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The Valley of the Whalesby Lara Iskander
There is another even more ancient Egypt that is known to very few people. The Fayoum area contains some of the best preserved paleontological sites in the world one of which is Wadi Hitan or the Valley of Whales. This is a remote valley in the Western Desert of Egypt. At 150 kilometers southwest of Cairo, the valley is located near the Al-Katrani mountain range, a well known and valuable geological site for its rare vertebrate fossils and mega-fossils.
The Valley of Whales, also known as Zeuglodon Valley, lies within the boundaries of the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area (WRPA), about eighty kilometers from Fayoum City. WRPA was created in 1989, and lies in the vicinity of a series of natural hot springs and two lakes created in the 1970s from excess agricultural water channeled from the nearby Lake Karun (Qarun).
Today, the area is occupied by numerous excavation sites of whales, sharks, petrified mangrove bushes, a wide variety of fossil plants and various other remains of the prehistoric sea. One is bound to come across petrified corals, shark teeth and fossil remains scattered all over the valley. The landscapes are just as impressive and amazing. The valley lies in the midst of an attractive and distinctive desert landscape of wind-eroded rock platforms surrounded by sand dunes and hills. Hundreds of buried fossil skeletons that have been lying trapped for millennia in sandstone formations of the ancient sea are being exposed by the wind as well as the archaeological works. The revealed fossils are mainly those of ancient whales from the earliest types which are now extinct; the Zeuglodon or Basilosaurus whale. Nevertheless, the precise reason so many ancient whales fossils of this type are located there is yet unclear. This unique valley is also characteristic for its varied species of desert plants, numerous types of reptiles, migrant birds, and wild mammals such as the white deer, the Egyptian deer, fennec fox, red fox and many others.
However, the worldwide recognized value of the site stems from the abundance and exceptional concentration of skeletons, the quality of its fossils, and their natural preserved setting in an attractive and protected landscape. The ancient and rich collection of whale fossils in Wadi Hitan demonstrates an important element and proof of the evolution of the whales from land animals to a marine existence. Hundreds of whale fossils have been exposed over the years. The site contains over 390 known whale skeletons of five different varieties.
Geological studies have been carried out in the area since the 1800's. The first skeletons of Basilosaurus were found around 1830 but were never collected due to the difficult accessibility to the site at that time. At first, it was thought to be a huge marine reptile, and hence was called the Basilosaurus meaning ‘King Lizard’. It was only later on that the species were identified as whales which at a certain point in history, moved easily between land and sea. The whale site and fossils at Wadi Hitan clearly portray the forms and modes of life during that transitional phase representing one of the major stories of mammal evolution: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. In 1989, a research team led by D. Gingerich had found that the whales retained useless legs, feet, and toes representing rear legs that were later lost in the evolution cycle. Many of the whale skeletons are in good condition as they have been well preserved in the rock formations. Semi-complete skeletons are found in the valley in-situ and in some cases, even stomach contents are sometimes preserved.
A virtual skeleton of the Basilosaurus whale
The field work and studies carried out on whales of Wadi Hitan is sponsored by the National Geographic Society and by the University of Michigan. When taken as a whole, the entire Fayoum area hosts some of the most exceptional geological sites in the world which are certain to continue revealing important scientific discoveries and as a consequence, turning some of its sites to open-air geological museum. The WRPA covering a total area of 1,759 square km along with the South of Sinai enjoy some of the highest number of visitors of any protected area in Egypt; around 150,000 people visit it each year. It is evident that the touristic value of Wadi Hitan is bound to increase as an open air museum while more effort should be directed in attempt to avoid any threat to the survival of the site.
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