Dakhla Oasis

Known colloquially as the inner oasis, is one of the seven oases of Egypt's Western Desert (part of theLibyan Desert). Dakhla Oasis lies in the New Valley Governorate, 350 km from the Nile and between the oases of Farafra and Kharga. It measures approximately 80 km (50 mi) from east to west and 25 km (16 mi) from north to south.

History

Prehistory

The human history of this oasis started during the Pleistocene, when nomadiccolor: text2; mso-themeshade: 191;"> tribes settled sometimes there, in a time when the Sahara climate was wetter and where humans could have access to lakes and marshes. But about 6 000 years ago, the entire Sahara became drier, changing progressively into a hyper-arid desert (with less than 50 mm of rain per year). However, specialists think that nomadic hunter-gatherers began to settle almost permanently in the oasis of Dakhleh in the period of the Holocene(about 12 000 years ago), during new, but rare episodes of wetter times. In fact, the drier climate didn't mean that there was no more water in what is now known as the Western Desert. The south of the Libyan Desert has the most important supply of subterranean water in the world, and the first inhabitants of the Dakhla Oasis had access to surface water sources.

Pharaonic Period

First contacts between the pharaonic power and the oases started around 2550 BCE.

After 1800

The first European traveller to find the Dakhla Oasis was Sir Archibald Edmonstone, in the year 1819. He was succeeded by several other early travellers, but it was not until 1908 that the first egyptologist,Herbert Winlock, visited Dakhla Oasis and noted its monuments in some systematic manner. In the 1950s, detailed studies began, first by Dr. Ahmed Fakhry, and in the late 1970s, an expedition of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale and the Dakhla Oasis Project each began detailed studies in the oasis.

Al-Qasr at Dakhla Oasis

Geography

Dakhla Oasis consists of several communities, along a string of sub-oases. The main settlements are Mut, Al-Qasr, Qalamoun, together with several smaller villages. Some of the communities have identities that are separate from each other. Qalamoun has inhabitants that trace their origins to the Ottomans.

Dakhleh Oasis Project

The Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP) is a long-term study project set up in 1979 by the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History at Monash University. The DOP studies the interaction between environmental changes and human activity in the Dakhla Oasis.

Dakhleh Trust

The Dakhleh Trust was formed in 1999 and is a registered charity in the Britain.

Its declared aim is to advance understanding of the history of the environment and cultural evolutionthroughout the Quaternary period in the eastern Sahara, and particularly in the Dakhla Oasis.

To this end, the present trustees have committed themselves to supporting the DOP.