Temple of Deir al Hagar

The Temple of Deir al Hagar is Roman, in honour of the god Amun, his wife Mut and son Khonsu. Restoration was completed recently by the Dakhla Oasis Project. The Visitors' centre has interpretive material by Roberta Shaw of the ROM.

Titus Offering to Gods

This scene from the temple shows the Roman Emperor Titus as Pharaoh, making offering to the divine triad: Amun, Khonsu (with a child's sidelock), and Mut, here conflated with the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet. Above and to the right of the Emperor can be seen the cartouches which give his name as Titus Caesar.

Christian Church

The Dakhla Oasis Project was started over 20 years ago by Tony Mills and is still headed by him. Tony, accompanied by Dr Peter Sheldrake, enthralled us with a tour of the excavations at this site near the town of Mut. This building is the earliest known Christian church in Egypt, from approximately the time of Constantine. At the back is the curved apse, then a nave with columns, and then in the foreground a separate section for women.

Dakhla Project

Tony Mills and his wife Leslie very kindly gave us tea and cake at the Dakhla Oasis Project house, where Project staff who come from many countries live and work.

Dakhla - Kharga Caravan Route

On the way to the next oasis of Kharga, we paused at a place that has been a stop for caravans since Neolithic times. There are outcroppings of very soft sandstone here.

Carving at Caravan Stop

People have carved the sandstone since the earliest time up to the present with the equivalent of 'I was here'. Some carvings are enigmatic; some can be recognised as camels etc. This one says 'Overseer of [the Oasis?] Neshy'. (It doesn't look like the word for oasis but I can't make out what it is.)

Kharga

Dunes can form different shapes. These are crescent dunes. They move only a short distance per year, but when they move over any human construction - even towns - there is no choice but to go elsewhere.

al Labakh Roman Fort

Near the oasis of Kharga is a Roman settlement that was just discovered in 1989. Although it is unexcavated it has been looted and many of the Greco-Roman artifacts in the Kharga Museum come from here.

View from Fort

We climbed up into the fort over the walls; the entrance is buried. From the upper level, one can - somewhat insecurely - look down into rooms in the ground floor of the fort through holes in the debris.

Dakhla Project Codex

The Kharga Museum contains the 2 earliest known books, both discovered by the Dakhla Oasis Project. They are wooden notebooks, one a land-agent's records of tenants' payments over 4 years, and the other a teaching copy of a political treatise by the Greek writer Isocrates.

Old Kingdom Headrest

The Museum contains artifacts from the Neolithic to 20th C Islamic. This Old Kingdom headrest was found in the tomb of an Overseer of the Oasis. On it are carved the list of offerings that should be made to him, e.g. a thousand of bread, a thousand of beer, etc.

Greco-Roman Lady

This little artifact is Greco-Roman in date but it's not clear whether the lady lying on the bed is using a headrest like the previous item.

Greco-Roman Bronze

There were a number of lovely little bronzes, also Greco-Roman in date. I think this might be a leopard.

Turkish Tiles

These tiles are of Turkish design from the 17-18th Century.

Bagawat Necropolis

Near Kharga is the Bagawat Necropolis. It contains early Christian tombs, some still with paintings intact.

Chapel of Exodus

The so-called Chapel of Exodus is one of the earliest tombs in the Necropolis, from the 4th C AD. As the name implies, many of the ceiling paintings have to do with the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, Above these figures is the label 'Pharaoh' in Greek.

Chapel of Peace

The Chapel of Peace (5th-6th C AD) ceiling has the best-preserved paintings. This is Noah and the Ark.