The Dakhla Oasis, located in Egypt’s New Valley Governorate, is one of the Great Sahara Desert’s oases, spanning 80 kilometers east to west and 25 kilometers north to south. It reaches around 17 major villages, the most notable of which is Mut, the capital, and the richest of which is the village of Rashda. There are a few modest hotels and the settlement of Al-Tarfa, which Naguib Sawiris, a businessman, owns. It was constructed in the traditional style.
Archaeological monuments in the Dakhla Oasis:
- The city of Mut has gardens created in the shape of terraces that date back to the sixth century BC.
- Bashandi Village is a pharaonic-style town located 40 kilometers east of Mut. It has an Islamic cemetery as well as numerous Roman graves, the most famous of which is the Kitnes Cemetery, which is 35 kilometers away. The Pharaonic Balat Village features terraced tombs dating back to the sixth century BC. A Greek cemetery can also be found in Bashandi Village.
- The temple of Deir El-Hajar is a Roman-era structure with inscriptions depicting religious life. It was constructed to honor the deity Amun and his wife, Mut.
- Al-Qasr Islamic Village is a three-story wooden minaret with a height of 21 cm that goes back to the Ayyubid dynasty. There are also wooden lintels with Quranic texts etched on them.
- Mut Ethnographic Museum: It depicts the oasis’s major city and exhibits some of the products and things utilized in the oasis throughout the Islamic era.
- The ornate hill (Gebel Al Muzakhraf) gets its name from two beautifully adorned tombs, one (Pelosis) and the other (Petosiris). A considerable number of family graves may also be found on this hill.
Important wells and springs:
First, there are Mut wells: the temperature in Mut wells may reach 43 degrees Celsius at times, and the depth of the wells can exceed 1224 meters. There is generally a circular swimming pool and a few tourist rest cottages in the area. The wells have a high temperature, which may reach over 45 degrees Celsius on occasion, and the oasis’s residents are known for growing cows and goats. In addition, every community has a spring that is mostly utilized for irrigation. The single and primary source of water for the Dakhla Oasis is wells and springs.
