The White Desert

A protected desert of white chalk formations shaped by wind into mushrooms, towers and arches, in Egypt's Western Desert.

There is nothing else like it in Egypt: a white landscape you sleep inside, under one of the darkest skies in the country.

The chalk was laid down when the area lay under a shallow sea, and wind erosion has since cut the exposed rock into isolated forms. The area was declared a protected national park to limit vehicle damage to the formations.