Key Dates
- Oldest artefact found: Palaeolithic Period
- First mention in Egyptian records: Middle Kingdom
Bahariya, which was known in ancient times as ‘the Northern Oasis’, consists of about 1,240 square meters of land irrigated by a multitude of springs. It is about 300 kilometers southwest from Egypt’s capital, Cairo.
Although the oasis is most famous for its ‘Valley of the Golden Mummies’ – a graeco-roman necropolis containing many gilded mummies, discovered in 1996 -, you can also find the remains of a temple dedicated to Alexander the Great and many more tombs are still being discovered in the area.
It is possible that Alexander the Great passed through the Bahariya Oasis when travelling to the Siwa Oasis to consult the oracle.