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Kharga is clearly different from the image most
people have of an oasis out in the desert. It has
been the most important town in the development
plans for the Western Oases, and has presently a
population of more than 100,000 people. And when the
architecture is totally dominated by concrete blocks
and wide roads, the result is that few tourists use
more time than necessary in town. During my oasis
circuit of 2004 I met several Western travel guides
telling me that they omitted Kharga all together,
because there was nothing to see. That is totally
wrong, Kharga has sights from 3 millenniums.
Kharga means in Arabic "point of departure", in
opposition to Dakhla, "point of entrance", which
lies further to the west.
The population of Kharga are Berbers with roots back
to the time when the oasis was a station on the
famous 40 Days Road between Sudan and Egypt — famous
because of the merchandise; slaves
The Necropolis of Bagawat is a reminder of one of
the most central battles of early Christianity; the
dispute over the nature of Jesus. The 5th century
bishop Nestorius was exiled to Bagawat (as the
village was called) for having claimed that only one
of Jesus' natures had suffered on the cross; the
earthly nature, not the divine.
The large extent of the Necropolis of Bagawat is the
result of the his and his supporters' exile. The
tombs here are believed to indicate that worship of
the dead was continued in a Christian style.
There are 263 mud-brick chapels climbing up a ridge,
the oldest dating back two centuries before
Nestorius, the last dating back to the 7th century.
Most of the interiors of the chapels of Bagawat were
probably without much decorations. And among the
ones which were decorated, the hardship of time has
been cruel. In the finest, the figures have been
defaced by Muslim fanatics decades ago.
... and the walls of the interior is decorated with
biblical scenes. The best of these is the Chapel of
the Exodus, showing scenes from the Jews and Moses
escaping from Egyptian troops.
This temple, named after the town that once existed
here, is unique for Egypt in one respect. It is by
far the largest and finest of temples from Egypt's
200 years under Persian rulers. It was King Darius 1
of the 6th century BCE who ordered it built, and
dedicated to Amon. The temple was adorned by rulers
over the following centuries, but the original style
was always respected.
Today it is not available for closer inspection, as
the main structure is swathed in scaffolding. It is
planned to be relocated to a new location, close to
the Bagawat Necropolis, but this will not be
realized for many more years.
Should you be allowed to enter the area (it is
guarded by tourist police, no tickets are sold) the
kiosk in front of the main entrance (upper photo) is
part of what was an avenue of sphinxes. The interior
(visible through the gates) is noted for its
beautiful capitals.
The Temple of Nadura is about 700 years younger than
the one at Hibis, and belongs to the 2nd century CE
and was built under Roman rulers. Few of Kharga's
sights have been so badly treated by time as this,
and except for the pieces of the wall, there is
little to see here.
It is generally attributed to the god Amon, but the
few remains of wall decorations represents musicians
playing on percussion instruments and sistra. This
indicates that a goddess was worshipped here.
Near the temple, a semi-troglodyte village lies. The
inhabitants built a mud-brick houses, with cellars
largely underground. The purpose of this sort of
structure, found all over North Africa, was to
escape the worst heat in summer time.
About 20 km south of Kharga is the temple Qasr al-Ghweita
built between 250 and 80 BCE. It was dedicated to
the Theban triad Amon, Mut and Khonsu.
According to some guide books, it is in a very
ruinous state. This is fortunately not true. The 10
metre high walls are nearly intact, the houses have
high walls still standing and the temple is about as
complete as any other popular ancient destination in
Egypt. Even large parts of the surrounding village
can be seen.
Several guide books rate the Qasr el-Zayan fortress
as in a very ruinous state. This is not entirely
true, walls stand high, the centre of the temple is
almost intact, and the setting is great. The main
drawback is the original small size; you can cover
it all in 5 minutes.
Ain Umm Dabadib is the sight of Kharga that requires
the most effort to reach, crossing sand dunes. The
former town here owed its wealth to being one of the
last staging post before the caravans headed north.
Its history goes back to Roman times, and remains of
temples from this period still stand. There are also
ruins of churches outside the fortress walls. The
original water cisterns and irrigation systems
helped use the limited water resources as well as
possible. An underground aqueduct system is still
visible. It used to run for 15 km, and some of it
still in use by local farmers. The original Ain Umm
Dabadib was large, perhaps more than 200 km˛ |
