Egyptian Discoveries no. 7*: More amazing temples, wandering through ancient mud towns, luxuriating in hot springs in a beautiful oasis --

... and the surprises continue!

Dakhla Oasis is dominated on its northern horizon by a wall of rose-coloured rock

The boys concentrating hard on their game of Spades

Lunch of delicious falafels in Kharga

Crossing the desert in a truck is a little more comfortable than it would have been on the back of a camel... Emy immersed in a good book and good music...

Emy, Orm and David enjoying the luxury of a hot water spring in the middle of a desert

Ahhhh!

What can be more enjoyable than relaxing in 44'C golden water in an oasis when the temperatures outside were wintry and cold?

Suzanne and Ben found a cabbage for our evening meal (and the next night's. And the next...) in Farafra. Seems in an oasis everything grows bigger and is far better tasting!

Fabulously aromatic and mouthwatering bakery in Farafra

Mummified goats in the tombs at al-Muzawaka

The tombs in the hills at al-Muzawaka

Human remains -- more than a thousand years old

The beautifully restored and preserved temple at al-Hagar

A modern day Egyptian apartment near al-Hagar --

does the artist who lives in the desert dream of water, perhaps?

The mud town of Mut

Everyone has a story somewhere about someone walking through a desert and - finally! - reaching an oasis where there is water, there are green palm trees, shade and succour from the burning sun and the unbearable thirst. The word 'oasis' conjures up these wonderful images of relief -- even the sound of the word sounds like a sign of huge relief.

Well, driving in a safari truck through the endless, flat desert, for days and days, and days, is not quite the same as being on foot, but, coming across an oasis is just as exciting, just as much a relief. And what was interesting about the oases that we came across was that they cover large areas -- so there can be a number of towns and settlements within the larger region of the oasis, with long stretches of sand in between. One can be driving through the desert for hours, when, all of a sudden, seemingly in the middle of nowhere and nothing, there is a green patch of sorghum or a field of wheat under irrigation, and you know that soon you will reach a community with houses, a mosque, a school, some shops. And, the fact that the ancient temples and tombs from 3000 years ago, are also to be found within these regions, which means that since the beginning of time these were the areas where there is underground water to be found. Amazing.

One of these large oases we drove through and where we visited several fabulous sites, was the Dakhla Oasis, which lies to the northwest of Kharga and is also about 310 km to the southeast of Farafra. This oasis consists of 14 settlements and has a population of about 70,000 people. Dakhla is the farthest oasis out of Cairo and is considered one of Egypt's most beautiful oases.

Dakhla sits in a depression surrounded by pink cliffs. Surprisingly, there are about 30,000 acres of cultivated land. Most of its 70,000 or so residents are farmers who constantly fight the battle of the dunes that threaten their fields and orchards. The fields and gardens are filled mostly with mulberry trees, date palms, figs and other citrus fruits. We saw -- once again, in the middle of the desert -- in a flat world of endless sand, orange groves that stretched for kilometres and kilometres -- these vast emerald green oceans, with oranges gleaming like Christmas decorations in the trees. And these were the sweetest, sweetest oranges we tastes anywhere in Africa!

Dakhla has retained most of its culture and charm even though it has increased in size by about double and government funding and technical training has revitalized the economy. Dakhla is the only place in Egypt where new water wheels which are driven by buffaloes are constructed. They are made of palm timber and clay jars and are called saqiyas.

Research has found that the Oasis has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and that there was once a huge lake here. We did not see these, but apparently there are neolithic rock paintings that indicate that the lake was frequented by elephants, buffaloes and ostriches, and I can assure you, this fact does not surprise me one bit! They say that, as the lake dried up, the inhabitants migrated to the Nile valley and were probably some of its first settlers.

Dakhla Oasis is dominated on its northern horizon by a wall of rose-coloured rock (see first photograph above). Fertile cultivated areas growing rice, peanuts and fruit are dotted between sand dunes along the roads from Farafra and Kharga in this area of outstanding natural beauty.

The town where we did spend some time was the capital, Mut, named after the ancient goddess of the Theban Triad. The old town is a labyrinth of mud-walled alleys narrowly separating houses with elaborately- carved wooden lintels; there is also an Ayyubid mosque. Every here and there is a ruin, probably dating back a thousand years, where people still live, the donkey parked at the front door, the milk cow chewing her cud in the back courtyard. The colour of the mud walls and the talcum powder dust underfoot change from ochre to pink to a soft chocolate brown and becomes a dream palette for a water colour artist. I loved the designs scratched into or painted on the walls of some houses -- looking like an advertisement of the achievements of the inhabitants of that house. You can climb right up to the rooftop of the building -- a 10th century madrassa - or Muslim school, for wonderful views of the surrounding area - and to see where the locals keep their pigeons -- turned over pottery urns making a very efficient coop for the birds.

Not too far from Mut, we also visited the 1st-century al-Muzawaka tombs -- or should I say ossiary, as every tomb, carved into the beautiful and colourfully-layered rock formations, and completely open to the elements, was filled with bones and skeletons and remains of mummies -- of humans and animals alike -- as well as al-Hagar, a temple which was originally dedicated to the Theban Triad and later rebuilt by the Romans. After exploring these sites, we went for a swim in the hot sulphur spring nearby -- sipping beer and karkade tea and floating in the golden coloured warm water.