Ahmed safari
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Bahariya, known since ancient times as the ‘Northern Oasis’ is situated in a depression about 100km long by 40km wide and completely surrounded by high black escarpments. The valley floor is covered with lush groves of date palms, ancient springs and wells and is strewn with numerous conical hills which probably once formed islands in a great lake during Prehistoric times. Improved roads and the advent of the 4×4 vehicle has meant that Bahariya is no longer an isolated oasis, but merely a few hours drive from Cairo – in fact many tourists today will go there on a one or two a day trip.Bahariya was an important centre of agriculture and wine production and a source of minerals since Pharaonic times. Unfortunately few of the sites from this period have been excavated and what little is known of Bahariya’s early history is documented in tomb paintings in the Nile Valley, mostly from the Middle Kingdom and early New Kingdom onwards. A scene in the tomb of the Vizier Rekhmire at Thebes from Dynasty XVIII, shows people of the ‘Northern Oasis’ wearing striped kilts and presenting tribute. The oasis began to flourish during Libyan rule of Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period as a main route from the Libyan border to the Nile Valley and a strategic crossing of several caravan routes to other oases. By Dynasty XXVI Bahariya had its own native governors and had grown into an important centre of trade. Near Bawiti is the tomb of a Dynasty XIX provincial governor Amenhotep Huy and several tombs of Dynasty XXVI governors of the region, as well as an ibis cemetery from the same period. There are also two temples, one dating to King Apries of Dynasty XXVI and the other to the reign of the Greek ruler Alexander the Great.
te:00201273999247
Bahariya, known since ancient times as the ‘Northern Oasis’ is situated in a depression about 100km long by 40km wide and completely surrounded by high black escarpments. The valley floor is covered with lush groves of date palms, ancient springs and wells and is strewn with numerous conical hills which probably once formed islands in a great lake during Prehistoric times. Improved roads and the advent of the 4×4 vehicle has meant that Bahariya is no longer an isolated oasis, but merely a few hours drive from Cairo – in fact many tourists today will go there on a one or two a day trip.
Bahariya was an important centre of agriculture and wine production and a source of minerals since Pharaonic times. Unfortunately few of the sites from this period have been excavated and what little is known of Bahariya’s early history is documented in tomb paintings in the Nile Valley, mostly from the Middle Kingdom and early New Kingdom onwards. A scene in the tomb of the Vizier Rekhmire at Thebes from Dynasty XVIII, shows people of the ‘Northern Oasis’ wearing striped kilts and presenting tribute. The oasis began to flourish during Libyan rule of Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period as a main route from the Libyan border to the Nile Valley and a strategic crossing of several caravan routes to other oases. By Dynasty XXVI Bahariya had its own native governors and had grown into an important centre of trade. Near Bawiti is the tomb of a Dynasty XIX provincial governor Amenhotep Huy and several tombs of Dynasty XXVI governors of the region, as well as an ibis cemetery from the same period. There are also two temples, one dating to King Apries of Dynasty XXVI and the other to the reign of the Greek ruler Alexander the Great.
te:00201273999247