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Kharga |
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Km southwest of Asyut. Kharga,
The largest of the oases, rose to
prominence as the
penultimate stop on
“The Forty Days Road”, the
infamous slave-trade
route between
Sudan and
Egypt. Today
the modern, sprawling
city of El-Kharga
is capital of
the New Valley governorate,
which covers Kharga, Dakhla and
Farafra oases. The city
lacks
charm
but
its
Antiquities
Museum
displays impressive
archaeological finds from Kharga and
Dakhla. |
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Standing
in palm groves just north of the city,
the well-preserved Temple of
Hibis, built by
Persian emperor
Darius I in the 6th century BC,
is the only sizeable Persian temple
left in Egypt. Also north of
the city is the Necropolis
of al-Bagawat. This Christian
cemetery contains
hundreds of domed,
mud-brick
tombs decorated with Coptic
murals, dating from around the 4th
to 6th centuries AD.
The best-preserved
paintings are in the Chapel of
the Exodus and
portray Moses leading the
Jews out of Egypt, away from
Pharaoh’s pursuing troops. |
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