Gilf Kebir National Park (GKNP) (Arabic: محمية الجلف الكبير) is a national park located in the remote and hyper-arid New Valley Governorate, Egypt. Established in 2007, it has a surface area of 48533 km2, equal to about 5% of Egypt’s territory. Gilf Kebir National Park is delimited to the west by Libya and the south by Sudan. There are no human settlements or facilities inside the Gilf Kebir Protectorate.
Geography of Gilf Kebir National Park
The Uweinat mountain range at the very south of the plateau extends from Egypt into Libya and Sudan.
Location
Gilf Kebir (جلف كبير) (var. Gilf al-Kebir, Jilf al Kabir, Gilf Kebir Plateau) is a plateau in the New Valley Governorate of the remote southwest corner of Egypt and southeast Libya. Its name translates as “the Great Barrier”. This 7,770 km2 (3,000 sq mi) sandstone plateau, roughly the size of Puerto Rico, rises 300 m (980 ft) from the Libyan Desert floor. It is the true heart of the Gilf Kebir National Park.
Etymology
The name Gilf Kebir was given to the plateau by Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein in 1925, as it had no local representation. It is known for its rugged beauty, remoteness, geological interest, and dramatic cliff paintings-pictographs and rock carvings- petroglyphs- depicting an earlier era of abundant animal life and human habitation.
Wadis of Gilf Kebir National Park
The plateau is crisscrossed by Wadis (dry, seasonal riverbeds). These wadis include:
- Wadi Hamra وادي حمرا
- Wadi Akhdar وادى الاخضر
- Wadi Bakht وادى بخت
- Wadi Dayiq وادى الضيق
- Wadi Firaq وادى فراق
- Wadi Gazayir وادى الجزائر
- Wadi Maftuh وادى مفتوح
- Wadi Mashi وادى ماشى
- Wadi Sura وادي صورة
- Wadi Wassa وادى واسع
- Wadi Abd el-Malik وادي عبد المالك
Climate
Gilf Kebir Plateau lies in the heart of the eastern part of the vast Sahara Desert and, thus, gets some of the most extreme climates on Earth. This is the driest place on the planet, not only because the area is rainless (the annual average rainfall amount hardly reaches 0.1 mm) but also because the geological aridity index/dryness ratio is over 200, which means that the solar energy received at the ground evaporates 200 times the amount of precipitation received. Rainfall may fall every twenty years in Gilf Kebir.
Ecosystems and cultural values
Gilf Kebir National Park consists of three different ecosystems: the southern ranges of the Great Sand Sea, including the Silica glass area, the proper Gilf Kebir plateau and the Egyptian portion of the Gabal El Uweinat massif.
The Great Sand Sea is a large complex of dunes extending from the Siwa Oasis in the north to the Gilf Kebir in the south. Its southwestern part is covered by the Silica Glass area, which is scattered with fragments of pure glass formed about 30 million years ago due to a meteorite or comet explosion.
The Gilf Kebir is a plateau furrowed by immense north-trending wadis. The area was settled by a population already at the beginning of the Neolithic area some 9000 years ago during the humid African period, leaving splendid rock paintings and engravings of uncertain age in the wadi Hamra and the caves of Beasts, Swimmers, Archers and Magharet el Kantara on its southern foothills.
The Gebel Uweinat, situated about 150 km south of the Gilf Kebir and mostly in Sudanese and Libyan territories, is another massif important for its abundant rock art.
The remains of the Long Range Desert Group WWII camps, such as trucks and an airfield at the Eight Bells, spot evidence of the presence of humans in the 20th century CE.
History
The Gilf Kebir is known for its prehistoric Neolithic petroglyphs:
- Rock engravings in the upper part of Wadi Hamra.
- Magharet el Kantara in the southern Gilf Kebir contains only one known rock art site, a cave discovered by Shaw & party in 1936.
- Wadi Sura in the southwestern Gilf Kebir: the “Cave of Swimmers”, discovered by the Hungarian Count László Almásy (The English Patient), plus many other paintings nearby.
- In January 2003, Zerzura Expeditions and Jacopo Foggini independently discovered a significant new rock art site in the Western Gilf Kebir (Foggini-Mestekawi Cave).
- Aside from Wadi Sura, the North-western half of the Gilf Kebir has only a few scattered engravings of a very ancient age.
- Karkur Talh and Karkur Murr: major eastern valleys of the Uweinat contain one of the richest concentrations of rock art in the whole Sahara.
- Western Uweinat: Shelters under the huge granite boulders in the western Uweinat contain numerous paintings, including the famous sites of Ain Doua.
- Jebel Arkenu, Jebel Kissu & Yerguehda Hill, the lesser granite massifs around Uweinat, have many smaller sites.
The Saharan area was wetter until the mid-Holocene, or about 4000 BC, when the monsoon retreated southwards, forcing humans to migrate. Some retreated eastward to the Nile valley, taking their beliefs and influencing Egyptian art. Saharan rock art has been found to resemble the art of the Nile valleys.
20th-century exploration
European explorers first saw the hills of the Gilf Kebir from a distance by European explorers in 1910 – with W. J. Harding-King in 1910 and 1911 and Dr Ball and Lieutenant Moore in 1918. The high southern part of the plateau was sighted for the first time by Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein in 1925, and on another expedition, in the following year, he fixed the eastern escarpment of the plateau and first realised the proper size of the plateau. In 1930, an expedition headed by Ralph Alger Bagnold followed the same route. In the winter of 1930-1, P. A. Clayton surveyed some areas.
The western side of the Gilf Kebir was explored in 1932 by the Clayton-Almásy Expedition, headed by Sir Robert East Clayton and Count László E. Almásy and accompanied by Patrick A. Clayton, Squadron Leader H. W. G. J. Penderel, three Arabian car drivers and a cook. The expedition explored the area by Gypsy Moth plane, car, and foot.
1933 Patrick Clayton and Ladislaus Almasy discovered the Aqaba-Pass, the only way up Gilf Kebir from the southern plains, i.e. from Wadi Sura.
WWII archaeology
The plateau was the site for various British logistical operations during the Second World War. Due to the arid conditions and lack of population, the remains of this occupation are often found intact. A large airbase, including giant navigation arrows in army petrol cans, can still be seen at the Eight Bells southeast of Gilf Kebir.
It was also the site of the recent discovery of a bag lost in the Second World War by a dispatch rider (Alec Ross) of the Long Range Desert Group, part of the British Army. This bag contained the rider’s letters and photographs and had been well preserved.
Literary setting
The Gilf Kebir is the setting for part of Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient. It also plays an essential role in Paul Sussman’s The Hidden Oasis.
Flora and fauna
Gilf Kebir National Park contains significant desert-adapted flora (trees: Acacia raddiana, shrubs: Zilla Spinosa, Fagonia thebaica) and fauna (Barbary Sheep).
