If you were a fan of the children’s film, “A Land Before Time” you can visit the real life landscape. The Bahariya Oasis is a part of the Sahara where dinosaurs once roamed, and today it is an active archaeological digging site.
Source: Egypt.travel
White Desert Tours take tourists to a very unique part of the Sahara desert where you can see naturally occurring structures made of limestone and chalk. They are so impressive they appear man-made or like alien forms, but they’re just what’s left of what was once an area covered with flora and fauna.
Source: Desertecotours.com
On an oasis near a major caravan road is the Temple of Hibis, a resurrected temple from the 26th century Roman Dynasty. The temples were built on top of other ruins, which many believe are the ruins of an 18th century dynasty. The structure was just excavated in 1909.
Source: Metmuseum.org
Visiting the Valley of Whales is like going to a natural history museum, without the museum part. Here you’ll see enormous skeletons and fossils left over from whales and sharks. The most bizarre and beautiful site in the middle of all this dry dust and bones is four bubbly natural springs that come up around the fossils.
Source: Touregypt.net
When Egypt was still run by pharaohs, the most isolated oases in Egypt were called the “Land of the Cow.” The area is mostly inhabited by a desert-dwelling Arabian group called the Bedouins, and has lovely natural springs. Legend has it this area is so isolated that centuries ago, the inhabitants lost track of time and had to send a camel rider to a nearby town to figure out what time it was.
Source: Oneworldmagazine.com
Once you’ve experienced the solitude of the Land of the Cow, you can travel into the town nearby called Qasr Al Farafra. Tourists make a point of going here to buy several of the handicrafts the locals make, but most importantly the olive oil—there are thousands of olive trees in the Sahara and the oil is incredibly flavorful.
Source: Lonelyplanet.com
The types of Oasis depicted in fictional representations of the Sahara really do exist. Just around 50 miles outside of Cairo is Fayoum City where you’ll find a man-made lake called the Fayoum oasis where you can relax by the water.
Source: Amenophistours.com
Once you’re already at the Fayoum Oasis you can go for a stroll through a village of monasteries, left over for when St. Anthony built a community for hermits. Some of these monasteries are so grown over by the natural landscape they can only be accessed by four-wheel vehicles.
Source: Touregypt.net
Sitting in the Siwa Oasis is a natural spring known as Cleopatra’s Bath. The water is so clear you cannot tell it is there if it isn’t moving. The water sits in a naturally occurring stone pool and some believe Queen Cleopatra herself bathed in it.
Source: Alamy.com
Just north of the city of Kharga you can visit where there are several well-preserved temples but possibly the most amazing to look at is Temple of Nadura, which has fallen to ruins. The temple is said to have been built in the 2nd century when the Romans ruled Egypt.
Source: Touregypt.net
