The Valley of the Whales

A few weeks ago I received a kind invitation to join in a trip to Wadi El Hitan, the Valley of the Whales. Who knew that Egypt had something older than pyramids?

Turns out Egypt's got fossils - lots of fossils. While mucking about in the desert just west of Cairo, I've found some nice examples that have appeared in other posts on this blog. Mostly I've found marine fossils - nummulites, bivalves, coral. In Wadi El Hitan, I saw the mother of all marine fossils - fossilized whales.

These aren't just any whales. These fossils are evidence of "transitional" whales, whales that were in the process of moving from the land back into the sea. The existence of transitional fossils is one of the strongest bits of evidence in support of evolutionary theory - you can bet my Scientific Thinking students are going to hear about this trip.

It's a four-hour drive out to Wadi El Hitan, through the Fayoum, an agricultural region just outside Cairo. We were a group of slightly more than 10, masquerading as an Australian church group (makes military checkpoints easier). To my surprise, nearly everyone in the van was an Egyptologist. To my even greater surprise, I was the only person who knew anything about fossils.

I'm not a geologist or a paleontologist by any means, but my field rotations out in Utah and the far North have given me some practical training - I've never formally studied either discipline. I was amused and gratified to see how people segregated themselves during our hike - and the people who were interested in learning ended up coming with me for the few hours we spent in the blazing sun, out in the desert.


I saw fossilized mangroves for the first time. They were super cool - I couldn't figure out what I was looking at at first, but once I got it, everything fell into place. I was standing in the remains of a mangrove marsh, where marine animals like whales, sea cows, crustaceans, and turtles came to feed and, apparently, die. I saw examples of all these fossils - even a fossilized turtle!

I could see how much effort has gone into making the park accessible to guests. In fact, it was almost too accessible - I don't know how they're going to keep the fossils safe from prospectors. At least the 35 km spur from the main "road" in Wadi El Riyan is dreadful, which might help keep out the tour buses.

In the end, for me it was a trip out to the desert, the desert, the harsh desolate sweeping furnace blinding desert that shaped all life around here. And to journey into the desert, just to find the sea - magical.


Ahem. Couldn't resist.