| 1. | The bounding escarpments; |
| 2. | The hills within the oasis; |
| 3. | The floor of the oasis, including the villages, hamlets and springs. |
I.—The Bounding escarpments.—At the most northerly point of the oasis is a narrow extension some 4½ kilometres wide, enclosing a large black hill, Jebel Horabi. The portion of the scarp, or wall, which bounds this extension is lower and less steep than that further south, as the level of the oasis-floor rises considerably towards the hill just mentioned. The roads from Feshn, Maghagha and the Fayum enter at the north-east point of the extension; the descent is easy, the fall from the plateau into the oasis-area being about 70 metres, with a further drop of some 30 metres just after passing Jebel Horabi. At this latitude the depression opens out considerably, the escarpment on the one side trending to the south-west, while that on the other side turns a little east of south; about 8 kilometres further on there is a sudden widening of the excavation, the scarps retreating respectively east and west, so that before the latitude of the villages is reached the oasis has a width of some 28 kilometres. Between the latitude of the villages and Ain el Haiss a marked difference in the two scarps is noticeable; both curve round so as to enclose a wide oval area, but while that on the east side shows a comparatively smooth outline, broken only by a few small projecting headlands and gullies, the western bounding wall displays a highly irregular shape, long irregular tongues of plateau being separated by wide or narrow “bays.”
On the east side, the most considerable irregularity is near Ain Gelid; south-east of this spring the road from Minia enters down a gently-falling open sandy gully, with a long square-ended tongue of plateau to the south of it. Further south two other roads, perhaps branches of the one just mentioned, enter by smaller gullies; the scarp here has become much less formidable than further north, and the top of the plateau is covered with countless small conical hills of white chalk. Near the north end of the large hill-mass E.N.E. of Ain el Haiss, the eastern scarp almost disappears, the oasis-floor having risen considerably; it becomes more marked further on, and continues to the south, though of no great height, with limestone ridges at its foot. Just south of the large hill-mass referred to, the lower limestone ridges unite so as to form a regular escarpment, which continues southward as the limiting-wall of the oasis, the upper scarp now forming the edge of a higher plateau about a kilometre away from the oasis-edge. The two escarpments run almost parallel, one forming a step above the other, to the south end of the oasis; the lower one, forming the oasis-wall proper, is much more considerable than the upper, and the edge of the upper one is frequently broken into hills. Small chalk-hills continue to cover the upper plateau.
From Jebel Horabi, at the extreme north end of the depression, the western wall, or escarpment, trends in a general direction of 30° south of west for about 20 kilometres before it turns and runs some 5 kilometres south, forming the prominent headland about 2½ kilometres north-west of El Qasr. This cliff, probably the boldest part of the whole oasis-wall, attains a height of some 175 metres above the lowest part of the floor of the depression. It is steep throughout and the only practicable passes to the plateau above are through occasional gullies, in which the slopes are of easier gradient. The main caravan road from El Qasr and Bawitti to Mogara and Alexandria gains the plateau by the long narrow gully 6½ kilometres N.N.W. of El Qasr. To the south of the headland, 2½ kilometres north-west of El Qasr, the escarpment runs back and forms a remarkable narrow bay, running east and west, with an average width of only 4 kilometres, and extending some 18 kilometres west of El Qasr. This indentation is separated from a much larger opening to the south by a long narrow promontory, or tongue of plateau, barely a kilometre wide in places. The extreme point of this tongue is 9 kilometres south-west of Bawitti.
The large bay to the south is bounded on the north by the usual steep wall of rock, but this becomes much less prominent at the western extremity, where the escarpment is low and easily accessible to camels. A few kilometres out to the west is another escarpment of white chalk trending irregularly in a N.N.E. and S.S.W. direction. An old road, probably joining the main caravan road from Bawitti to Siwa further west, runs up this bay and on to the plateau beyond. Numerous large and small hills occur within the bay. The southern cliff, formed of dark brown or black ferruginous sandstones, is remarkably irregular, and quite different in appearance and weathering from the northern wall. The promontory to the south of this bay juts out boldly into the oasis-area. Further south the escarpment recedes and runs in the most irregular manner some 25 kilometres south-west, several times retreating to form well-marked indentations in the general line of cliff; it afterwards trends 15 kilometres south-east up to the prominent corner 4 kilometres west of Ain el Haiss. A road from Ain el Haiss to Siwa reaches the escarpment 15 kilometres north-west of the spring, passing up a gully of easy gradient to the plateau. About 7 kilometres further on the chalk escarpment, already mentioned, is seen running N.N.E. and S.S.W.
About the latitude of Ain el Haiss the east and west escarpments approach each other considerably, the width of the depression narrowing from some 36 to about 15 kilometres. This narrowing continues, though more gradually, to the southern extremity, where the width is only 4 kilometres. The western side, south of Ain el Haiss, is formed of three separate scarps, one behind the other, the outermost being that of white chalk which has already been referred to. On the east a second scarp of less height is found behind the lower. The height of the main scarp above the oasis floor at the southern end of the oasis is about 80 metres.
At the extreme south the main road from Baharia to Farafra ascends up an easy gradient to the plateau above the lowest escarpment, the others being crossed further to the south.
The Hills within the Oasis-excavation.—The most striking feature in the topography of Baharia Oasis is the large number of hills within the area. These hills impede the view, so that from very few points on the low ground can any extended outlook be obtained, and they give to Baharia an appearance entirely different from that which characterises the other Egyptian oases. For the most part these hills have a black aspect, due to the nature of the rocks (ferruginous quartzites and dolerite) capping them; a few are reddish (ferruginous sandstone and ochreous clay); others again are white (limestone).
The most strongly-marked group of hills is that extending in a nearly straight north-easterly direction a few kilometres south of the villages. Forming a prolongation of the long tongue of the west scarp already mentioned, this line of hills almost cuts the oasis in two. The largest hill of the range, Jebel Hefhuf, a narrow, ridge-like hill of limestone, has a black appearance at its northern end, being here composed of dolerite; the others capped entirely by brown limestone and partly swathed in accumulations of blown sand are of lighter aspect. They rise to a height of some 130 metres above the level of the villages.
The large, dark, dolerite-capped hill between El Qasr-Bawitti and Zubbo-Mandisha (Jebel Mandisha) divides the two main cultivated tracts of the oasis from each other, the road from Mandisha to El Qasr passing over its southern end. A similar mass is Jebel Mayesra, the large triangular hill north of Jebel Mandisha; the blackness of Jebel Horabi, in the north end of the oasis, is, on the other hand, due not to eruptive rocks but to the presence of iron ore in considerable quantity.