Mysteries of the Libyan Desert

by W. J. Harding King

’Ain Um Debadib, the little oasis already mentioned, is situated about twenty-two miles farther west.

Still farther to the west, the next oasis—if such it can be called—is that of ’Ain Amur, of which mention has already been made. It lies about twenty-four miles W.S.W. of ’Ain Um Debadib, close to the top of a precipitous cliff facing the northern boundary of a portion of the detached limestone plateau to which reference has already been made.

’Ain Amur stands some 1,680 feet above sea-level. The existence of a well at such a high altitude, in an excessively arid region like the Libyan Desert, is something in the nature of a phenomenon. Its presence, however, is easily explained: the top of the plateau is covered with a layer of limestone, below which is a bed of clay. Showers of rain are not quite unknown, even in this desert, and occasionally, according to the natives, there is a regular downpour. Some of the water falling on the flat limestone surface certainly finds its way through it by way of the numerous cracks to be seen on its surface. The downward progress of this water is stopped on reaching the clay, through which it can only penetrate extremely slowly. Where the strata are not absolutely horizontal, the water flows along the upper surface of the clay, protected from evaporation by the overlying limestone, until it comes to the surface at the edge of the plateau, a little distance below the summit of the cliff.

The Arab word ’Ain, strictly speaking, means a flowing well or spring. The well at ’Ain Amur, however, did not, so far as I could see, flow at all. It consists simply of an ordinary vertical well-shaft, the water in which lies about eight feet below the ground level, and is reached by an inclined path, or stair, leading down to it from the eastern side.

The well stands near the foot of a single scraggy palm tree. A certain amount of wild palm scrub is to be seen near the well, and a short distance away is a patch of green rushes, where I was told there had formerly been another well; but this was quite filled up—probably by the wind-blown dust—at the time of my visit. The water in the well was dirty and rather bitter, but otherwise quite potable.

Water could perhaps be found at other places in the neighbourhood, as there is a long strip of green camel thorn—argul—running horizontally along the cliff below the plateau, at the level of the well, which lies near its western end.

Formerly ’Ain Amur must have been a place of some importance. Close to the well are the ruins of a small stone temple still showing traces of paint, and situated, like many of the temples in Kharga Oasis, in the centre of a walled enclosure of sun-dried bricks, possibly intended as a defence. The well is placed within this enclosure—little of which now remains.

About forty miles west from ’Ain Amur lies Dakhla Oasis. Like Kharga it is really a group of oases, with spaces of desert between them—or perhaps it would be more correct to say two groups, for the Belat-Tenida district on its eastern side is quite distinct from the remainder of the oasis, from which it is separated by several miles of waterless desert. The inhabitants of Belat and Tenida are consequently of a slightly different type from those of the rest of the oasis, and though only a few miles away from them, speak a rather different dialect—the hard K = Q being strongly pronounced at Belat and in the eastern group of oases, while it is slurred over in the western part and pronounced as it is in Cairo.

Dakhla Oasis differs somewhat from Kharga in that the villages are less scattered and, so to speak, more closely packed together. Owing, too, to the better water supply it is very much more fertile. Dakhla, too, is more favourably situated than Kharga, as it nestles at the foot of a great east and west cliff, three or four hundred feet in height, that protects it to a great extent from the prevailing northerly winds. Kharga, on the other hand, runs from north to south, with the result that the tearing desert gales sweep down upon it from the north with their full force. Dakhla runs east and west—with an extension towards the north at its western end, where the sheltering cliff forms a deep bay towards the north-east, measuring about six miles from north to south. The south-western portion of the oasis, in which the capital town of Mut is placed, is consequently more exposed to the prevailing winds.

Mut itself—the last place to the south-west—lies about eighteen miles from the escarpment, while most of the other villages are within five or six miles of the sheltering cliff, which form the boundary of the oasis on its northern and eastern sides. On the south the oasis merges gradually into the higher desert beyond, while to the west it is hemmed in by a huge field of dunes.