Travel: Out of the towns and into the lovely oases

The sun, space and opportunity to leave behind the crowded high-tech world are what attracts adventure lovers to the boundless stretches of Egyptian desert, one of the loneliest and unspoiled places on the planet

You don’t need to be a veteran explorer to find out more about the desert’s mysteries; a day trip lets you experience the beauty of the desert without committing to a more demanding trip.

Egypt has five oases in the Western, or Libyan Desert — Kharga, Dakhla, Bahariyya, Farafra and Siwa (see page 126) — where you can hook up with a hotel or safari company for guided outings. Dakhla, the farthest of the five, is an 11-hour drive from Cairo.

Kharga, the southernmost oasis and the one nearest the Nile Valley, is the capital of New Valley Governorate. The oasis was known as a stop for the caravans coming from and going to Sudan carrying ivory and slaves. About 250 kilometers from Luxor, the oasis has an amazing old city, with very narrow streets and one-story mud houses constructed using palm tree trunks. The oasis museum — open Saturday–Thursday from 9am to 5pm — contains Islamic and Roman artifacts.

Moving from Kharga to Dakhla, the 200-kilometer drive is a journey in itself. The desert seems like a wild painting with unique compositions of colored rocks and hills. The oasis itself is an extensive patch of farmland and palm groves between mountains and desert. Dakhla is home to a few ecolodges, and most organize safari trips into the desert.

Aside from the sun and hot springs (found in all the oases), the oasis is full of ancient sites including Mout El-Kharab (the Temples of Death), an Islamic graveyard where you can see skeletons through little holes in the walls. Sheikh Bashandy Maqam, Kanteeka Temple, and many other temples from the Islamic, Roman and Pharaonic eras are also open to visitors.