Gilf Kebir

Gilf Kebir (جلف كبير) (var. Gilf al-Kebir, Jilf al Kabir, Gilf Kebir Plateau) is a plateau in the New Valley Governorate of the remote southwest corner of Egypt, and southeast Libya. Its name translates as "the Great Barrier". This 7,770 km2 (3,000 sq mi) sandstone plateau, roughly the size of Puerto Rico, rises 300 m (980 ft) from the Libyan Desert floor. It is the true heart of the Gilf Kebir National Park.

The name Gilf Kebir was given to the plateau by Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein in 1925, as it had no local name. It is known for its rugged beauty, remoteness, geological interest, and the dramatic cliff paintings-pictograph and rock carvings-petroglyph which depict an earlier era of abundant animal life and human habitation.

Geography and climate

The Uweinat mountain range at the very south of the plateau extends from Egypt into Libya and Sudan.

The plateau is crisscrossed by Wadis (dry, seasonal riverbeds). These include:

Wadi Hamra وادي حمرا

Wadi Akhdar وادى الاخضر

Wadi Bakht وادى بخت

Wadi Dayiq وادى الضيق

Wadi Firaq وادى فراق

Wadi Gazayir وادى الجزائر

Wadi Maftuh وادى مفتوح

Wadi Mashi وادى ماشى

Wadi Sura وادي صورة

Wadi Wassa وادى واسع

Wadi Abd el-Malik وادي عبد المالك

Gilf Kebir Plateau lies in the heart of the eastern part of the vast Sahara Desert, and thus experiences an extremely hyper-arid climate. The area receives very little rainfall, with annual average precipitation hardly reaching 0.1 mm, and has a geological aridity index/dryness ratio of over 200, meaning that solar energy received at the ground evaporates more than 200 times the amount of precipitation received.

The Gilf Kebir is known for its prehistoric Neolithic petroglyphs

Rock engravings in the upper part of wadi Hamra.

Magharet el Kantara in the southern Gilf Kebir contains only one known rock art site, a cave discovered by Shaw & party in 1936.

Wadi Sura in the southwestern Gilf Kebir: the "Cave of Swimmers", discovered by the Hungarian Count László Almásy (The English Patient), plus many other paintings nearby.

In January 2003, Zerzura Expeditions and Jacopo Foggini independently discovered a major new rock art site in the Western Gilf Kebir (Foggini-Mestekawi Cave).

The North-western half of the Gilf Kebir aside from Wadi Sura has only a few scattered engravings, of an apparently very ancient age.

Karkur Talh and Karkur Murr: major eastern valleys of the Uweinat contain one of the richest concentrations of rock art in the whole Sahara.

Western Uweinat: Shelters under the huge granite boulders in the western Uweinat contain numerous paintings, including the famous sites of Ain Doua.

Jebel Arkenu, Jebel Kissu & Yerguehda Hill, the lesser granite massifs around Uweinat have many smaller sites.

Saharan rock art has been found to resemble the art of Nile valleys. The Saharan area was wetter until mid-Holocene or about 4000 BC, when the monsoon retreated southwards, forcing humans to migrate.