LIBYAN DESERT

The Libyan Desert (24 degrees North, 25 degrees East)is located in the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert. It occupies Egypt west of the Nile (hence the term 'Western Desert' to describe its Egyptian portion), eastern Libya and northwestern Sudan alongside the Nubian Desert. Covering an area of approximately 1,100,000 square kilometers, it extends approximately 1100 km from east to west, and 1,000 km from north to south, in about the shape of a rectangle. Like most of the Sahara, this desert is primarily sand and hamada or stony plain.

Sand plains, dunes, ridges and some depressions (basins) typify the region, and no rivers drain into or out of the area. The desert's Gilf Kebir Plateau reaches an altitude of just over 1000 meters. and along with the nearby massif of Jebel Uweinat, is an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments, forming a massive sand plain, low plateaus and dunes.

There are eight depressions in the eastern Libyan Desert, and all are considered oases except the smallest, Qattara, because its waters are salty. Limited agricultural production, the presence of some natural resources, and permanent settlements are found in the other seven depressions, all of which have fresh water provided by the Nile or by local groundwater.

The Siwa Oasis, close to the Libyan border and west of Qattara, is isolated from the rest of Egypt but has sustained life since ancient times. Waw an Namus in the very centre of Libya, is an extinct volcano with reed-filled pools in its crater but no cultivation or habitation. The other major oases include Dakhla and Kharga in Egypt, and Jaghbub and Kufra in Libya. Apart from Kufra they form a topographic chain of basins extending from the Al Fayyum Oasis (sometimes called the Fayyum Depression) which lies sixty kilometers southwest of Cairo, south to the Bahariya, Farafra and Dakhla oases before reaching the country's largest oasis, Kharga Oasis. A brackish lake, Lake Karun, at the northern reaches of Al Fayyum Oasis, drained into the Nile in ancient times. For centuries sweetwater artesian wells in the Fayyum Oasis have permitted extensive cultivation in an irrigated area that extends over 2,100 square kilometers.