The White Desert

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The White Desert There are 28 protectorates in Egypt, 5 of which were of most interest to me which were : 1) The white desert which is located in the New Valley Governorate. 2) The siwa oasis which is located in the Matrouh Governorate. 3) The wadi degla protectorate which is located in Cairo 4) The petrified forest which is located in Cairo 5) The wadi elrayan which is located in Fayoum I have been to in fact all 5 which is why I chose to mention them in specific. But of utmost interest and beauty was the white desert located in the New Valley Governorate. The Farafra depression (Arabic: واحة الفرافرة‎) is the second biggest depression by size located in Western Egypt and the smallest by population, near latitude 27.06° North and longitude 27.97° East. It is located in the Western Desert of Egypt, approximately mid-way between Dakhla and Bahariya. Farafra has an estimated 5,000 inhabitants (2002) mainly living in the town of Farafra (Arabic: مدينة الفرافرة‎) and is mostly inhabited by the local Bedouins. Also located near Farafra are the hot springs at Bir Sitta and the El-Mufid lake. A main geographic attraction of Farafra is its White Desert (known as Sahara el Beyda, with the word sahara meaning a desert). Most visitors to Farafra Oasis go there to see the White Desert, el-Sahara el-Beida, the area to the north-east of Qasr el-Farafra which is renowned for its spectacular scenery. The chalk-white landscape is strewn with alien shapes, boulders of brilliant white which thrust up from the surface of the desert, intensified by the clear light of noon, shimmering gold at sunset or blackened and shrunken in a cloud-filled sky. The White desert, named after its chalk formations, comes with a small desert fox being its only animal wildlife, however its abundance of fossils including sea shells serve as a reminder that the barren desert landscape was once

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