Kharga Oasis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Al-Waha al-Kharga (meaning the outer oasis) (Arabic الخارجة, Standard Arabic pronunciation al-Khārija, Egyptian colloquial Arabic al-Khārga) is the southernmost of Egypt's five western oases. It is located in the Libyan Desert, about 200 km to the west of the Nile valley, and is some 150 km long. It is located in and is the capital of Al Wadi al Jadid (the New Valley) Province.

All the oases have always been crossroads of caravan routes converging from the barren desert.

In the case of Kharga, this is made particularly evident by the presence of a chain of fortresses that the Romans built to protect the Darb el-Arbain, the long caravan route running north-south between Middle Egypt and the Sudan.

The forts vary for size and function, some being just small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation. Some were installed where earlier settlements already existed, while others were probably founded anew. All of them are made of mud bricks, but some also contain small stone temples with inscribed walls.

A regular bus service connects the oasis to the other Western oases and to the rest of Egypt. A railway line Kharga - Qena (Nile Valley) - Port Safaga (Red Sea) has been in service since 1996.

So far, many of these sites have suffered relatively little damage, still looking like frozen images of what life must have once been.