Faiyum
An oasis depression ninety minutes from Cairo that most visitors overlook. Wadi El-Hitan holds prehistoric whale fossils from 40 million years ago. Wadi El-Rayan has freshwater falls at the edge of the Sahara.
Beyond Cairo's Reach
Faiyum is not a city in the usual sense. It is an oasis depression 90 kilometers west of the Nile, where agriculture, lakes, and desert sit side by side. Wadi El-Hitan, the Valley of the Whales, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the fossilized remains of ancient whales from 40 million years ago, when this part of the Sahara was a shallow sea. The open-air site takes about an hour to walk. Wadi El-Rayan has two connected desert lakes and a small waterfall where they drain into each other, one of very few natural waterfalls in Egypt. The pottery village of Tunis sits above Lake Qarun and draws artists from Cairo. Faiyum works well as a day trip or an overnight.
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