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Western Desert and Empire’s End

Monday, March 31st, 2008

We boarded our small bus early in the morning for the long trip to Mut, the capital of the Dakhla Oasis. The western desert in Egypt is sparsely inhabited with towns centering around the few oases available. It didn’t take long for us to leave behind the Luxor cityscape and the Nile greenbelt. The landscape turned into harsh stone sandy desert almost immediately. (I should mention that before this turn of events I had a little accident. While setting down some boxes of water on the ground for use during the trip, my pants decided to split along the rear seam. This was one of those times where one is thankful for the invention of underpants. I guess my pants finally just got tired of supporting my rear after a year. Fortunately, one of the ladies in our group said she could fix them as it would give her something to do on the drive. Back to the desert) The desert was punctuated by rocky worn hills and very little plant life. The first major oasis we hit was Al Khurga. This town once went 17 years without rain. The town appeared out of no where and was constructed from concrete and mud bricks. It only partially looked like I imagined an oasis would. There were plenty of date palms and plants, but no water. This oasis like all the others, except Siwa, is fed from underground wells. The wells formed when a branch of the Nile in this area decided to forsake the surface world for cave life. [read on]