Dakhla Oasis or Dakhleh Oasis (Egyptian Arabic: , , "the inner oases"), is one of the seven oases of Egypt's Western Desert. Dakhla Oasis lies in the New Valley Governorate, 350 km (220 mi.) from the Nile and between the oases of Farafra and Kharga. It measures approximately 80 km (50 mi) from east to west and 25 km (16 mi) from north to south. At the time the tablets were made, Dakhla was located far from centers of papyrus production. These tablets record inventories, name-lists, accounts, and approximately fifty letters.

Deir el-Hagar

Deir el-Hagar (Egyptian Arabic: 'Monastery of Stone', , Sioua) is a Roman sandstone temple on the western edge of Dakhla Oasis, about 10 km from Qasr ad-Dakhla. The Temple was erected during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, and decorated during the time of Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The temple was dedicated to the Theban triad, composed of Amun-Ra, Mut and Khonsu, as well as to Seth, the main deity of the region.

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File:DeirHagarGateway2.jpg|Gateway of the temple

File:Deir el-Haggar, Entrance Relief (XI) (4566138968).jpg|Roman emperor as pharaoh making offerings to Isis and Osiris

File:DeirHagarSarapammon.jpg|Graffiti of Sarapammon with ram and baboon

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Qasr ad-Dakhla

The fortified Islamic town of Qasr ad-Dakhla or el-Qasr (Arabic: قصر الداخلة, the Fortress) was built in the 12th century on the remains of a Roman fort in the NW of the Dakhla Oasis by the Ayyubid kings. Many of the up to four-storey mud brick Ottoman and Mamluk buildings contain blocks of stone with hieroglyphics from the ancient Thoth temple of the nearby site of Amheida. The three-storey, 21-meter-high minaret is dated 924 CE.

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File:El-Qasr (XII).jpg|General view of Qasr el-Dakhla

File:Flickr - Argenberg - Al-Qasr city, Dakhla oasis (2007-05-219).jpg|Streets of Al-Qasr

File:Bahariyya Oasis, Egypt.jpg|Abuyyid minaret

File:DakhlaQasrLintel.jpg|Lintel in Qasr el-Dakhla

File:DakhlaQasrHieroglyphs.jpg|Hieroglyphic inscriptions

File:DakhlaQasrNasrMosqueInside.jpg|Inside the Nasr el-Din mosque

File:House in Al-Qasr, Egypt.jpg|Clay house

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After 1800

Sir Archibald Edmonstone visited Dakhla oasis in the year 1819.

Some of the tombs are completely large containing several burial chambers, while one tomb has a roof built in the shape of a pyramid and some of them with vaulted roofs.

Geography

Dakhla Oasis consists of several communities, along a string of sub-oases. The main settlements are Mut (more fully Mut el-Kharab and anciently called Mothis), El-Masara, Al-Qasr, together with several smaller villages.

Climate

Dakhla Oasis has a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh), typical of much of Egypt.

Dakhleh Oasis Project

The Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP) is a long-term study project of the Dakhleh Oasis and the surrounding palaeo-oasis, initiated in 1978 when the Royal Ontario Museum and the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities were awarded a joint concession for part of the Oasis. In 1979, the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient History at Monash University began to cooperate in the project.

The DOP studies the interaction between environmental changes and human activity in the Dakhleh Oasis. The excavations at Ismant el-Kharab (ancient Kellis), Mut el-Kharab (ancient Mothis), Deir Abu Metta and Muzawwaqa were undertaken with the cooperation of Monash University. The DOP has also excavated at 'Ain el-Gazzareen, El Qasr el-Dakhil, Deir el Hagar and Ain Birbiyeh.

In 1985, the Petroglyph Unit of the Dakhleh Oasis Project was created by Lech Krzyżaniak, then director of the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw. At first, the studies of the petroglyphs focused on the eastern part of the oasis, where rock carvings had been documented by archaeologists already before World War II (Herbert Winlock and Hans Alexander Winkler). The expedition created systematic documentation of both the depictions mentioned earlier in the literature and the newly discovered ones. Aerial photographs proved helpful in this work. Then, under the direction of Michał Kobusiewicz from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, attention was turned to the area of the Central Oasis where 270 new petroglyph sites were recorded. The current director of The Petroglyph Unit, Paweł Polkowski from the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, extended the area of prospection and created a map showing the distribution of more than 1,300 panels with rock art. The depictions date from the Prehistory to the Islamic period and include images of animals and people (often pregnant women), hieroglyphs, and Beduin markings. Amheida (New York University) and Bir el-Shaghala (Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities).

Dakhleh Trust

The Dakhleh Trust was formed in 1999 and is a registered charity in Britain. Its declared aim is to advance understanding of the history of the environment and cultural evolution throughout the Quaternary period in the eastern Sahara, and particularly in the Dakhla Oasis. To this end, the present trustees have committed themselves to supporting the DOP.

References

Further reading

Published works

  • Boozer, A. "Archaeology on Egypt's Edge: Archaeological Research in the Dakhleh Oasis, 1819-1977" in Ancient West & East: 12: 117–156. 2013.
  • Fakhry, A. The Oases of Egypt, I : Siwa Oasis, Le Caire, Amer. Univ. in Cairo Press.
  • Fakhry, A. The Oases of Egypt, II: Bahriyah and Farafra Oases, Le Caire, Univ. in Cairo Press, c. 2003.
  • Giddy, L. Egyptian Oases: Bahariya, Dakhla, Farafra and Kharga during Pharaonic Times, Warminster, Aris & Philips, 1987.
  • Jackson, R. At Empire's Edge: Exploring Rome's Egyptian Frontier, New Haven et Londres, Yale University Press, 2002.
  • Kaper, Olaf E., Epigraphic Evidence from the Dakhleh Oasis in the Libyan Period PDF in THE LIBYAN PERIOD IN EGYPT HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES INTO THE 21TH – 24TH DYNASTIES: PROCEEDINGS OF A CONFERENCE AT LEIDEN UNIVERSITY, 25-27 OCTOBER 2007, G.P.F. BROEKMAN, R.J. DEMARÉE and O.E. KAPER (editors), Leiden 2009, pp.149-159 PDF
  • Thurston, H. Island of the Blessed : the Secrets of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis, Toronto, Doubleday, 2003.
  • Vivian, C. The Western Desert of Egypt: an explorer's handbook, AUC Press, le Caire, 2000.
  • Wagner, G. Les oasis d'Égypte à l'époque grecque, romaine et byzantine, d'après les documents grecs, Le Caire, Recherches de papyrologie et d'épigraphie grecques, 1987.
  • IFAO Page for Balat Site Excavations
  • Dakhla in the Old Kingdom
  • Travel guide
  • Dākhla on Wikivoyage