Wadi Al-Hitan Whale Valley is the largest and most important site in the world for whale fossils. The fossils belong to a now extinct subspecies of whales, which shows their transition from land animals to marine mammals: they still have hind legs.
The fossils have been found on the surface in a now completely dry desert landscape, which was part of the enormous Tethys Ocean 40 million years ago.
Well — it was necessary for me! There is no reason to avoid this region nowadays. I was with a local driver who seemed to know everybody and we were just waved on at the only checkpoint near Lake Qarun. In the early morning I was picked up at my Cairo hotel with a 4WD jeep. Due to the busy traffic, getting out of and into Cairo is quite time-consuming.
Once outside the city limits we hardly saw anyone anymore. The road has been completely paved up to the last 32km, but occasionally some sand hills have blown over the road and a 4WD or just high clearance is helpful. The final stretch is on a reinforced sand road. My driver found it more fun to drive off-road though.
Some 3 hours after our departure we arrived at the Wadi. This is one of the most modern and best organized attractions in Egypt. All these outbuildings are made in an adobe style so that they fit exactly within the landscape. Entrance costs 40 Egyptian pounds 2 EUR.
Only since has research been done on a large scale and has the importance of these fossils been discovered. In it became a WHS and since then it has been made accessible to visitors.
We started our tour at the Fossil and Climate Change museum, only open since It is small but does its job of explaining the importance of the site well.
The largest whale species found on site is the now extinct Basilosaurus isis, which still had small hind legs but they were not strong enough to stand on anymore. In the museum they do have a full skeleton of this species. You can also see fossilized plants and shells. There is even a fossil of a watermelon! You can only enter the fossil area on foot, via a hiking trail of about 2km length. Fortunately, it was a bit windy the day that I visited - walking through the sand in the burning sun otherwise would be quite a test.
My guide went along, but had little added value on this trip. From the main trail there are numbered signs pointing to side paths where you can see a fossil or something else of interest.
Although there is also a complete skeleton, mainly spines from the whale fossils can be seen. The fossils lie in the open air - we wondered what happens to them when there is a sandstorm or when it rains if it ever rains here. Probably they are somehow fastened to the soil at the bottom. When this area was under water and the whales lived here, this valley was a coastal area with mangroves. You can see these plants as well fossilized in the landscape.
Further down the valley, the number of whale fossils decreases but the landscape becomes more and more beautiful. There are strangely eroded hills, like giant mushrooms. We walked almost the entire path, except for the last hill with a mysterious sign 'Exit' - you really have to return the same way though as you came.
From Cairo this is a full day trip: I left at and was back at the hotel at 6 o'clock. The visit to the valley itself took about 2 hours. The landscape is beautiful and the story behind the whale fossil findings I found intriguing.
This side trip is also a nice change from busy Cairo and the many monuments from Egyptian antiquity. Especially from the western side this huge lake suddenly appears as an oasis in the desert. Write a review. I'm an amateur paleontologist and fossil collector, so visiting Wadi Al-Hitan was already in my plan besides seeing the ancient civilization. Since collecting Natural WHS is harder than the cultural one, I was determined to put this on my list as it's not too far from Cairo.
But it wasn't easy at all. Nineteen other species of invertebrates are known: three species of early sirenian sea cow , one partial skeleton of the primitive proboscidian Moeritherium , early mammals, sharks, crocodiles, three kinds of sawfish, rays, cartilaginous and bony fishes, several kinds of turtles, including a sea turtle and a sea snake.
There is a rich invertebrate fauna with thousands of remains, large and small, which, with the remains of plants, permit reconstruction of the ecology and habitat of the animals. Wadi Al-Hitan is of international value as it represents an unequalled record of Middle to Late Eocene life and geological evolution. It is the only place in the world where the skeletons of families of archaic whales can be seen in their original geological and geographic setting of the shallow nutrient-rich bay of an early sea of some 40 million years ago.
No other place in the world yields archaic whale fossils of such quality in such abundance, concentration and good preservation. Many of the sirenians and cetaceans are preserved as virtually complete articulated skeletons which, uniquely, preserve reduced hind limbs, making them intermediate between earlier land mammals and later modern whales.
The nominated area contains most of the key interrelated elements in their natural relationships, which provide a robust foundation for reconstructing the mosaic of paleoenvironments and palaeogeography of a southern coastal realm of the Late Eocene Tethyan Ocean, enabling interpretation of how animals then lived and how they were related to each other. The fossils are of iconic value for the study of evolutionary transition and render the site vitally important to palaeontologists.
Wadi Al-Hitan itself was probably always rather abandoned in historical times. However, the ancient Lake Moeris in the nearby Faiyum depression was large and the climate 8,, years ago was wetter, so the abundant wildlife and surrounding fertile soils, attracted continuous human habitation to the Faiyum area from Neolithic times to the present.
It was also a major crossroad used for many centuries by travellers between the Nile Valley and the oases of the Western Desert. Remains of human settlements from the early Egyptian, Greek and Roman eras are found there.
No-one lives on the site, but Wadi el-Rayan 40km away has a few thousand settled and temporary farmers and fishermen. Brochures, a video and a website have been produced for the site which is visited by some , people a year.
However at first only about 1, visitors a year drove on to Wadi Al-Hitan as the 4WD track is unpaved, crosses treacherous sands and the site itself is extremely desert.
Because the area has had to be protected, the management plan for the Wadi el-Rayan Protected Area is applied to Wadi Al-Hitan restricting visitors to prearranged guided tours along a prescribed trail either on foot or by camel.
The first fossil whale was found in the Faiyum oasis by Schweinfurth in An exhibition of fossils from Faiyum in the new Egyptian Geological Museum in caught worldwide attention.
This find was followed by Andrews of the Natural History Museum, London who in renamed it Basilosaurus isis on the assumption that it was a dinosaur, and named a second find Dorudon atrox. Two brief unpublished visits by the University of California and Yale University followed in mid century. But between and P. Gingerich from the University of Michigan discovered hundreds of fossils, among them, in , the last whales found with functioning feet, 10 million years after their evolution from terrestrial to marine existence.
A dense aggregation of skeletons was found including many infant skeletons. Field work was to resume in and the discovery recently made to the north of the adjacent similar property is under the same management as Wadi Al-Hitan. As such, there is a strong case for the property to be extended to include it.
This is an off-site occurrence of the Eocene-Oligocene Gebel Qatrani formation north of Lake Qarun within the Lake Qarun Protected Area which has revealed the fossils of ancestral elephants, a two-horned mammal Arsinotherium , and eight primate lineages, including two genera of the earliest known hominoids Redfern, They are evidence of many millions of years of coastal life in the shallow nutrient-rich bay of an early sea.
The fossils of different periods and levels are valuable clues to its past geologic and geomorphic processes, its Eocene vertebrate and invertebrate life and the evolution of modern cetaceans 40 million years ago. Specimens from Wadi Al-Hitan are currently displayed in several institutions: 56 specimens, including the type specimens, are preserved in the Cairo Geological Museum; others are held in London, Berlin, Stuttgart and the University of Michigan where there is a complete Dorudon atrox skeletal mount on exhibit.
This provides for regulated scientific exploration and specimen collection, curation by the Egyptian Geological Museum and the University of Michigan and training of Egyptian staff. The Management Plan for the WRPA was applied to Wadi Al-Hitan, restricting visitors to the site to guided tours along a marked trail and proscribing many activities. These include the destruction of geological formations, discharging pollutants, hunting and littering. The Wadi Al-Hitan site is patrolled daily to catch illegal visitors and twice a week a team monitors the condition of the fossils, photographing them and when necessary repairing damage.
Motorcycle patrols and camel supply transport are proposed. A field outpost is to be sited in excavated caves for protection from the extreme conditions. An open-air museum, two camping sites, camel tours and a bedouin-style ecolodge supplied by private ecotourist companies are all projected, and a sustainable source of funds will be sought. The exposed skeletons are fragile and vulnerable which makes it imperative that it should not be disturbed. They are exposed to wind erosion and burying by wind-carried sand, although fresh fossils are also exposed by the same process.
They are more at danger from collectors who steal bones and fossil wood as souvenirs and saleable curiosities, As tourism increases visitors will require constant surveillance and monitoring: damage was done in by 4WDs being driven over the skeletons by privileged foreigners.
Source: unesco. The globally important fossils of Wadi Al-Hitan Whale Valley , in the Western Desert of Egypt, provide dramatic evidence of one of the iconic stories of evolution: the emergence of whales as ocean-going mammals, from their previous life as land-based animals. The World Heritage property is a strictly protected zone, set within the wider landscape of the attractive Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area.
It is an exceptional global reference site because of the number, concentration, quality and accessibility of the evidence of the earliest whales, often in the form of complete skeletons, and the record of the environment that they lived in. Criterion viii : Wadi Al-Hitan is the most important site in the world to demonstrate one of the iconic changes that make up the record of life on Earth: the evolution of the whales.
It portrays vividly their form and mode of life during their transition from land animals to a marine existence. It exceeds the values of other comparable sites in terms of the number, concentration and quality of its fossils, and their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. Wadi Al Hitan is of sufficient size to include the main exposures of rocks where the whale fossils are found, as well as associated geological features of interest.
In addition, a wider part of the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area is included in the property, including the immediate landscape surrounding the fossil sites, areas of scenic interest, and areas which provide visitor access and facilities. A buffer zone has been identified to protect the property from wider threats, including from visitation and traffic, and could be extended further in order to provide additional safeguards and to facilitate management.
The law mentions geological features as specific elements receiving protection. It is managed under national regulatory law on Nature Protectorates. An effective management system is in place for the property, as an integrated part of the implementation of the Management Plan for the WRPA.
No vehicle access is permitted, whilst zones provide for well-controlled eco-tourism in part of the property, whilst maintaining areas for research and studies. Effective and well designed visitor facilities are provided to present the property, guide visitors to key localities via footpaths, prevent vehicular traffic in the property and provide for limited on-site accommodation. There is a planning team responsible for day-to-day management of the property, and the preparation of annual plans and monitoring and reporting on the effectiveness of its management.
Maintenance of an effective and well-resourced management plan, supported by adequate staff, finance and resources is an essential long term requirement. Amongst the key management issues are the protection, conservation and encouragement of well-managed research in relation to the fossil remains and the associated geological values, to international standards of best practice.
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