Egypt
- Travel: Sahara Safari
Deccan Herald (Arjun Manjunath) A description of a brief trip to Farafra's splendid White Desert. The reference to "the most amazing desert cheese" made me feel like abandoning rainy London and getting straight on a plane! Gibna beida is something...
- Photographs Of The White Desert
Sharm4u If you like the White Desert you will like this page - lots of lovely photographs of the amazing area near the Farafra oasis in Egypt's Western Desert. Every time I go there I am as astonished by its structures and colours as I was the first...
- Travel: L'incanto Del Deserto Bianco
Eggitologia.net (Andrea Vitussi) Thanks very much to Pierfranco Dotti for sending me the link to this travel account of a visit to the White Desert at Farafra oasis . It is a 9 page PDF, written in Italian and, as Pier says, it is far too long to translate...
- On The Trail Of Tourist Trash (3 Tons Of It) In The White Desert
Seattle Times (Andrew Stelzer) This article made me feel very cold. The White Desert is a remarkable place and I was only talking with a group of people the other day about the benefits or otherwise that tourism would have in terms of its total impact...
- Travel Items
The Western Desert Oasis of Farafra http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6465It is very nice to see a travel review of one of the wonderful Western Desert oases, this the remote and untouched of all the oases: "The White Desert beckons, with...
Egypt
Farafra Oasis Daily Photo - Explanation
I posted a couple of photographs of the fabulous White Desert, which lies just to the north of Farafra Oasis in the Western Desert. A couple of people have emailed to ask me more about the formations shown in the photographs, so here's a short explanation.
Although the White Desert is surrounded by limestone cliffs, the floor of the Farafra depression is white chalk (limestone) dating to the Cretaceous. The formations are the result of geological processes that have acted upon this white limestone, removing the somewhat powdery soft layers from the floor and leaving behind them these strange mushroom-shaped cores of rather more reslilient fabric. The mushroom shapes themselves are caused by sand, blown by the wind, which effectively blasts the surviving formations at a few metres above the ground level, creating the "waists" and stems visible in my photographs before eventually underminging the top of the structures completely.
Although the White Desert is surrounded by limestone cliffs, the floor of the Farafra depression is white chalk (limestone) dating to the Cretaceous. The formations are the result of geological processes that have acted upon this white limestone, removing the somewhat powdery soft layers from the floor and leaving behind them these strange mushroom-shaped cores of rather more reslilient fabric. The mushroom shapes themselves are caused by sand, blown by the wind, which effectively blasts the surviving formations at a few metres above the ground level, creating the "waists" and stems visible in my photographs before eventually underminging the top of the structures completely.
I hope that that helps!
Andie
- Travel: Sahara Safari
Deccan Herald (Arjun Manjunath) A description of a brief trip to Farafra's splendid White Desert. The reference to "the most amazing desert cheese" made me feel like abandoning rainy London and getting straight on a plane! Gibna beida is something...
- Photographs Of The White Desert
Sharm4u If you like the White Desert you will like this page - lots of lovely photographs of the amazing area near the Farafra oasis in Egypt's Western Desert. Every time I go there I am as astonished by its structures and colours as I was the first...
- Travel: L'incanto Del Deserto Bianco
Eggitologia.net (Andrea Vitussi) Thanks very much to Pierfranco Dotti for sending me the link to this travel account of a visit to the White Desert at Farafra oasis . It is a 9 page PDF, written in Italian and, as Pier says, it is far too long to translate...
- On The Trail Of Tourist Trash (3 Tons Of It) In The White Desert
Seattle Times (Andrew Stelzer) This article made me feel very cold. The White Desert is a remarkable place and I was only talking with a group of people the other day about the benefits or otherwise that tourism would have in terms of its total impact...
- Travel Items
The Western Desert Oasis of Farafra http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6465It is very nice to see a travel review of one of the wonderful Western Desert oases, this the remote and untouched of all the oases: "The White Desert beckons, with...