Al Dakhla Oasis Holidays

Al Dakhla Oasis is considered to be one of Egypt's most beautiful.  It is surrounded by pink cliffs and acres of cultivated fields and gardens filled with mulberry trees, date palms, figs and other citrus fruits.   In Arabic, it means “point of entrance” and research has suggested it has been inhabited since prehistoric times when nomadic tribes visited at a time when the Sahara was wet with plentiful lakes and marshes. Neolithic rock paintings indicate that Al Dakhla was once the site of a huge lake frequented by elephants, buffaloes and ostriches.

As the lake dried up, the inhabitants migrated to the Nile valley and were probably some of its first settlers.  Nomadic hunter-gatherers began to settle permanently in Al Dakhla Oasis about 12,000 years ago taking advantage of the underground water reservoirs and the area’s natural not springs.   Al Dakhla Oasis is surrounded by several communities along with a string of sub-oases at Mut, Al-Qasr and Qalamoun as well as several smaller villages.

Al Dakhla Oasis Hotels

Mut can be considered the capital of Al Dakhla Oasis and it is here that the beautiful Sol Y Mar Mut Inn is located.  The architecture, style and layout of the sprawling complex of chalets, villas and lodge rooms   is charmingly simple, comfortable and sympathetic to their surroundings  to give guests a true desert experience.  A camping area with professionally prepared and very comfortable tents is available for camping out if you like the idea of spending the night under canvas and the pin sharp myriad desert stars.  The resort has its own natural thermal hot spring  which feeds  the swimming pools and is the ideal base to explore the dunes, the desert  and beyond.

Visit the temple of Deir El Hagar or the Al Qasr village built in traditional Islamic style.   A range of desert safari rips by camel, quad bike or 4x4 vehicles can also be arranged.  The real attraction of the Sol Y Mar Mut Inn is the desert itself, the night and the stars.  The sense of escaping civilisation, without leaving behind too much comfort and luxury, while you absorb the mystical majesty of the desert leaves you relaxed, invigorated, inspired and simply awestruck.

Desert Adventures from Al Dakhla Oasis

Safari Trips can be arranged to virtually any place in Egypt’s magnificent Western Desert (also sometimes known as the Libyan Desert).  Although places like Al Dakhla and Bahariya Oasis are only around 300 miles or so from Cairo, they have been the least touched by the modern world.  Some of the more popular destinations include:

• The Village of Bashendi: going back to Pharaonic times, this village is located about 40 km east of Mut.  Among its attractions is an Islamic cemetery as well as Roman tombs.
• Al-Mizawaka Tombs: about 35 km of Mut, these date back to the Pharaonic period. The most important are the rock hewn tombs of Pelusis and Petosiris which combine elements of Egyptian and Greek culture as well as the Persian Mithras cult.
• Temple of Deir Al Hagar: about 45 km west of Mut, this Roman temple was dedicated to the Egyptian gods of the oasis Seth, Amun Re, Mut and Khonsu.
• Al Qasr Village: about 40 km west of Mut has changed very little since medieval times.
• Balat Village about 30 km east of Mut is a living old town with organic mud brick architecture where you’ll never find a straight line, only smooth curves.
• The “inselbergs” of the Farafra Depression:  these strange chalk formations rise majestically to a considerable height and together with the eerie chalk formations of the White Desert to the south form one of the natural wonders of Egypt.

Historic Al Dakhla Oasis

The Roman temple at Deir el-Hagar can be reached by skirting vast stretches of drifting dunes that often overrun the road.  Dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun-Re, Mut and Khonsu, the temple also honours Seth, who was the principal god of the Oasis and is depicted with a falcon’s head and a man’s body.  In ancient times this was the lone Roman period temple south of the cultivated area of the Al Dakhla Oasis with the ancient name of Setweh, translated as “the place of coming home”. Erected during the reign of the Emperor Nero (54-67 AD), and decorated during the time of Vespasian (69-79 AD), Titus (79-81 AD) and Domitian (81-96 AD), other Roman rulers made small contributions to the temple.   There are cartouches of several Roman emperors on the temple walls along with more recent graffiti as almost every traveller who came to Al Dakhla in the 19th century etched their names on its walls.   Nearby are the Old Kingdom necropolis of Qila el-Dabba at Balat, the relief-decorated Roman tomb of Kitnes at Bashendi and newly opened archaeological sites in the Bahariya Oasis that include a  temple dedicated to Alexander the Great and  mummies from the recently discovered “Valley of the Golden Mummies”.