Where the wind is king

Once upon a time a visit to an oasis brought to mind a thirsty caravan crossing a barren sand-dune desert towards a freshwater spring shielded by a few date palms, while a camel stood under a saiel tree. But times have changed. Sahar El-Bahr found the Kharga and Dakhla oases present a different picture for today's desert travellers
As I took off from Cairo airport towards Kharga, I looked over the barren Western Desert and pondered on its desiccation; on my way to my hotel I watched particles of sand being whipped by the wind; and as I travelled through the Western Desert it became clear the wind was king.
In this desert, the Kharga, Dakhla and Farafra oases, these swathes of green, were called wahat meaning "the place where people come to rest." There are literary references to them as the "blessed islands," because the Western Desert tribes used them as resting places.
In 1952, President Nasser joined the three oases into a single governorate called the New Valley. The large, fruitful areas were already exploited for their agricultural potential in Roman times. There was then a population of about two million, and the Romans dug hundreds of wells which are still used by the inhabitants.
Perhaps the most remarkable natural phenomenon of the Western Desert is the continuous movement of sand dunes. They move, guided by the wind, at the rate of between seven and 21 metres a year, according to the speed of the wind and the density of the sand. In their progress, particle upon particle of sand is lifted and blown across the desert to pile up elsewhere. Dunes take no stock of desert tracks, roads, wells, date palms, or even villages: there is no way to halt their stride. New roads must be constructed around them, and new villages built out of their path. They are an invincible force, at once powerful and magnificent to behold, and not for nothing named the Great White Sea.
The wind is also the force that transforms the rocks into exotic shapes. Some look like great stone watermelons; others appear tangled up or shaped like waves; others again are in crescent-shaped formations. The latter are widespread because of the direction of the wind, which blows throughout most of the year from north-west to south-east. I could hardly believe my eyes when we approached a series of hills of different sizes organised, it seemed, like soldiers on the march.
Masoud Abu Risha is a well-known tracker who claims he knows the desert like the back of his hand. He tells us oasis inhabitants identify two kinds of sand hills: male and female. "The males are solid, with rough grains of sand, and the females are formed of soft grains," he says. "The two hills are inevitably found next to each other. Our hills harbour no insects or snakes. They can even be used for sand skating." Indeed, as we passed through the oasis I saw children playing a favourite "fish game" in which they literally swim in the sand.
The New Valley has a good quota of archaeological sites. The temple of Amun-Re at ancient Hibis, in Kharga, is a fine structure dating from the sixth century BC. It was built, added to, and adorned throughout the eras in which the oasis was exploited in Persian, Greek and Roman times.
In 521 BC the Persian King Cambyses sent an army of 50,000 men from Thebes to Siwa on a mission to destroy the priests at the oracle of Amun, who had prophesied the end of his rule in Egypt. According to Herodotus, traveller-historian of the period, his army took a short-cut across the desert through Kharga but, seven days into the march, a violent sandstorm buried the army to the last man. Do their remains still lie beneath the desert sands? Will we, some day, come across evidence of the truth of what some still regard as a figment of Herodotus' imagination?
"Cambyses's son Darius, sure that the loss of the army was due to the anger of the priests of Amun, sought to appease them and built this temple at Hibis in their honour," Ibrahim Hassan, general manager of tourism in the New Valley Governorate, told us.
Bagawat is a rambling Coptic cemetery, one of the oldest known, and another attraction of Kharga. Its earliest structures date from the second century, when Egyptians escaping from Roman persecution adopted an ascetic way of life. About 26- dome-shaped structures remain, one of which, the "chapel of the Exodus," has paintings on its dome relating to episodes in the Old Testament. With help I was able to identify Adam and Eve, and Jonah and the whale. From the New Testament there is Saint Paul, while another portrait depicts the Ethiopian Saint Takl.
On the domes it is possible to identify crosses disguised as birds. "Early Christians were afraid to admit to their faith," Hassan said, pointing out that the graffiti in Arabic (names, dates and poems) in some of the chapels showed that Libyan and Moroccan pilgrims had visited the chapel en route to Saudi Arabia on the annual pilgrimage.
The 235-kilometre journey from Kharga to Dakhla oasis took us through some beautiful scenery. We passed rows of sand hills of various shades of ochre, and found ourselves in the midst of a valley of these natural pyramids -- could natural formations such as these have inspired the Great Pyramid builders? We caught sight of a stone-sculptured camel, a ghostly sentinel.
We stopped beside a Roman well, and found it had been re-dug by an oasis dweller who had cultivated a few feddans of land around it. He mentioned that a neighbour of his, a certain Dutchman well known to the Bedouin across the three oases, had come to his farm the day before to replenish his supplies. The Dutchman, he said, had first visited the area in 1986, and had returned every year since, each time spending seven months roaming the oases on his camel.
We drove on. Our eyes were becoming confused in the haze: was this a spring, a well? It was neither, but something more magical. One never forgets a mirage; a sighting is almost incredible, something one can scarcely believe one has seen. Images of small lakes are conjured up in the distant desert, complete with date palms and even inhabitants. One anticipates approaching and then, all of a sudden, the vision has gone.
We passed through the village of Bashendi, about 40 kilometres from Dakhla. Its name derives from Pasha Hindi, a wealthy Indian who once lived there. I found it more than delightful; it must be one of the most remarkable villages in the whole of Egypt. Bashendi is more than a village: it is pristine and kempt, like an ethnic museum. The streets are clear of refuse, fresh sand is laid down on them daily, and even in the courtyards of the houses the sand is replenished every three days, brought in clean and fresh from the desert. The houses are simple. The walls are thick, the ceilings high; there are a few small windows and the doors are low, but inside the houses seem spacious. Here is real ethno-tourism; an opportunity to capture life as it has been, perhaps, for thousands of years. The people use the same primitive implements as their Pharaonic forebears. The Bashendi Development Association gives practical and economic assistance to women weaving their now-famous kelims, and there is also a place to exhibit these and other hand-made products.
In Mut, the capital of Dakhla, is a national folklore museum with a fine collection of ethnic objects and original hand-made crafts. Another worthwhile place to visit is Dakhla's old city of Al-Qasr, about 30 kilometres away from the new city centre. In the 12th and 13th centuries Al-Qasr was the most important city in the oases, owing its importance to its strategic location as the western gateway to the Sudan and the northern gate to Farafra oasis. It thus played an important role in the transport of produce and was, at the same time, a control depot. It was constructed as a citadel from which it was possible to control the attacks of tribes from the Libyan Desert. The houses are grouped together, giving the appearance of a barren castle rising out of the desert. The once-great city is surrounded by a half-collapsed wall, and the lanes inside are narrow, dark and crooked. I noticed a wooden board over the doorway of each house, on which was hung a verse from a poem or from the Qur'an, the name of the owner of the house, the contractor, and the date of the building. Here is a site ripe for development -- for tourist development, that is. Pottery from nearby Al-Foukharia is well known for its artistry and creativity. Clearly, there is enormous potential for development in the oasis.
Selmi Selim, the newly appointed governor of the New Valley, has ambitious plans. "About 40,000 tourists visit the oases every year, the high season being from September to April." "But," he laments, "its beauty, historical and physical, is not sufficiently promoted. More than one kind of tourism could be promoted in the area." He is referring to cultural, archaeological and environmental aspects as well as health tourism, safari and sports.
One hundred and twenty areas of archaeological interest have been counted in the New Valley, and a wealth of artefacts from different ages are waiting to be found: late Paleolithic, pre-dynastic, Pharaonic, Persian, Greek, Ptolemaic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic. "All over the desert there are caves, some of them quite isolated, many with unique formations and different colours. What a chance for environmental tourism!" Selim says. "Pollution is zero and there is no noise -- the sound of silence has to be heard to be believed. The weather is dry and hot throughout the year, with a clean, fresh breeze. There are iron and sulphuric water springs where the temperature of the water reaches 43°C, and, the hot sand and mud have excellent medical properties."
The springs and sand help in the treatment of such diseases as rheumatism, fever, nerves, bone and muscle disorders and some skin diseases. "More spots suitable for medical treatment are now being discovered by a team of researchers from the Scientific Research Ministry," Selim says proudly. "We are trying to establish health spas in these areas." As for sports tourism -- car and motorcycle rallies, camel races and sand skating -- Selim said competitions could be held in the New Valley Governorate.
The governor wants to concentrate on providing the New Valley Governorate with basic infrastructure to make it ready for new tourism projects. "We need more roads to link the governorate with Luxor, Abu Simbel, the Red Sea beaches and airports," he says.
"We encourage investors. Recently, we opened an office for investors to define and pursue various kinds of tourist projects. We supply them with free infrastructure and a land grant so they pay only LE40 per feddan, or even less. And labour is so cheap."
Accommodation remains a problem in the New Valley -- the governorate only has a 1,000-bed capacity. Two five-star hotels have recently been built, and others are planned for the coming few years.
"Desert tourism is the new attraction," said Ibrahim Hassan, general manager of tourism in the New Valley Governorate. "The Nile, pyramids, antiquities, have long attracted tourists, but now we can add desert tourism."
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