Kharga Oasis

Lore & Background

Kharga Oasis has been a crossroads of caravan routes for millennia, most notably the Darb El Arba'īn ('Way of Forty'), a trade route connecting Middle Egypt to Sudan. The Romans built a chain of mud-brick fortresses along the route to protect it, ranging from small outposts to large settlements. He lived there for the rest of his life, surviving attacks by desert bandits, and composed the Bazaar of Heracleides, the only one of his writings to survive in full. The oasis contains numerous archaeological sites, including the Temple of Hibis, a Saite-era temple founded by Psamtik II around 500 BC, and the ancient Christian cemetery at El Bagawat, which functioned from the 3rd to the 7th century AD. In 1930, archaeologist Gertrude Caton–Thompson uncovered the palaeolithic history of Kharga.

Reader's Guide

Kharga Oasis holds significance as a historical hub of trans-Saharan trade and a site of cultural and religious convergence. The Darb El Arba'īn caravan route, described by Herodotus as a forty-day journey, linked Nubia and Egypt for centuries, and the Roman fortifications along it attest to the oasis's strategic importance. The exile of Nestorius to Kharga connects the oasis to early Christian theological history, as his writings there became foundational for Nestorian Christianity. Archaeologically, Kharga preserves evidence from prehistoric times through the Pharaonic, Persian, Greco-Roman, and Coptic periods. The Temple of Hibis and the cemetery at El Bagawat are among the best-preserved examples of their kinds.

Did You Know?

• The Darb El Arba'īn caravan route, passing through Kharga, was described by Herodotus as a road 'traversed…in forty days.'
• The Temple of Hibis, located about 2 km north of modern Kharga, was founded by Pharaoh Psamtik II around 500 BC.