The "Valley of the Whales" is located within the Wadi Al Rayyan Reserve in Fayoum Governorate, about 200 km southwest of Cairo, Egypt. It contains complete skeletons of whales that lived in that region some 40 million years ago.
40 million years ago, water covered the whale valley and was inhabited by marine organisms, as evidenced by a large number of fossils in the region's rocks and sand, some of which are the basis for the evolution of the ancestors of the whale breeds.
Since 2000, more than 1,500 sites have been found, including fossils, in an area of 200 kilometers, said Mohamed Sameh, director of the expert group on the discovery of valley secrets since 2000.
Challenge Tourism
"We have found many fossils, not only horizontally but also vertically, in the mountains and rock formations," Sameh said.
Sand dunes and wind-carved stones over time, in the Whale Valley, are mentioned in the coral reefs of the Red Sea and the sand dunes.
Sameh explains how the excavations found in the valley over the past years have been cleaned and gradually re-configured and displayed in an "open-air museum" where visitors can see fossils in their natural habitat.
"At first it was a challenge to ensure that tourists were not harmed by the site, which could be reached by car until it was banned and declared a 21-kilometer protected area," he said.
Now, vehicles can only reach up to the visitors' area, where there is a ticket office, a coffee shop and bathrooms. At this point, visitors can take a walking tour between the skeletons on the sand and an explanation of the monuments.
To complement the open air museum, the Museum of Excavations and Climate Change has recently opened in the Whale Valley, showing the largest skeleton that has so far been found to be a whale of the Basilusaurus breed of ancient whales.
The skeleton of the 18-meter-long basilusaurus has been reconstructed to the smallest of its tail and can be seen through a glass box inside the museum.
The environmental expert explains that Basilosaurus was found in 2015 "in an area where it was excavated because it was known to include the deposits and rock formations of a certain period and gradually found the bones of the whale down the sand and was reassembled again in a record period of 15 months "He said.
The skeletal remains of marine organisms have also been found within the basilosaurus whale, "which reveals the type of food and wild animals that existed in the area some 40 million years ago, for example, the large number of shark teeth found near Basilusaurus That these predatory fish fed him. "
Model of a natural garden in Egypt
In addition to hosting the Big Whale, the Whale Valley Museum shows the impact of climate change on the ground and the development of marine mammals and other primitive animals inhabiting the valley, with the aim of spreading its unique history and spreading awareness of this phenomenon, which is becoming more present than ever before.
The head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Egypt, Ignatio Artatha, noted that the Valley of the Whales "has a cultural value that can not be counted and therefore the UN has supported and maintained its development since 2005 in cooperation with the Egyptian government."
With the creation of the Whale Valley Museum, the first of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East, the valley is being transformed into a national protected area in accordance with international standards, to attract eco-tourism and contribute to the prosperity of the local economy.
The aim of Wadi Al-Hitan is to be a model of a natural park in Egypt, where authorities and citizens were not concerned or concerned about the care of natural and environmental heritage until recently.
"UNDP supports the Egyptian government in continuing to invest, allocate funds to protected areas and improve its facilities," said Artatha.
Although the first signs of fossils in the Valley of the Whales appeared in the early 20th century, the first skeleton of the whale was not discovered before 1983, which aroused great interest throughout the region, whose secrets are yet to be discovered and protected.
Recently, the Valley has received attention at the national and international levels, especially after the Whale Valley was designated a World Heritage Site and was chosen by UNESCO as the World Heritage of the World's Greatest Whale Skeleton in 2005 and was considered by the Government three years
Wadi Al-Hitan is located within the Wadi Al-Rayyan area, which declared a nature reserve in 1989 covering an area of 1759 km in Fayoum Governorate. It includes the only waterfalls in Egypt and some other natural features that make the area unique.
The nearby Wadi Al Rayan from the Egyptian capital has become a favorite destination for picnics and vacations, especially for local tourists, while the Whale Valley attracts foreign visitors.
The area is therefore of historical importance, and archaeological remains of ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were found, as Fayoum was a crossing between the Nile Valley and the East and the Western oases.
It also has an outstanding environmental value for its richness in plants and animals, as well as more than 170 species of birds, thanks to two large lakes that make this desert region full of life.
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