Co-ordinator's note: Due to the limited field of view in the confluence photos, we would welcome another visit to this Confluence.
15-Mar-2002 -- If you’ve been in Egypt for several years and are 4x4 desert addicted, you can’t miss the chance of spotting one of the unsurveyed degree confluences still left in the country. The choice is pretty tough considering the beauty of the Western Desert. On a one-day trip we decided to aim for 29N 30E.
We left Cairo, driving on the Cairo – Baḥariyya road: after 1.5 hours we headed off-road to south for the Whale Valley where, during the Eocene times, sea covered Egypt as far as Aswān. The area is now part of a protected Park under the umbrella of the Italian Cooperation.
The back bones of the prehistoric whales (Zeuglodon) emerge from the ground as if they’re still sailing in a sea of sand. So far hundreds of skeletons have been found as well as other marine fossils. The Zeuglodon was a meat-eating member of the whale family, 20 m long or more.
On the way, we passed by the so called "Rock of the Germans", the burying place of a German aircraft crew, shot down on 27 September 1942, during a bombing mission to Cairo in WW II. Only in April 1999, the bodies of the Junker 88 bomber crew were recovered and buried in al-`Alamayn cemetery. It was then time to reach the point, 27 km south (in the Wādiy Quṣūr al-`Arab).
The Confluence is located in the middle of a flat sandy valley, not far from a dirt track. The kids were proud and excited to have their picture while passing to "History".