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The Western Desert, a vast
expanse that starts at the western bank of the Nile and continues well
into Libya, is the desert of deserts. Covering a total of 2.8 million
sq km and bordered by Libya in the west, Sudan in the south and the
Mediterranean in the north, it is a world of desolation and beauty --
and one of the few places in Egypt where you can go for days at a time
without seeing a soul. Five isolated but thriving oases dot this
otherwise uninhabited expanse: Kharga, Dakhla, Farafra, Bahariyya, and
to the north-west of these, Siwa.
About 45 km north of Farafra,
the White Desert begins. It is truly white, in clear contrast with the
yellow desert elsewhere. At night, and many of the organized trips out
here include overnight stay out in the desert, it gets a character
reminding of an Arctic landscape.
The rock formations of the desert are often quite dramatic, and you
should not miss out on the weird rock balancing on top of a white
pillar
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