Forty million years ago, this arid corner of the Egyptian desert was a warm, shallow sea, and the creatures that swam in it left their bones in the sand. Wadi Al-Hitan, which means Valley of the Whales, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Fayoum depression, inscribed in 2005 for what it reveals about one of the great stories of evolution: the transition of whales from land animals to fully marine creatures. The sand and rock are littered with the fossilised skeletons of early whales, among them the Basilosaurus, a long, snake-like predator that could grow as long as a bus.
What makes the fossils unforgettable is that some still have tiny hind legs, vestigial limbs that show their ancestors once walked. Skeletons are left where they were found, protected under shelters, and a short trail leads past them, with signs explaining each find. Sea cow fossils, shark teeth and mangrove roots turn up in the same rock, and a small museum has been built nearby to explain it all.
The landscape is pure desert, a land of wind-carved sandstone ridges, yellow dunes and stony plain, with a silence so complete that your own breathing seems loud. The sun is fierce, and the temperature can pass forty degrees in summer. The road in from the Fayoum oasis, past the lakes of Wadi El-Rayan, is long and increasingly empty, and some of the track at the end is sandy or rough, so check the conditions before you go. Sand drifts can cross the road after a wind, and the surface can be broken at the edges.
There is no town nearby, so fuel and water are your own responsibility. Fill up in Fayoum city or Cairo before you set out, carry plenty of drinking water, and tell someone where you are going. A hat, sunglasses and a scarf are essential. Visit early in the day, when the light is soft and the fossils cast long shadows, and you will find the desert has a beauty of its own.