Much of the fascination of this region lies in the desert itself. It's no accident that Islam, Judaism and Christianity were forged in deserts whose vast scarps and depressions displayed the hand of God writ large, with life-giving springs and oases as manifestations of divine mercy in a pitiless landscape. Although much of this landscape was once savannah, it was reduced to its current state millennia ago by geological processes and overgrazing by Stone Age pastoralists.

 

The Western Desert , which covers 681,000 square kilometres (over two-thirds of Egypt's total area), is merely one part of the Sahara belt across northern Africa. Its anomalous name was bestowed by British cartographers who viewed it from the perspective of the Nile - and, to complicate matters further, designated its southern reaches and parts of northwestern Sudan as the "Libyan Desert". Aside from the oases, its most striking features are the Qattara Depression , whence dunes extend 700km southwards, and the Great Sand Sea along the Libyan border. Both are discussed under "Siwa Oasis", while the old slave trail from the Sudan is covered after "Kharga Oasis", the penultimate stop on the Forty Days Road .

All the practicalities of visiting the oases (including the best times to go) are detailed under the respective entries. The most comprehensive source of historical and geographical information is Cassandra Vivian's Islands of the Blest: A Guide to the Oases and Western Desert of Egypt (2000), sold in Cairo, which includes a useful set of pull-out maps.