VALLEY OF AGABAT( WADI AGABAT)

Agabat, known as the ‘Beautiful Valley’, is located in the Western Desert region of Egypt and generally is the stop off point for tourists on their way to Bahariya and the White/ Black Deserts. About a 4 hour 40 minute drive from Cairo and over 6 hours from Alexandria, the route will take you from the busy Cities into the peaceful and sparse lands into the desert regions with stunning views en route. There are no settlements at all in Agabat as the land is barren and extreme temperatures in the summer months would make living extremely harsh. Whilst Agabat is smaller and considered a small valley in comparison to the Bahariya area, it is nonetheless stunning in it’s own unique way. With beautiful mountain formations and many white cliff faces similar to the White Desert, it also immerses into the sand dunes linked alongside the Sahara Desert and unusual yellow limestone rocks. The sides of the mountains here are higher and steeper than the route leading to Bahariya and Farafra. Centuries ago, there was a riverbed at the lowest point of the Agabat Valley which nature strangely placed in an unusual position allowing water to be raised up from it.

Valley of Agabat

When the majority of people hear the word “desert” (especially the Sahara desert), all sand dunes comes to mind. This is not so. Only 20% of a desert is made up of dunes as we discovered. The White Desert floor was crusty with white areas of dried saline while other sections had closely packed pebbles and rocks that looked almost like a pavement. Navigating off-road again for about 9km/6 miles in the soft sand and powdered chalk, Miguel told us to close our eyes and not open them again until he told us. When he said, “You can look now,” we were at the top of a dune looking down into the Valley of Agabat. Agabat means “the Difficult” in Arabic and Dan and I stood there stunned by what lay before us. A vast panorama of dunes at the base of formations, golden sand and crunchy saline on the desert floor. Softly rounded white cliffs and yellow limestone rocks eroded by desert winds…. Spectacular and breathtaking…

Not all the vehicles can get down into the Valley of Agabat or even out of it but Miguel didn’t blink an eye. He drove the 4×4 to the bottom, parked in the shade of a towering cliff, and waited for us to run down the incline. We sat quietly for quite a while in the shade just taking in the beauty and landscapes that were dramatically different in each direction. Look one way and everything was white with small hills.