Gilf el-Kebir
Gif el-Kebir is a large plateau in Egypt. The name can be translated as the great barrier. It is located in trhe extreme south-east of Egypt, next ot Lybia and Sudan. It has about the same size as Switzerland. It rises 300 m above the rest of the desert. The plateau is very arid and difficult to access. There is a crater called Kebir crater in the plateau.
The Uweinat mountain range at the very south of the plateau is shared between Egypt, Libya and Sudan.
- Akhdar وادى الاخض
- Bakht وادى البخت
- Dayiq وادى الضيق
- Firaq وادى فراق
- Gazayir وادى الجزائر
- Maftuh وادى مفتوح
- Mashi وادى مشى
- Wassa وادى وسع
The Gilf Kebir is mentioned in Michael Ondaatje's novel 'The English Patient'. It was also the site of the recent discovery of a bag which had been lost in the Second World War by a dispatch rider (Alec Ross) of the Long Range Desert Group, part of the British Army. This contained the rider's personal letters and photographs, and had been well preserved.
Petroglyphs[change | change source]
The Gilf Kebir is known for its prehistoric (Neolithic) petroglyphs
- Karkur Talh and Karkur Murr: major eastern valleys of the Uweinat contain one of the richest concentrations of rock art in the whole Sahara.
- Western Uweinat: Shelters under the huge granite boulders in the western Uweinat contain numerous paintings, including the famous sites of Ain Doua.
- Jebel Arkenu, Jebel Kissu & Yerguehda Hill, the lesser granite massifs around Uweinat have many smaller sites.
- Mogharet el Kantara in the southern Gilf Kebir contains only one known rock art site, a cave discovered by Shaw & party in 1936.
- Wadi Sora in the northwestern Gilf Kebir: the "Cave of Swimmers" (or Swimmers' Cave), discovered by the Hungarian Count László Almásy (The English Patient), plus many other paintings nearby.
- The North-western half of the Gilf Kebir aside from Wadi Sora has only a few scattered engravings, of an apparently very ancient age.
- In January 2003, Zarzora Expeditions and Jacopo Foggini independently announced the discovery of a major new rock art site in the Western Gilf Kebir (Foggini-Mestekawi Cave).