 Landscape near the entrance to Karkūr Ṭalḥ | ||
| Karkūr Ṭalḥ · كركور طلح | ||
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The Karkur Talh (Arabic:كركور طلح, Karkūr Ṭalḥ, „Acacia Valley“) Is a valley in the northeast of the Gebel el-ʿUweināt, a few kilometers south of the Egyptian-Sudanese Border in Sudan. It offers the largest closed collection of rock engravings and rock paintings in the Gilf Kebir National Parkwhich were attached to the rock walls by prehistoric hunters and gatherers in the Holocene. Preparations are currently being made to declare the entire Gebel el-ʿUweināt a Unesco World Heritage Site.[1]
background
The Karkūr Ṭalḥ is a valley in the northeast of the Gebel el-ʿUweināt in the southwest corner of Gilf Kebir National Park and extends over approx. 25 kilometers. It consists of the north or main arm running westwards and the south arm, the at 1 21 ° 57 '37 "N.25 ° 7 ′ 13 ″ E branches off from the main arm. The rocks are made of sandstone.
The valley - the non-Arabic name Karkūr only exists in Gebel el-ʿUweināt - has the highest density of vegetation in the entire massif. As the name suggests, the umbrella acacia (Acacia tortilis raddiana) and numerous shrubs.
The high density of several thousand rock drawings and engravings testifies that the Gebel el-ʿUweināt had a high density of settlements in the Holocene (up to 8,500 years ago BC). The Gebel el-ʿUweināt was a destination for camel and cattle herders like the Tibu until the first half of the 20th century Kufra. They couldn't do anything with the rock carvings. These drawings, which can be found throughout Gebel el-ʿUweināt, were, in their opinion, only made by spirits, the Djinns, have been attached.
The knowledge of Karkūr Ṭalḥ comes from the Egyptian desert explorer Prince Kamal ed-Din Husein (1853-1917), son of the Sultan Hussein Kamil. Kamal ed-Din Husein discovered the valley in 1925/1926. He was followed by the Hungarian desert explorer from 1932 to 1933 László Almásy (1895–1951), the German ethnologist Hans Rhotert (1900–1991), the British desert researcher William Boyd Kennedy Shaw and in 1938 the German ethnologist Hans Alexander Winkler (1900-1945) and the British archaeologist Oliver Humphrys Myers (1903-1966), members of the von Ralph Alger Bagnold (1896–1990) led expedition. Another exploration was carried out in 1968-1969 by a Belgian mission led by Francis van Noten.
A camera with sufficient film material or storage space should be carried.
getting there
Visiting the valley is the highlight of a desert excursion in the Gilf Kebir National Park. An all-terrain four-wheel drive vehicle is required to travel through the desert.
The journey to the Gebel el-ʿUweināt can be found there. How to get to Karkūr Ṭalḥ is described below.
The easiest way to get there is from the northeast, from Egyptian territory. The entrance to the wadi can be reached at around 2 22 ° 0 ′ 9 ″ N.25 ° 11 ′ 16 ″ E, so still on Egyptian territory. You pass border post 56 at 3 22 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ N.25 ° 8 ′ 54 ″ E. Because of the trilateral agreements between Egypt, Sudan and Libya, this also works.
A permit from the Egyptian military is required to drive into the national park. 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 provides the necessary police escorts and their vehicles. The mandatory service is of course chargeable.
Tourist Attractions
Of course, the landscape is charming. There are numerous acacia trees in the valley. Sometimes you can see the rubber sap of the trees on the stones on the trees. The stones appear to have been doused with water.
The Karkūr Ṭalḥ has innumerable, several thousand rock carvings. Most of the rock paintings and engravings are on the south side of the main arm. The paintings are located under easily accessible rock overhangs that receive sufficient light. Sometimes you have to climb about three feet to the overhang or lie on your back to look at the paintings. The rock engravings can also be placed under overhangs, but they are often attached directly to the rock face.
The rock engravings, so-called petroglyphs, cover a particularly wide range of different animal and human representations. The animal representations mainly include giraffes - sometimes up to one meter high and sometimes with fur pattern - but also cattle (Bovidae), sheep (maned or Berber sheep), gazelles, antelopes, ostriches and lions, but no elephants or rhinos. Camel representations are clearly more recent. Numerous depictions of people are also included. Among them are shepherds and hunters with bows and arrows, sometimes accompanied by dogs.
The wall paintings, which were executed with yellow and red ocher and with white paint, cover a much smaller repertoire of representations. Besides people, these are mainly depictions of cattle. The rock paintings are mostly more recent than the engravings.
Among the rock engravings there are also very modern ones, e.g. one 1 Expedition of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture(21 ° 58 ′ 18 ″ N.25 ° 8 ′ 32 ″ E) from 1939 given to the king Faruq I. (1920–1965, reign 1936–1952) thanks.
You will hardly get to see wild animals. But you can definitely find traces and the droppings of gazelles.
kitchen
You can take a break at the entrance to the valley. Food and drinks must be brought along. Rubbish must be taken with you and must not be left lying around.
accommodation
Tents must be carried for overnight stays at some distance.
literature
- : The mountain of Uweinat. In:Antiquity: a quarterly review of archeology, ISSN0003-598X, Vol.8,29 (1934), Pp. 63-72.
- : Rock drawings of Southern Upper Egypt; 2: Including 'Uwēnât: Sir Robert Mond desert expedition; season 1937-1938, premiminary report. London: The Egypt Exploration Society; Oxford University Press, 1939.
- : Libyan rock art: Results of the 11th and 12th German inner-African research expedition (Diafe) 1933/1934/1935. Darmstadt: Wittich, 1952.
- : Rock Art of the Jebel Uweinat
. Graz: Akad. Druck- und Verlangsanst., 1978, The African rock art; 7th.
Individual evidence
- ↑Workshop on the Conservation and Management of the Proposed Jebel Ouenat Protected Area (Egypt, Libya and Sudan), Tripoli, 2004, UNESCO World Heritage Center.
