Dakhla Oasis
Al Qasr Is The Best Preserved Medieval Mud Brick Town In The Western Desert Covered Lanes, A Twelfth Century Minaret, Lintels Carved With The Names Of The Families Who Lived Under Them And The Oasis Around It Holds Roman Temples, Painted Tombs, Hot Springs And Pink Dunes Against A Long Escarpment · Mut, New Valley
Dakhla is the Western Desert oasis people mean when they say the oases are worth the drive. The depression runs for eighty kilometres under a pink and ochre escarpment, with fourteen villages in it and a line of palm cultivation that has been irrigated from artesian water for thousands of years. The reason to come is Al-Qasr, a medieval mud-brick town on the northern edge that was lived in until the 1970s: lanes roofed over with palm beams to keep the sun out, a twelfth-century minaret, carved acacia lintels still above doorways with the names of the families who owned them, and a corn mill and a courthouse you can walk into. Around the oasis there are Roman temples at Deir el-Hagar, painted Greco-Roman tombs at Muzawaka, hot springs in the palms and pink dunes against the cliff. It is eight hundred kilometres from Cairo and three hundred from the nearest other oasis, which is most of why it still looks like this.
Western Desert oasis 310 km south of Farafra, with the medieval town of Al-Qasr on its northern edge, Mut, New Valley, Egypt
Al-Qasr is open ground with a small ticket and a guide who attaches himself at the gate, which is the normal arrangement and worth accepting; parts of it have been under restoration for years, so which covered lanes and which buildings are open varies. Deir el-Hagar and the Muzawaka tombs keep daylight hours with tickets and are each a drive out of Mut; the tombs have been closed for long periods for conservation, so ask in Mut before driving there. The hot springs are open at any hour and local custom expects modest dress. There is no public transport within the oasis - a car, a driver or a bicycle is needed, and the distances between villages are real. Buses from Cairo take ten to twelve hours via Farafra, or six from Kharga.