About el kharga oasis

The Kharga Oasis (Arabic: الخارجة) . ’the outer’;  is the southernmost of Egypt’s five western oases. It is located in the Western Desert, about 200 km to the west of the Nile valley. “Kharga” or “El Kharga” is also the name of a major town located in the oasis also the capital of New Valley governorate. The oasis, which was known as the ‘Southern Oasis’ to the Ancient Egyptians also Oasis Magna to the Romans, is the largest of the oases in the Libyan desert of Egypt. It is in a depression about 160 km long and overall from 20 km to 80 km wide.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The El Bagawat Christian cemetery at Kharga Oasis

Kharga is the most modernised of Egypt’s western oasis. The main town is highly functional with all modern facilities, and virtually nothing left of old architecture. Although framed by the oasis, there is no oasis feeling to it, unlike all other oases in this part of Egypt. There is extensive thorn palm, acacia, buffalo thorn and jujube growth in the oasis surrounding the modern town of Kharga. Many remnant wildlife species inhabit this region.

 

Archaeological sites

The Temple of Hibis is a Saite-era temple founded by Pamsik , which was erected largely c. 500 BC. It is located about 2 kilometres north of modern Kharga, in a palm-grove. There is a secondly 1st millennium BC temple in the southernmost part of the oasis at Dush. An ancient Christian cemetery at El Bagawat also functioned at the Kharga Oasis from the 3rd to the 7th century AD. It is one of the earliest and best preserved Christian cemeteries in the ancient world.

The first list of sites is due to Ahmad Fakhri  but serious archaeological work began in 1976 with Serge Sauneron, director of the  Institut Francais d’Archeologie Orientale.

Sites:
  •  Firstly Ain El Beleida (Roman)
  • Ain El Labakha (Roman)
  • Ain Manawir (Persian, Roman)
  • Ain Shams El Din (Coptic church)
  • Ain El Tarakwa (Roman)
  • Ain Tauleib (Roman)
  • Deir Mustafa Kashef (Coptic monastery)
  • Deir El Munira (Roman)
  • Gabbanat El Bagawat (Coptic cemetery)
  • Gebel El Teir (Prehistoric times)
  • El Nadura (Roman)
  • Qasr El Dabashiya (Roman)
  • Qasr Dush (Greco-Roman)
  • Qasr El Ghuweita (Late Period)
  • Qasr El Gibb (Roman)
  • Qasr El Zayyan (Greco-Roman)
  • Sumeira (Roman)
  • Temple of Hibis (Persian – c. 6th century BC.)
  • Umm El Dabadib (Roman)
  •  Also Umm Mawagir (Middle Kingdom, 2nd Intermediate Period)