Zerzura
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The mythical city or oasis of Zerzura (Arabic: زرزورة) was long rumored to have existed deep in the desert west of the Nile River in Egypt or Libya. In writings dating back to the thirteenth century, the authors spoke of a city which was "white as a dove" and called it "The Oasis of Little Birds".
More recently, European explorers made forays into the desert in search of Zerzura but never succeeded in finding it. Notable twentieth-century explorers Ralph Bagnold of Britain, and the Hungarian László (Ladislaus) Almásy led an expedition to search for Zerzura from 1929-1930 using Ford Model-T trucks. In 1932 first Patrick Clayton, than the Almásy-Clayton expedition found two valleys in the Gilf Kebir. In the following year Almásy found the third of the "Zerzura" wadis, actually rain oases in the remote desert. On the other hand, Bagnold considered Zerzura as a legend that could never be solved by discovery.
The participants of the Zerzura hunt created the Club Zerzura in a bar in Wadi Halfa upon their return in 1930. Many of the club's members remained friends and several went on to serve as officers in the British Army in World War II in Africa, only Almásy served in the Afrika Korps.
[edit] Books About Zerzura
- The Hunt for Zerzura and World War II about members of the Zerzura Club in World War II by Saul Kelly
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje was loosely based on Almásy's life
