
ese Ab
r
te D •
t
st
i u El Gouna
• Wh M
uh
r
Ain Dalla en ar Hurghada•
ast Asyut•
We
ek 27°
27° E Du
•Farafra Oasis ne
Nile
Line East 25
River Are the prehistoric humans of the Egyptian deserts the origin of the Pharaonic
Safaga• civilization in the Nile Valley?
Abu Minqar Sohag• 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
Qena then believed until recently.
New •Qena Very long ago, humans were able to live in these desert regions due to different weather
26° Va DI T •El Quseir 26°
conditions.
lle DANDARA• WA AMA
M The oldest known civilization in Egypt dates back to the Palaeolithic Age 300,000 BC
AM
VALLEY OF •Qus H indicated by the discovery of Acheulean tools made of flint, quartzite or sandstone typified
y
by their large oval shape. Many of them found in Gilf El Kebir and the Sandsea. They
THE KINGS
KARNAK were used for hunting and gathering of wild plants. This hunting people travelled great
•Luxor e
R
distances after their food in savannah- like regions and already used fire.
Silica Valley
•Dakhla Oase s
d
Climate conditions are proven to have greatly
•Al Kharga Oases reversed over the years between Wet periods
and Dry Periods.
Esna
•Marsa AlamS
During Dry Periods, these people went down
Regenfeld • into the valleys where their tool making
e
25°
25° technologies improved according to the
a
Edfu different purposes they needed them for.
Some 150,000 years ago, specialized tools
started to emerge and a culture known as
Gilf
Ke •Baris TEMPLE OF SOBEK
the Playa civilization(Playa: low areas near
water) to be dated back to approximately
Wadi Abu El Malik b & HAREORIS
70,000 to 35,000 years ago, began using
more advanced ways of semi cultivating
ir
Abu Ballas lands, capturing and holding animals within
Gilf El-Kebir their groups.
Pro Aswan Then in the Upper Palaeolithic Age, about
te c SAAD EL-ALI, Shayyb Mount 24°
24°
THE HIGH DAM •Berenice 33,000 years ago man discovered the making
te
PHILAE of blades, which helped him greatly to develop
tor
Ras Bana s
Rou
better tools for his use like the microlith, a
a te
Mestikawy Cave tiny flint tool indicating a vital evolution in the
Wadi Soura
ien
refinement of production methods and food
rba
Tropic of Cancer KALABSHA storage.
El-A
During the Neolithic Age, alternating wet and
dry cycles continued but people started taking
refuge in the NileValley and first evidence
Wadi Furaq Wadi Wissaa Lake of Prepastoral cultures followed, not only
•Tarfawi Well Nasser •Shalatin around the Nile River but also in other valleys
23° Memorial • 23°
scattered on the high plateaus. The most
famous is the Nabta Playa lying only 100 Km
Peter and Paul • west of Abu Simbel.
The last wet climate cycle began around
9,000BC and ended 3,200BC. Very dry
Tushka
Aswan climate set in and forced people to leave the
higher regions forever heading east toward
the oases and the Nile bringing with them
UWEINAT MOUNT
1 934 M
ABU SIMBEL
•Halaib their accumulated various knowledge of semi
agricultural techniques, artcrafts and basic practices of village- like social organization.
22° •Karkur Talh Line North 22 22° 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
S U D AN famous Pharaonic Temples in the Nile Valley.
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