Mysteries of the Libyan Desert

by W. J. Harding King

I made altogether eight journeys into the desert to the south-west of Dakhla, only some of which have been described. In addition to these, and to the others into Farafra and elsewhere already referred to, I made some to the north of ’Ain Amur, where I found a perfect network of small depressions.

These little hollows, which were only about a hundred and fifty feet in depth, mostly opened out of each other, and fairly honeycombed the limestone plateau. Entrance to them was gained by a gap in the cliff on the northern side of ’Ain Amur Valley, from which a small belt of sand dunes issued. They were mostly only a mile or two in width, though some of them were of considerable length, one in fact stretched for some thirty-four miles from north-east to south-west. There was one extraordinary little hollow that formed as it were an isolated pot-hole, nearly circular in shape, in the limestone plateau, about a hundred and fifty feet in depth with almost vertical sides. It was difficult to see how it could have been formed. Judging from the jagged skyline, shown by some of the cliffs surrounding these hollows, there were probably several other depressions that time did not allow me to explore.

A curious fact in connection with these little hollows was that, although many of them were floored with clay, they contained practically no vegetation. On the limestone plateau that surrounded them, however, bushes and even small patches of scrub were not infrequently seen.

The origin of the depressions in this limestone plateau has been the subject of some dispute. The action of water, sand erosion and folding of the strata have all been put forward to account for them by various writers. It may be interesting in this connection to mention that the southernmost of these little hollows to the north of ’Ain Amur contained the bed of a perfectly distinct watercourse, containing well-rounded shingle, running towards the entrance into the ’Ain Amur Valley.

In addition to these journeys I made one for three days to the south of Belat, in Dakhla Oasis. On the edge of the oasis we got into some very rough salt-encrusted ground, containing some patches of rock salt.

Beyond this lay a large scrub-covered area known as Dhayat en Neml, or sometimes as El Girgof, which was fairly thickly overgrown with bushes.

On leaving this we got into the open desert, whose level here rose fairly rapidly towards the south. Here we found traces of an old road, which, however, we lost on the third day after leaving Belat. It was probably only a branch of the Derb et Terfawi.

Early that afternoon our road led us to the top of a cliff about two hundred feet in height. A few hours’ journey farther on and a second cliff, two hundred and forty feet in height, was reached, beyond which lay an expanse of level sandy desert, dotted here and there with a few rocky hills. This second scarp was apparently the eastern continuation of the cliff that forms the southern limit of the sandstone plateau to the south-west of the oasis of Dakhla, which, however, breaks down into a gradual slope to the south of the town of Mut, on the western side of Dakhla, where the road from Mut runs to Selima Oasis.

I endeavoured to make the most of the few opportunities that presented themselves of gathering such information as I could of the unknown areas beyond the Egyptian frontier. But opportunities of this kind unfortunately were few. These parts were regarded by the Senussi as being their particular reserve, and they did their best to keep them closed to outsiders. It was consequently only members of this sect and their friends who had any knowledge of the district, and the Senussi were so extraordinary secretive about their country that it was with the greatest difficulty that I was able to extract any information concerning it. Enquiries, too, had to be conducted with caution, for collecting data of this kind was apt to prove an unhealthy occupation.

Part of the map I was able to compile from the data given to me has since been verified from other sources; as much of it has thus been found to be correct, the remainder of it is presumably equally reliable. The absolute positions, so far as latitude and longitude are concerned, are, of course, considerably in error in most cases, but the relative bearings and distances of each place to those surrounding it are, in most instances, represented with reasonable accuracy.