Egypt 's current political border assumes the form of a square that occupies one million square kilometers; 94 percent of this area is hostile desert. The Nile valley splits this territory from north to south for as long as 100km. There are three deserts in Egypt: the Sinai Desert, the Eastern Desert, and the Western Desert . The Western Desert of Egypt is a part of the greater Libyan Desert , which totals
1500000 sq km. The Libyan Desert has the triangular shape of the Indian sub- continent. It constitutes the land west of the River Nile with five major oasis: Kharga, Dakhla, Farafra, Baharyia and Siwa. To the south it is bounded by the El Fasher, and the Sarra triangle and to the west by the Fezzan area. The center of it lies at the majestic Mountains of the Uwienate, Arkenu and Kissu. The heart of it is the Gilf Al Kebir plateau, a huge black shelf , almost the size of Switzerland. The major towns or oasis in the Libyan Desert are Kufra, in present day Libya, Dakhla, Kharga and Siwa.
Scattered remains of Ancient Egypt and Greco-Roman periods provide evidence that the large Egyptian oases Baharya, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga were inhabited since ancient times. In medieval times one of the major African trade routes crossed the eastern Libyan Desert starting from Darfur in Sudan to the Kharga oasis ending in Assiut on the Nile. The caravan route is known as ‘Darb el Arbain'. Each year slave caravans started off with as much as 80 thousand unfortunates on the forty days march and usually no more than 20 000 reached Assiut and the slave markets of the middle east. The mortality rate was similarly high among the camels, and to this day the route of Darb el Arbain is marked with white bones of camels, and occasionally human skeletons.
THE LOST OASIS OF ZERZURA
An anonymous 15th-century Arabic treasure-hunters' guide, Kitab al-Konuz, "The Book of Hidden Pearls", describes Zerzura as a whitewashed city of the desert on whose gate is carved a bird. The treasure seeker is advised to "take with your hand the key in the beak of the bird, then open the door of the city. Enter, and there you will find great riches...."
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