Mysteries of the Libyan Desert

by W. J. Harding King

We continued marching along the bearing I had taken between the two ’alems, so far as the unequalities of the desert would allow us, for though the general level of the plateau was maintained over a large area, it had many minor undulations. But by looking ahead in the direction of the bearing we were generally able to decide where the road ran.

Here and there we came across ’alems, showing that we were still on the right track; but it was not until we had followed it for nearly two days that we again saw any part of the road itself.

Then, however, we found a stretch of it lying in a sheltered position, which we were able to follow for over two miles. In one place where, being sheltered, it was rather more plainly visible than usual, I counted no less than forty-three parallel paths. At one time it must clearly have been one of the main caravan roads of the desert. But we saw no more ’alems, nor did we come across any more stretches of the road on that journey.

The farther out on the plateau we got the greater were the number of the hills we saw. They were all of the same Nubian sandstone of which the plateau itself consisted—I saw no trace anywhere in this part of the desert of the limestone that caps the plateau to the north and east of Dakhla and Kharga. The hills were of the usual desert type, either flat-topped, domed, or pyramidal. Here and there we came across some with a more jagged outline, but these were rare. In parts these hills were extraordinarily numerous, from one point I counted over two hundred and fifty of them, in spite of the fact that about 60° of the horizon were cut off by the proximity of a long ridge. The largest of them that I saw was not much more than three hundred feet in height. The general level of the plateau was approximately that of the tableland of the top of the cliff to the north of Dakhla.

On our fourth day out from Mut we got into a considerable area of very rough ground, largely consisting of sharp-edged sofut, with the result that by evening two of the camels were limping slightly, owing to the injuries to their feet from the sharp rock, and as I could see much lower ground to the south, I turned off on setting out on the fifth morning in that direction.

After two hours’ march we reached the bottom of a small wady, which my aneroid showed to be 110 feet deep. As, shortly before reaching it, we had seen the track of a rat, my men christened it the “wady el far” or “Valley of the Rat.” It was still quite early in the day, but as one of the camels was still limping, I decided to camp, and sent Qway off on his hagin towards the south-west to scout.

The Most “Impassable” Dune.

The whole of the central part of the Libyan desert was supposed to consist of an “impassable sea” of sand dunes, but on a journey to about the middle of the desert, the only dune that had to be actually crossed was the small one shown above. ([p. 82]).

On his return to the camp I asked Qway what he had seen during his ride. He said he had ridden for two hours towards the south-west, and then he had reached the edge of a plain on the far side of which was a high black mountain. Beyond that he said was a very deep valley, which he had been unable to see into, but which was overhung by a mist. As the mountain lay about four hours’ ride away, and the valley about two hours beyond it, he had returned to the camp to report what he had seen.