Bahariya Oasis

The Bahariya Oasis

Oasis of Temples and Golden Mummies

El-Waha el-Bahariya or Bahariya (Arabic: الواحة البحرية) meaning the "northern oasis" is an oasis in Egypt. It is approximately 300 km away from Cairo and the least technologically advanced Oasis in the country. Located in Giza Governorate, it has an art museum and the main agricultural products are guavas, mangos, dates, and olives.

Bahariya consists of many villages of which Bawiti is the largest and the administrative center. Qasr is Bawiti's neighboring/twin village. To the east, about ten kilometers away are the villages of Mandishah and el Zabu. A smaller village called Aguz lies between Bawiti and Mandishah. Harrah, the eastern most village, is a few kilometers east of Mandishah and el Zabu. Hiez is the last village, but it may not always be considered as part of Bahariya because it is so far from the rest of the villages, about fifty kilometers south of Bawiti.

The people of the oasis, or the Wahati people ( meaning "of the oasis" in Arabic), are the descendants of the ancient people who inhabited the oasis, Bedouin tribes from Libiya and the north coast, and other people from the Nile Valley who came to settle in the oasis.

The majority of Wahati people in Bahariya are of the Islamic faith. There are many mosques in Bahariya. The nature of social settings in the oasis is highly influenced by Islam.

Also, traditional music is very important to the Wahati people. Flutes, drums, and the simsimeyya (a harp-like instrument) are played at social gatherings, particularly at weddings. Traditional songs sung in rural style are passed down from generation to generation, and new songs are invented as well. Music from Cairo, the greater Middle East, and other parts of the world are now easily accessible to the people of the oasis.

Agriculture is still an important source of income, though now the iron ore industry close to Bahariya provides jobs for many Wahati people. Recently there has also been an increase in tourism to the oasis because of antiquities (tombs, mummies and other artifacts have been discovered there), and because of the beautiful surrounding deserts. Wahati and foreign guides lead adventure desert tours based out of Bahariya to the surrounding white and black deserts, and sometimes to Siwa or the southern oases. Tourism is a new and important source of income for locals, and it has brought an international presence to the oasis.

There is also the ruin of a temple to Alexander the Great located within the Bahariya Oasis. It is believed by some Egyptologists that the Greek conqueror passed through Bahariya while returning from the oracle of Ammon at Siwa Oasis. Excavations of the Greco-Roman necropolis began in 1996. Approximately thirty-four tombs have been excavated from this area.

Over time, the Bahariya Oasis has had a number of different names. It has been called the Northern Oasis, the Little Oasis, Zeszes, Oassis Parva and the especially during the Christian era, the Oasis of al-Bahnasa, along with various other names.

At one time, the Bahariya Oasis, as well as most of the rest of what is today referred to as the Western (or Libyan) Desert, was the floor of an immense ocean. Yet from about 3000 BC until the present, almost no rainfall graces this part of the world, so groundwater is its life blood.

Remains of stone tools found in the Bahariya oasis evidence the existence of settlements in the area as early as the Paleolithic Period. In fact, we are told that anyone with a trained eye, walking about the oasis, can spot prehistoric stone knives and and axes simply lying upon the surface of the sand.

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