Gebel el-ʿUweināt - Gebel el-ʿUweināt

The Gebel el-ʿUweināt (also Jabal, Djebel Al Awaynat, Auenat, Ouenat, Ouinat, Owainat, Oweinat, Uwaynat, Uweinat, Uwenat, Uweynat, Arabic:جبل العوينات‎, Ǧabal al-ʿUwaināt, „Mountain of small springs“) Is a 1,934 meter high sandstone and granite massif in the country triangle Egypt, Sudan and Libya. The mountain was only (re) discovered in 1923 by the Egyptian Aḥmad Muḥammad Ḥasanein Pascha (1889–1946). The Gebel el-ʿUweināt is famous for its numerous prehistoric rock carvings and one of the highlights in the Gilf Kebir National Park. The landscape and the history documented in rock paintings beckon.

Tourist Attractions

Mountains, valleys and springs in Sudan

• Karkūr Ṭalḥ (Arabic:كركور طلح) - Valley with numerous rock carvings
• Karkūr Murr (Arabic:كركور مر‎)
• Hasanein Plateau (Arabic:هضبة حسنين‎)
• Source ʿAin el-Brinsعين البرنس, Also Bir Murr, (Arabic:بئر مر‎, „bitter source“) In the Karkūr Murr

Mountains, valleys and springs in Libya

• Mount Bagnold is the highest point at 1,934 meters
• Source ʿAin Dūa (Arabic:عين دوا) - Source with numerous rock carvings
• Source ʿAin ez-Zuwayya (also ʿAin Zueia, ʿAin Zwaya, Arabic:عين الزوية) - named after a Berber tribe
• Karkūr Ḥamīd (Arabic:كركور حميد‎)
• Karkūr Idrīs (Arabic:كركور إدريس) - Valley with numerous rock carvings
• Karkūr Ibrāhīm (Arabic:كركور إبراهيم) - Valley with numerous rock carvings

background

Location and geology

The Gebel el-ʿUweināt is an island mountain and is located in the triangle of Egypt, Sudan and Libya, approx. 150 kilometers from Gilf Kebir Plateau and 1200 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. At its highest point - Mount Bagnold in Libya - it is 1,934 meters high and also the highest point in Egypt. The rock massif has a diameter of about 50 kilometers. The plain at the foot of the western Gebel el-ʿUweināt is about 620 meters above sea level.

The massif was created by granitic intrusion, i.e. by the penetration of liquid magma into the uppermost rock layers. In the west, the Gebel el-ʿUweināt is a round granite mountain with a diameter of 25 kilometers, in the east a sandstone plateau from the Paleocene. It is traversed by several valleys, which here and only here are called Karkūr and not Wādī.

The height of the massif is sufficient to stop the rare tropical rainfalls from the south. The few springs are fed by rainwater and have never dried up in living memory.

history

In prehistoric times there was evidence of a settlement between 12,000 and 7,000 years ago, which reached its peak with the humid period that began 10,500 years ago in the Holocene. Initially it was hunters and gatherers, later settled people who ran pastures. The rock engravings and paintings of wild animals, domestic animals and humans, among them hunters and shepherds, bear witness to these people. De facto the whole mountain range is filled with them.

Until the first half of the 20th century, camel and cattle herders of the Tibu and Goran from the area lived here Kufra. At the time of Pasha Aḥmad Muḥammad Ḥasanein in 1923, around 150 people lived here, ten years later the area was deserted.

Research history

The British desert explorer William Kennedy Shaw (1901–1979) reported that Sabun, Sultan of Wadai, at the beginning of the 19th century, around 1809/1810, sought an alternative route to the Darb el-Arbaʿīn let search. A trader named Shehaymah found a route to Benghazi, which led past Gebel en-Nārī ("the burning mountain"), today's Gebel el-ʿUweināt. But there were hardly any water points.^[1]

In 1923 the Gebel el-ʿUweināt was rediscovered by Aḥmad Muḥammad Ḥasanein Pasha (1889-1946). Aḥmad Ḥasanein came from the family of an el-Azhar professor and was educated at Oxford. In 1923 he crossed the desert from the Mediterranean to the Gebel el-ʿUweināt. His current name, Gebel el-ʿUweināt, mountain of small springs, comes from him. In publications he made the rock art he found in Karkūr Ibrāhīm known to a large audience. He also said that the residents of the time believed that the rock carvings of spirits, Djinns, come.

The first geological and topographical studies came from the British geologist in 1926 John Ball (1872–1941) and in 1925/1926 by Prince Kamāl ed-Dīn Ḥusein (1874–1932), who made the rock carvings in Karkūr Ṭalḥ discovered.^[2]

He was followed in 1931 by the British desert explorer Patrick Clayton (1896–1962), and in 1932 by the British Ralph Alger Bagnold (1896–1990) with William Kennedy Shaw^[1] as well as the 1933 Italian topographic mission with the zoologist Ludovico Di Caporiacco (1901–1951) and Oreste Marchesi.^[3] In the same year the Hungarian desert explorer arrived László Almásy (1895–1951) here, whose driver discovered the rock paintings of ʿAin Dūa.^[4] In October of the same year he returned with the German ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) and Hans Rhotert (1900–1991) who recorded the rock carvings here.^[5] In an unflattering guerrilla war, di Caporiacco and Frobenius later tried to pretend to be the discoverers of ʿAin Dūa.^[4]

In 1934 the Gebel el-ʿUweināt was occupied by the Royal Air Force. The last investigations before the Second World War were made in 1937 by the interdisciplinary Bagnold moon expedition with the British archaeologist Oliver Humphrys Myers (1903-1966), the German ethnologist Hans Winkler (1900–1945) and the British chemist and archaeologist Robert Mond (1867–1938).^[6][7]

It was not until 1962 that research at Gebel el-ʿUweināt was resumed. One of them was the biologist E. Jany^[8] as well as the Italians E. Bellini and S. Ariè, who documented the rock art in Karkūr Idrīs.^[9] In 1969, a Royal Air Force rescue team searched for wreckage of aircraft and vehicles from World War II.

Two Belgian missions supplemented our knowledge of Gebel el-ʿUweināt. In 1965, landscape surveys were carried out by J. Léonard and his team members.^[10] In 1968/1969 Francis van Noten followed with his team, mainly the Karkūr Ṭalḥ examined and documented.^[11]

Extensive research has been carried out by the Hungarian András Zboray since 1998.^[12] The University of Cologne is also involved in the most recent research with surveys in 1998 and 2003.^[13]

A sensation came in November 2007 when Mark Borda and Mahmoud Marai put a hieroglyphic inscription and the king's cartouche Mentuhotep II., the founder of the 11th dynasty in the ancient Egyptian Middle Kingdom. This proves that there were expeditions to this area already at that time. The inscription reads “Son of Re Mentuhotep, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Horus forever alive. [The land] Yam brings incense, [the land] Tekhebet brings ... "^[14] It is assumed that the land of Yam could have been between the first and second Nile cataracts, the place name Tekhebet has not yet been documented.

Unesco world heritage site

It is planned to declare the Gebel el-ʿUweināt a World Heritage Site. Egypt did with the establishment of the Gilf Kebir National Park the requirements have already been met. The main problem at the moment is the relocation of the Libyan military from the area to stop logging and the training of park rangers.

getting there

Arrival from Egypt

There are (at least) three routes to get to Gebel el-ʿUweināt. The first two start in the area of ​​the Gilf Kebir Plateaus.

1. The eastern route begins in the area of Eight Bells, leads east past the Peter and Paul rocks and passes the Clayton crater.
2. The western route leads almost exactly in a southern direction from Wādī Ṣūra about the Three castles.
3. An arrival is also from Wādī Ḥalfā above Abu Simbel possible. The route leads over to slopes 22.68333329.9166671 Bir Kuseiba(22 ° 41 ′ 0 ″ N.29 ° 55 ′ 0 ″ E), also Bir Kiseiba, Arabic:بئر كسيبة‎, 22.95194428.8877782 Bir Tarfāwī(22 ° 57 ′ 7 ″ N.28 ° 53 ′ 16 ″ E), also Bir Terfawi,بئر ترفاوي, After 22.227.953 Bir Misāḥa(22 ° 12 ′ 0 ″ N.27 ° 57 ′ 0 ″ E), ‏بئر مساحة. The remaining half of the route has to be covered through the desert and requires local knowledge.

kitchen

You can only have a picnic at the foot of Gebel el-ʿUweināt or in the entrances to its valleys. Food and drinks must be brought along. Rubbish must be taken with you and must not be left lying around.

accommodation

Tents must be brought along for overnight stays at some distance.

security

The area of ​​the Gilf Kebir National Park, especially south of the Gilf Kebir Plateau, is used for the transport of internationally operating and armed smugglers' gangs. Actually, they want to remain unobserved. But they also do not shy away from raids on the rich tourists and take away everything that is worth money. You shouldn't rely on the protection of the police, but rather on the negotiating skills of the local drivers and guides.

If you are traveling from Egypt you need a permit from the Egyptian military to travel south of the 23rd parallel. During the trip you will be accompanied by armed police officers and a military officer. For trips to Gilf Kebir, there is in Courage its own safari department, which also has the necessary police escort (Tourist Safari Police Escort) and their vehicles. The mandatory service, which is independent of the number of travelers, is of course chargeable. Each of the two support vehicles costs around LE 2,500. The escort officer costs about $ 100 a day.

British forces laid mines in several places during World War II that have not yet been cleared. Only some of the areas are cordoned off. Known mined areas include the Peter and Paul rocks and marked areas in the entrance area to Karkūr Ṭalḥ (at 22.04583325.131Mined area in the northeast of the Gebel el-Uweinat1 22 ° 2 ′ 45 ″ N.25 ° 7 '52 "E and 22.07525.046667Mined area in the northeast of the Gebel el-Uweinat2 22 ° 4 ′ 30 ″ N.25 ° 2 ′ 48 ″ E).

Communication is essential for survival. On such expeditions have to Satellite phones are carried.

trips

40 kilometers northwest of Gebel el--Uweināt is the Gebel Arkanu on Libyan soil.

literature

• Hassanein Bey, A [hmad] M [uhammad]: Riddle of the desert. Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1926. Translation of the novel "Lost Oases".
• Notes, Francis van: Rock art of the Jebel Uweinat (Libyan Sahara). Graz: Academic printing and demand institute, 1978, The African rock art.

Individual evidence