| Wādī el-Bacht · وادي البخت | ||
| Governorate | New valley | |
|---|---|---|
| height | 657 m | |
no tourist info on Wikidata:  | ||
| location | ||
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The Wadi el-Bacht (also Wadi el-Bakht, Wadi Bakht, Arabic:وادي البخت, Wādī al-Bacht, „the lucky valley“) Is a valley on the east side of the Kamal-ed-Din plateau, the eastern part of the Gilf Kebir Plateaus in the Gilf Kebir National Park. There is a 30 meter high sand dune in the wadi. This wadi or the dried up lake bed behind the dune is one of the few places that have been archaeologically examined and that can provide information about the nomads in the Neolithic Age.
background
The Wādī el-Bacht extends over a length of about 20 kilometers in a westerly direction on the east side of the Kamal-ed-Din plateau. To the north of him is that 1 Wādī el-Maftūḥ(23 ° 15 ′ 41 ″ N.26 ° 24 '55 "E), Arabic:وادي المفتوح, South of him that 2 Wādī el-Gazāʾir(23 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ N.26 ° 21 '50 "E), Arabic:وادي الجزائر.
A special feature is that the rear part of the wadi is separated from the front part by a sand dune about 30 meters high and 650 meters wide. In the Neolithic (New Stone Age), about 10,000 years ago, there was once a lake up to 9 meters deep and about 100,000 cubic meters of water (Playa Lake), which was fed by rainwater. The up to eight meters thick sediments, i.e. deposits of the former lake, can serve to elucidate the climatic conditions of that time. Between 8,300 and 3,300 B.C. Hunters and gatherers also lived here. At the end of this period, the residents also ran pastures.
The wadi was opened in 1932 by an expedition from László Almásy (1895-1951) discovered.
The wadi was built in 1938 as part of an expedition from Ralph Alger Bagnold (1896–1990) who also found the sand dune. The archaeologist of the expedition, Oliver Humphrys Myers (1903–1966), examined the bottom of the former lake over several days. However, its results were never published. His notes are still in the Musée de l’Homme in Paris. Since 1980 the valley has been examined again by scientists from the University of Cologne as part of the DFG project "Settlement History of the Eastern Sahara" (B.O.S.) and later the ACACIA (Arid Climate, Adaption and Cultural Innovation in Africa) project.
The finds included ceramic and stone artefacts such as flint tools as well as bone needle fragments and ostrich egg beads. The earliest settlement took place in the area of the basin by hunters and gatherers, where no remains of domesticated animals could be found. Later settlement, around 4,300 to 3,300 BC. BC, took place in the area of the plateau. Finds such as goat and cattle bones showed that pasture farming was also practiced.
getting there
Visiting the valley is occasionally part of a desert excursion to the Gilf Kebir National Park. An all-terrain four-wheel drive vehicle is required to travel through the desert. There are local drivers and vehicles e.g. in the depressions ed-Dāchla and el-Baḥrīya.
The Wādī el-Bacht can be reached via the intermediate stations Samīr Lāmā rock and Abū Ballāṣ.
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 the Gilf Kebir there is a separate safari department in Mū,, which also provides the necessary police escort and their vehicles. The mandatory service is of course chargeable.
Tourist Attractions
The main attraction in Wādī el-Bacht is the (3 large sand dune(23 ° 12 '33 "N.26 ° 16 '37 "E.) and the sediment floor to the west of the dune.
kitchen
You can take a break at the entrance to Wādī el-Bacht. 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.
trips
On the way to Wādī el-Bacht one arrives at 4 22 ° 39 ′ 1 ″ N.26 ° 13 '40 "E to another archaeological find area, in which, among other things, blades and knives made of flint, grinding stones and a street egg surrounded by a modern stone circle can be found. The finds should of course remain on site. However, they show very clearly that the climate at this point around 10,000 years ago differed significantly from today's: here was a savannah landscape.
The Wādī el-Bacht can also be used as a starting point for visits to various other wadis in the east of the Gilf Kebir Plateaus, the cave Maghārat el-Qanṭara, the rock group Eight Bells and des Monument to Prince Kamal ed-Din use.
literature
- : An Expedition to the Gilf Kebir and 'Uweinat, 1938. In:The Geographic Journal (GJ), ISSN1475-4959, Vol.93,4 (1939), Pp. 281-313.
- : Some Archaeological results of the Bagnold-Mond expedition to the Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uweinat, Southern Lybian Desert. In:Journal of Near Eastern Studies (JNES), ISSN0022-2968, Vol.34 (1975), Pp. 31-62.
- : Palaeoclimatic evidence from Early to Mid-Holocene playas in the Gilf Kebir (Southwest Egypt). In:Palaeoecology of Africa, ISSN0168-6208, Vol.18 (1987), Pp. 189-208, PDF.
- : Investigations of playa sedimentation in the Gilf Kebir. In:Kuper, Rudolp (Ed.): Research on the environmental history of the Eastern Sahara. Cologne: Heinrich Barth Inst., 1989, Africa Praehistorica; 2, ISBN 978-3-927688-02-5 , Pp. 183-305.
- : Life on the dune: the Middle Neolithic site of Wadi Bakkt 82/21 in Gilf Kebir (Southwest Egypt). In:Archaeological information: communications on prehistory and early history, ISSN0341-2873, Vol.22,1 (1999), Pp. 115-124, PDF.
- Linstädter, Jörg (Ed.): Wadi Bakht: Landscape archeology of a settlement chamber in Gilf Kebir. Cologne: Heinrich Barth Inst., 2005, Africa Praehistorica; 18th, ISBN 978-3927688254 .
