A two and a half hour car drive southwest of Cairo takes you through the Faiyum Province of Egypt. Looking out the window, you’ll see and smell some of the most fertile agricultural land in the country. Lake Qarun is visible just out the passenger seat’s window, and the land encompassing it is richly diverse in plant and animal life. Beyond the lake looms Egypt’s Western Desert.

Wadi Al-Hitan is accessible only from within Faiyum’s Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area (WRPA), an important stop for migratory birds on their trip south to sub-Saharan Africa. From the WRPA visitors’ centre, a 4x4 must be taken on a bumpy 30 km ride through the flats and dunes of the Western Desert. Eventually, the great walls of Whale Valley appear from a distance. The Bedouin driver whom I had the pleasure of travelling with insisted on making me some Bedouin tea before we penetrated those walls into the depths of the Valley.

The driver had only brought some twigs and water with him before we left the visitors’ centre. I was at a loss as to how he would make tea for me. Out of the car, he walked to the side of a large wind-eroded pillar of rock and began digging in the sand. First he pulled out the glasses, then a tea kettle, followed by spoon, matches, tea, and sugar. He explained that he has tons of stuff buried in various parts of the desert in case he needs to stop or spend the night for any reason.

After our refreshing noon tea, we continued forward into Wadi Al-Hitan. The Wadi is approximately 12km x 16km and has scattered among its sands some of the most well-preserved whale fossils of the Eocene epoch in the world. The whales of Wadi Al-Hitan represent the transition from living in shallow coastal waters to being ocean-going mammals.

Approximately 400 fossils have been discovered in the Wadi so far, including 19 vertebrate species other than whales (e.g. sea cows, crocodiles, sharks, sawfish, rays, bony fishes, turtles, and sea snake). The area also has a rich invertebrate fauna including molluscs and crabs. Plant fossils include mangroves and sea-grasses.