Sphinx in White Desert - White Chalk Formations

• 1 / 8 / 2023

Nature reserves, the river of tales about them is inexhaustible, every inch of it has a different world of details, and environmental explorations this world is full of secrets, some have taken it as a hobby, others are led by chance to various details, while there are those who have made it work and study, as wandering in the desert is an ancient hobby of Egyptians, Kings and princes throughout the ages, and today young people wander through nature reserves and the desert and always seek to reach the pleasure of innovation for activities and trips in the open space of pristine nature.

During this report, we monitor how the specifications of the White Desert, and its features have created a different state of love for nature for safari lovers and out in the desert and its visitors through the ages with its ecological and Biological Diversity, in its comfort the imagination embraces reality, the eye assures you that in a cold climate every inch around you is covered with snow, in the form of an icy image, but reality assures you that it is limestone that has scattered to form a divine painting over and around the sand dunes scattered along the White Desert, which is located 45 kilometers north of the Oasis Farafra, about 570 kilometers from Cairo, on an area of more than 3010 square kilometers.

A natural landscape that tells you the secrets of the past through fossils that testify to the indicator of climate change in this region throughout history.

The heart of the White Desert is similar to the Natural Museum of Rock Chalk, the chicken and mushroom scene is a scene known only to nature lovers, it means that the rock that has been used as the emblem of the area since it was declared a nature reserve in 2002, in addition to the rocks they named several names according to their sculptural formation, perhaps the most famous of them is the Camel Rock, and another one is called the horse Rock, and the Falcon, and perhaps what nature lovers and rocks called the formations of the White Desert are African rocks because they draw and take the shape of the continent of Africa, like a drawn map.

In the western desert you will find an endless variety of shapes, colors, small calcium carbonate crystals and some iron pyrite nodules, and you can also see the "Playa", which is the remnants of an ancient lake eroded through the ages, but the most beautiful scene is how the plants in the White Desert formed a low corridor like orchards and fields, or the Farafra depression, which is the smallest oasis of the Western Desert, which was known in pharaonic times as "Ta-it" i.e.

The White Desert looks like a piece of the Arctic or the Siberian icy desert, as western desert travelers called it, but its strong sun, which reaches the scorching sun and winds loaded with high temperatures, took it out of this classification.

And near the "White" cave, you can see the plateau that holds structures of mysterious monuments that have disappeared, left by prehistoric man, and his inscriptions at the entrance to the neighbor cave, near Wadi Muharraq, after the Reserve about 7 kilometers towards Asyut, discovered by the German Gerhard Rolfs in 1873, where it is one of the rarest caves in the world, rich in limestone deposits, which are up to about 40 million years old, is located.

The neighbor cave is a subsurface depression topped by a high hill, and its entrance is from the bottom of the Hill, connected by a narrow sloping passage filled with sand, and arose as a natural result of pure water and the dry climate in the desert over millions of years, this cave is contrary to all the caves of the region in its formations, The Shape of its deposits that resemble fiery waterfalls, and the heights of sedimentary formations reach three or four feet.

Visitors to the White Desert, adore camping, it is the only place where the stars that stud the sky appear, and the Milky Way appears in its Sky, which is clearly visible above the rocks, as the planet Venus appears to adorn the night sky with its light. 


In Roman times, Farafra, inland oases and marine oases were nicknamed the "land of grain", because the Romans relied on them for grain, of which there are still remnants of the buildings of this era, there is the Farafra Palace, the temple of "Ain Bes", and some rock tombs devoid of inscriptions.

The Ministry of Environment confirmed through a large mural in the Cairo house, how the White Desert was a haven for the trips of kings and princes in Egypt, including Khedive Ismail, and Prince Hussein Kamal, in 1874, Khedive Ismail anchored the first geographical explorations of the western desert, and spent on explorations far into the Nile River that reached near Lake Victoria, where he diverted the journey of the famous German scientist "Gerhard Rolf" to but he was unable to do so, so he headed north with a convoy of 100 camels and 90 men, including 12 German citizens, and scientists in all The branches of science of Geology, Botany, Zoology, archeology, astronomy, surveying, and without detailing them in his book "three months in the Western Desert"

Prince Kamal al-Din Hussein 1932-1874 was the one who discovered the Great Gulf Reserve, and gave up the throne of Egypt to be a pioneer in the use of cars in the exploration and manufacture of the 1923 Model Citroen car, as Ahmed Hassanein Bey ( 1936-1889) fencing champion, diplomat and explorer, made the first and last successful crossing of the western desert on camels, and made a trip starting from Salloum on the Mediterranean coast for a distance of 3200 kilometers through Siwa, Jallow and Kufra to the publisher in Sudan, and he was buried in a mausoleum on Salah Salem Street built by the famous architect Hassan Fathi.

It is worth mentioning that the first desert exploration unit was established in Egypt, led by the group known as the Long-Range Desert Group.