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Kharga Oasis
 
 
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El-Kharga', also known as Al-Kharijah, (meaning the outer oasis) (Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 ???????) is the southernmost of Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
's five western oases
Oasis

In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough....
. It is located in the Libyan Desert
Libyan Desert

The Libyan Desert is an African desert that is located in the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert and occupies western Egypt, eastern Libya and northwestern Sudan....
, about 200 km to the west of the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 valley, and is some 150 km long. It is located in and is the capital of El Wadi el Gedid governorate. This oasis, which was known as the 'Southern Oasis' to the Ancient Egyptians is the largest of the oases in the Libyan desert of Egypt and "consists of a depression about 160km long and from 20km to 80km wide."

All the oases have always been crossroads of caravan
Camel train

A camel train is a series of camels carrying goods or passengers in a group as part of a regular or semi-regular service between two points....
 routes converging from the barren desert.






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El-Kharga', also known as Al-Kharijah, (meaning the outer oasis) (Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 ???????) is the southernmost of Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
's five western oases
Oasis

In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough....
. It is located in the Libyan Desert
Libyan Desert

The Libyan Desert is an African desert that is located in the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert and occupies western Egypt, eastern Libya and northwestern Sudan....
, about 200 km to the west of the Nile
Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the List of rivers by length in the world.The Nile has two major tributary, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the latter being the source of most of the Nile's water and silt, but the former being the longer of the two....
 valley, and is some 150 km long. It is located in and is the capital of El Wadi el Gedid governorate. This oasis, which was known as the 'Southern Oasis' to the Ancient Egyptians is the largest of the oases in the Libyan desert of Egypt and "consists of a depression about 160km long and from 20km to 80km wide."

All the oases have always been crossroads of caravan
Camel train

A camel train is a series of camels carrying goods or passengers in a group as part of a regular or semi-regular service between two points....
 routes converging from the barren desert. In the case of Kharga, this is made particularly evident by the presence of a chain of fortresses that the Romans built to protect the Darb el-Arbain, the long caravan route running north-south between Middle Egypt and the Sudan. The forts vary for size and function, some being just small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation. Some were installed where earlier settlements already existed, while others were probably founded anew. All of them are made of mud bricks, but some also contain small stone temples with inscribed walls.

Kharga is the most modernized of Egypt's western oases. The main town is a highly functional town with all modern facilities, and virtually nothing left of old architecture. Although framed by the oasis, there is no oasis feeling to it; unlike all other oases in this part of Egypt.

A regular bus service connects the oasis to the other Western oases and to the rest of Egypt. A railway line Kharga - Qena (Nile Valley) - Port Safaga
Port Safaga

Port Safaga, also known as Bur Safaga and Safaga , is a town in Egypt, on the coast of the Red Sea, located 53 km south of Hurghada....
 (Red Sea) has been in service since 1996.

Archaeological sites

The Temple of Hibis is a Saite-era temple founded by Psamtik II which was restored by the Persians
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
 during their occupation of Egypt ca. 500 BC. It is located about 2 kilometres north of modern Kharga, in a palm-grove. There is a second 1st millennium BC temple in the southern most part of the oasis at Dush. An ancient Christian cemetery at Al-Bagawat also functioned at Kharga Oasis from the 3rd to the 7th century AD. It is one of the earliset and best preserved Christian cemeteries in the ancient world.

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