White & Black Desert Safari

In Graeco-Roman times Bahariya was the most prosperous oasis in Egypt, home to thousands of people, and in the Middle Ages it kept the name “Land of the Oases”. In the 1990s an archaeological mission led by Dr Zahi Hawass uncovered a vast necropolis of the 1st–2nd century AD, among the most remarkable finds of recent decades; some of its gilded mummies, the “golden mummies”, are displayed in a small museum.

Visit the museum of the golden mummies and the underground Ptolemaic tombs of Zed-Amun-ef-ankh and his son Bannentiu, near the centre of the oasis, whose images of gods and hieroglyphs keep remarkably vivid colours, then the little-known temple of Ain el-Muftella, built in the 26th dynasty and enlarged in Greek and Roman times. Lunch in the oasis.

Heading south, cross the Bahariya depression and the Black Desert, named after its dark stones and conical hills, with a stop at Crystal Mountain, a hill made entirely of quartz crystals. Climbing onto the plateau, reach the escarpment above the Farafra depression and enter the legendary White Desert. Overnight in a fixed tented camp.

Meals: breakfast at the hotel · picnic lunch · dinner at the camp.

A full day in the White Desert. For miles the track winds across golden sand among dazzling white limestone formations — pinnacles, towers and mushrooms eroded by water and wind into ever-changing, theatrical shapes that create landscapes of rare beauty.

The entrance to the Agabat valley — “the valley of obstacles”, where dunes weave between towering white rocks — is unforgettable; the White Desert surprises even seasoned Saharan travellers. Walks, springs shaded by tall trees and plenty of time for photographs. Overnight in a fixed tented camp.

Meals: breakfast at the camp · picnic lunch · dinner at the camp.

Breakfast at the camp at sunrise. While the Bedouin crew prepares the vehicles and strikes the tents, take a walk through the White Desert among limestone rocks sculpted by wind and sand into the shapes of people, plants and animals.

The 4×4s then take you back to Cairo. Overnight in Cairo.

Meals: breakfast at the camp · picnic lunch · dinner at leisure.