Egypt: a treasure buried more than forty million years ago discovered under the sand
It is related to the Valley of the Whales, one of the most exceptional sites that can be described in the field of excavations; it has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The site, about 150 kilometres from Cairo, more than 90 kilometres from the city of Fayoum, and very close to Al-Rayyan Valley, with an area of ​​400 square kilometres, Wadi El-Hitan is located in a remote desert area in the northwest near the foot of Mount Hell in Egypt.
The mysteries of the “mother of the world”, scholars are still trying to explain.
The Wadi El Hitan site is considered one of the important tourist areas in the desert of Egypt. Still, it is rarely visited by tourists, especially recently, due to the health crisis and the global outbreak of the Corona epidemic and the political and security crisis in neighbouring Libya.
This natural treasure of ancient fossils, which lies under the sands of the desert for more than forty million years, is an Egyptian mystery par excellence; archaeologists are still trying to explain its secrets and secrets buried under these hills.
It was about the skeletons of marine mammals from carnivorous cetaceans weighing more than sixty tons. They were here in this region, gigantic whales, sharks, turtles, as well as other super predators, but vanished from the face of the earth after covering the Sea of ​​Tethys, the ancient sea Which was separating the continents during the different ages of the Earth’s age, covered the entire valley.
Forty million years ago, the sea gradually receded, trapping these animals, while nowadays, their bones emerge little by little from the sand.
Among these fossils, the fossils of an 18-meter long Basilosaurus, and so far, 41 fossils have been discovered over an area of ​​2 square kilometres. According to experts, more than a thousand fossils have been discovered total fossils have yet to be discovered in this desert.
Researches and studies have proven that there is no other place in the world that results in the number and quality of these fossils, but rather concentrating them in one location, namely, this enormous reserve from the “Mother of the World” dessert that surprises researchers, with its hidden world.