We were awed by the colossal pyramids of Giza and the gigantic monuments of Luxor and Karnak. We were even amazed by the priceless exhibits and mystic mummies in the museums of Cairo. These are the explicit testimonies of the oldest civilization in the world which originated and thrived on the banks of Nile River; and still 95% population of Egypt continues to dwell by that River of Life. But there is much more to ancient Egypt than these tombs, temples and the treasures of Tutankhamen; and there is almost an twentyfold territory in the rest of Egypt than the narrow strip of Nile valley. To peep into ‘Egypt beyond Niles’, we decided to take a long detour, making a 1500 kms- loop of the Desert Circuit, passing through four oases in “Western Desert’, to reach back to Cairo from Luxor.
.The Western Desert is a huge stretch of the African Sahara on the west of Nile River, and it covers most of Egypt. No wonder it is known as ‘the desert of the deserts’ for its unique terrain, the unparalleled life in the oases, and the jaw-dropping sights adjoining to them. ‘Darb al –Arabeen’ or the ‘Forty Days Road’ used to be one of the great caravan trails of Africa in ancient times from Sudan to Central Egypt, passing through this Western Desert. Al Kharga Oasis was the major centre on this route, trading in riches brought from Central Africa-gold, ivory and especially slaves! And today we were heading from Luxor to this town, the first leg of our whirl-wind ‘Desert Safari’.
Hamdu, a local Nubian from Aswan, was the driver of our Toyota-Hiace van. Ibrahim was a young, charming and scholarly Egyptologist from The University of Alexandria. He had been our guide from the day one of our trip in Cairo and was always eager to part the information and pacify our queries related to Egypt. So what exactly is oasis? “An isolated pocket of fertile tract surrounded by an arid desert and supported by a natural water source.” With similar delving we reached Al Kharga in less than four hours. Thanks to the new road, which had recently come up, we covered about 300 kms, driving through the vast khaki ocean of sand and dunes and crossing four check points manned by khaki clad tourism police.
New Valley was President Nasser’s ambitious project to decentralize the dense population along the Nile River. It was formed as a cluster of all the five oases [we were not to visit the far away fifth one-Siwa Oasis], which were interconnected by the roads and approached easily from the major cities along the Nile River. Gradually, since late sixties, modernity started percolating in these barren lands. Al Kharga, the chief town in this oasis, was chosen the capital of New Valley Governorate, in Western Desert. No wonder our first impression of the oasis, as seen in the pictures, proved like a mirage. While negotiating through the traffic of two and four wheelers on this town road lined by small concrete buildings, we were delusively looking for those images of camels grazing along the palm fringed mud houses by the water hole! Modes of transport changed, so did the methods of communications. Instead of Bedouins with head scarves and gown like galabiyya, we could spot quite a few jeans-clad locals sporting mobile phones on their ears!
We stopped at Baris al-Gedida, a small hamlet in this Kharga oasis. Walking through a labyrinth of winding narrow lanes, we could fancy mud-brick houses, with tiny doors, windowless walls and unusual palm fronds on the roof. We even explored one of them, known to our guide, and could get peeks in the daily life of the locals. From the roof top, we got a commanding view of the town, and realized that this fragile yet unique ‘mud architecture’, typical of Northern Africa, was best preserved here in this virtual rainless land.
One needs to have special permits and police protection, to visit remote tourist sites, especially in off-road destinations in desert. We followed armed patrol van to reach Necropolis of Al-Bagawat. It is one of the earliest surviving and best preserved Christian cemeteries in the world. Built on a small hillock, it contained 263 mud-brick tombs from around 5th century. While many of these domed Coptic tombs were plain, some had ornate facades, and a few had vivid murals of biblical scenes inside.
The Chapel of Peace had images of Adam and Eve, while the Chapel of the Exodus, named so by the theme of the paintings inside, had frescoes of pharaonic troops pursuing the Jews, led by Moses, out of Egypt.
It was mid noon and we were on the way to our next oasis, Dakhla, some 180 kms west. We passed through ‘Baghdad’, and on the next cross roads we’d to resist the temptation to ‘take shortcut to Paris’! [The small towns in New Valley had such big-city names.]On the way ahead, we took a small incursion to Bashendi, to have look on mastaba [mud brick structure above the tomb, which later became the basis of future pyramids.]. The small village derived the name from ‘Pasha Hindi’, the medieval sheikh, who was buried here.
The outskirts of Dakhla town were charming with date groves and lush green fields of cultivated crops. They were standing out starkly against brown sand dunes and pink cliffs of the mountain behind. Grazing sheep, donkey carts, and village people in the traditional attire completed the colourful picture of oasis. The fertile land in this oasis is the major source of fruit and grains, making it the ‘Bread Basket of Egypt’.
We headed towards Al Qasr, the most picturesque and well preserved medieval Ottoman town, some 40 kms from Dakhla town. Hundreds of people still live in this prototype town of the oases. Slanting rays of setting sun washed the mud-brick houses in golden hue. The most eye catching feature was a restored 12 th -century mud-brick minaret of Sheikh’s Tomb. Adjoining madrassa was also an interesting combination of town hall and courthouse. We searched for some of the old houses, which were marked by beautiful lintels of acacia beams situated above the door-frames. They were carved with the names of the carpenter and the owner, the date and a verse from the Quran, all well preserved for last so many centuries. The local guard took us around to show us the water wheel, olive press, and huge corn mill, all of which were fully restored to function.
Giving a miss to Ethnographic museum, we drove to Dakhla Desert Lodge for the night stay. This interestingly designed mud-brick fortress like assemblage over the hill top had a cluster of traditional cottages. We were lucky to time our visit, as that was a night of cultural program, specially arranged for a team of European Tourism Media.
It was packed with folk songs, traditional dances, and drama giving the glimpses of oasis life. The dinner also had local flavor- Aish-[Egyptian bread], oriental salads, Kushari [spice rice with lentils] followed by the desserts like ‘khus khus’ and ‘muhalabia’, reminding us of our Indian ‘lapsi’ and ‘Jalebi’.
Salam alaykum! we said. We had learnt to exchange such greetings and had picked up quite a many Arabic words. 'Waa laykum es salam!!' was the response of Ahmed Moussa, the General Manager of this ecological hotel, who even had the credit of bagging the prestigious 'Best Environmental Tourism' award. He was quite excited to see a rarely seen Indian family there in the oasis and joined us at the breakfast table.En route, at the police check points, we could learn from them that the Indians have hardly travelled to this part of Egypt. Of course these Egyptians were very friendly to we ‘Hindy’, and loved to address all of us, including my daughter, as ‘Hamitab Bachhan’!
Driving through the land of nothingness and the vast expanse of sand for about 200kms, we reached Farafra, the third oasis. Once again, we were subjected to unending formalities of tourism police and procured the necessary permit to travel beyond. A big hunt for Benzene [a type of petrol] in all the nearby gas stations also pushed us behind the schedule. We decided not to visit the town of Bir sitta for a dip in hot water spring, and headed further on the road leading to Bahariya oasis.
Over again, after a small stretch of greens, the arid landscape engulfed us. However, some 30 kms down the drive, topography started changing – gradually from brown to paler and creamish sand. “A la tool ..Hou id yimeen..” [straight…and now turn right..]Ibrahim was talking on his mobile phone and giving directions to the driver. A 4WD Land cruiser with ‘tent-material and cooking vessels’ on the roof-rails was waiting for us, next to sign at the entrance of Western Desert National Park.
As we followed that van and entered the park we were absolutely bewildered to see the weird shaped chalky whitish-cream rocks emanating from the light coloured sand. They were in plenty, scattered all around in different sizes and shapes. How to describe these stunning vistas? Eerie moonscape or surreal dreamscape? Ahmed and Taher, Bedouin brothers from Bahariya, were our specially summoned safari- operators for this park visit. We parked near the one of the big rocks and transferred ourselves in their 4WD van to set for a memorable safari, deeper in this magical desert.
We climbed up few hillocks, walked around some rocks, spotted fossils of shells –confirming that this vast desert was once an ocean, some millions of years back. We even visited an isolated patch of greenery with palms and date trees with a sweet water spring running through.
We had a playful exercise of ‘phantasmata’-searching the illusory images of familiar forms in these odd shaped rocks. There were chickens and camels, human faces and horse silhouettes, scoops of ice creams and stalks of mushrooms…These are called inselbergs or ‘yardangs’- cliff like monoliths eroded and carved by the wind over the millions of years in this calcium laden soft rocky canyon. When shadows got longer, the landscape became even more dramatic. By the sunset the hues of pink and orange made these rocks look like sculptures of Salvador Dali! The tombs of Giza pyramids and the temples of Luxor-Karnak looked dwarfish and the treasures of Tutankhamen –lusterless! Needless to say-nowhere else in the world can one find such a vivid snow-white ‘desertscape’.
Evening was equally interesting. Laying down the tents.. cooking and sharing the dinner of barbecued chicken, grilled potatoes and vegetable rice.. sipping Egyptian shai [black tea] by the camp fire .. watching dances of the Egyptians to their filmy songs.. rising of the the moon and gradual brightening of the stars in the clear sky.. seeing a desert fox sneaking over to steal leftover food. All these made our night stay in the White Desert an unforgettable experience. These Bedouin brothers were not just good navigators but expert cooks and also great entertainers!
I woke up my son Shanil early in the morning and we both climbed up a nearby chalky-white hill, in chilly weather, to capture the first rays of the sun. That wait of about half an hour before the sun rise was again a divine experience of tranquility in this vast expanse of emptiness. What to call this zen like state- physical barrenness or ‘nirvanic’ attainment, anemic lifelessness or celestial fulfillment? Clicking those images of sunrise, as if on the arctic snow, was equally rewarding.
These monoliths also provided us the shade and privacy for our morning rituals. We decamped after the breakfast; and as started northwards out of Farafra depression, we could appreciate the change of desert floor once again- now from beige to black. Rightly called as the black Desert [Sahara Suda], a stark contrast to White Desert [Sahara Beida], it was formed by the erosion of mountains and spread of black powder, rich in dark ores. Passing through this black terrain, we stopped near a large rock with a hole in the middle. That was next to the Crystal Mountain, which was actually a large rock made entirely of quartz. The surrounding area was also literally littered with quartz crystals, which glittered brightly in sun shine.
After about 150 kms drive, before entering Bahariya, we had a break at the hot spring. We just dipped our legs and washed off the white dust that covered our van. We opted not to visit the museum of Golden Mummies, the biggest ever archeological find in Bahariya in recent past, as we had enough of them in Cairo museum. However we could not resist Tammiya [fresh falafel] on the road side stall and Hibiscus tea at the Bedouin house of these brothers. We were now to take the lonesome and lifeless road through the tiring sea of sand to Cairo, which was still 350 kms away.
The ancient Egyptians considered the west of the Nile as the Land of the Dead, only good for burying the dead people. That side of the desert was regarded as the kingdom of Seth–the god of the underworld. Naturally- for its remote location, a harsh summer and destructive winds- to stay alive in this desert was a gargantuan task in the earlier times.
British geographer G.W. Murray, in his book- ‘Dare Me To The Desert’- described in detail the life and the accounts in the Western Desert. Untold numbers of tragic human cargo of slaves had died of starvation, thirst, exhaustion and of pneumonias, on the journey north from central Africa on this route, in last few millennia. To describe the plight of the slaves on Darb al-Arabeen, he quoted Shakespeare from Macbeth as ‘the ways to dusty death’ [also, it is the title of the popular novel of Alistair Maclean.] But hundreds of years later, today- at the end of this Desert Circuit of New Valley- we returned back to a cacophonous,chaotic and crowded city of Cairo, riding on cloud nine…
..on the rays of lusty life.
... and
singing in high spirits~
Etching and imprinting our shadows
On barren dunes and lush meadows;
We the 'Shahs' traversed the Pashas’ land
Leaving behind our footprints on the sand !!
