Visit the fossil whale valley in Egypt

The Egyptian desert is home to some of the best preserved wildlife sites in the world, in which Al-Hitan Wadi Valley has a large collection of fossil whale bones.

The Wadi Al-Hitan Valley, also known as the "Whale Valley" in the Western desert, in a remote area, about 150 km southwest of Cairo, currently contains fossil whale bone collection. valuable but now extinct, called the ancient whale division.

These fossils explain one of the biggest mysteries of whale evolution: The appearance of whales as a marine mammal, evolves gradually from land-based animals before.Wadi Al-Hitan is one of the most important locations in the world that has demonstrated this evolutionary period.

This area vividly depicts the form and life of the whales during the transition.No other place in the world offers a large amount, concentration and quality of fossils, as well as the ability to access and set up whale skeletons in a fascinating and well-protected landscape. like in Wadi Al-Hitan.

Fossils in Wadi Al-Hitan dating back 50 million years, suggest the youngest whale, in the final stages of evolution from terrestrial animals to a sea life.It exhibits the typical body shape of modern whales, while retaining certain primitive aspects of the skull and tooth structure as well as the whale's hind legs.

Many of the whale skeletons are in good condition because they are preserved in stone structures.Half of the complete skeleton is found in the valley and in some cases even the whale's stomach is well preserved.Fossils of other animals that appeared early such as sharks, crocodiles, swordfish, rays and turtles were also found at Wadi Al-Hitan.

There is evidence that the Wadi Al-Hitan basin is submerged in water about 40 to 50 million years ago.At that time, the place that was called the Tethys Sea stretched south of the present Mediterranean.The Tethys Sea is assumed to have retreated to the north and over time, the thick deposited sediment is the sandstone and limestone layer that can be seen in the rock form of Al-Hitan Wadi Valley. nowadays.

Geological research has been carried out in this area since the 1800s and the first skeletons were found in 1830, but were never collected due to the accessibility of the difficult area at the time.At first, the skeletons were thought to be of a giant marine reptile, but soon after, in 1902 it was redefined to be the whale's skeleton.

For the next 80 years, the skeletons did not attract relative attention, mainly due to difficulty in accessing the area.But in the 1980s the interest in this place returned and Wadi Al-Hitan is now a UNESCO-recognized site of the world, with 1,000 visitors a year.