Interactive Libyan Desert Map
The Libyan Desert (Western Sahara Desert of Egypt) covers about 700,000 square kilometres of Egypt (equivalent in size to Texas) and accounts for about two-thirds of Egypt's land area. This immense desert spans the area from the Mediterranean Sea south to the Sudanese border.
Scarps (ridges) and deep depressions (basins) exist in several parts of the desert, and no rivers or streams drain into or out of the area.
The desert's Jilf al Kabir Plateau has an altitude of about 1,000 meters, an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments forming a massive plain or low plateau.
There are seven important depressions in the Libyan Desert. They all are considered oases except the largest, Qattara, the water of which is salty.
Limited agricultural production, the presence of some natural resources, and permanent settlements are found in the other six depressions, all of which have fresh water provided by the Nile or by local groundwater
The Qattara Depression is approximately 15,000 square km (about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island), and is largely below sea level (its lowest point is 133 meters below sea level).
The sparsely inhabited Qattara Depression is covered by badlands, salt marshes, and salt lakes.
Scarps (ridges) and deep depressions (basins) exist in several parts of the desert, and no rivers or streams drain into or out of the area.
The desert's Jilf al Kabir Plateau has an altitude of about 1,000 meters, an exception to the uninterrupted territory of basement rocks covered by layers of horizontally bedded sediments forming a massive plain or low plateau.
The Qattara Depression
There are seven important depressions in the Libyan Desert. They all are considered oases except the largest, Qattara, the water of which is salty.
Limited agricultural production, the presence of some natural resources, and permanent settlements are found in the other six depressions, all of which have fresh water provided by the Nile or by local groundwater
The Qattara Depression is approximately 15,000 square km (about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island), and is largely below sea level (its lowest point is 133 meters below sea level).
The sparsely inhabited Qattara Depression is covered by badlands, salt marshes, and salt lakes.
The Siwa Oasis
The Siwah Oasis is located west of Cairo and the Nile Delta - close to the Libyan border and west of Qattara on the Libyan Desert map. It is isolated from the rest of Egypt but has sustained life since ancient times.
The Siwa's cliff-hung Temple of Amun was renowned for its oracles for more than 1,000 years. Herodotus and Alexander the Great were among the many illustrious people who visited the temple in the pre-Christian era.
Siwa Oasis Tours are getting very popular.
Other Interesting Oases
The other interesting oases form a topographic chain of basins extending from the Al Fayoum Oasis (sometimes called the Fayoum Depression) which lies sixty kilometres southwest of Cairo, south to the Bahariya, Farafra, and Dakhlah oases before reaching the country's largest oasis, Kharijah.
A brackish lake, Birkat Qarun, at the northern reaches of Al Fayoum Oasis, drained into the Nile in ancient times. For centuries sweet water artesian wells in the Fayoum Oasis have permitted extensive cultivation in an irrigated area that extends over 1,800 square kilometres of the Libyan Desert.
Click the Wikipedia "W" in the Libyan Desert Map to read about that particular location.