Adventures down under and other short stories..: Roman Skulls and Meteorites

(Naser looking very Siwan)

My Intention was to post this a week ago but as you are aware there has been a small scuffle in Egypt whereby 2 million people took to the streets in an attempt to shoo away a right meany of a dictator named Hosni Mubarak. We are still awaiting the outcome. Internet and all communication has been down for the past week so I have taken this opportunity to upload this post before it's either cut off again, or we have another powercut..which is likely. A revolution blog will follow in which I will introduce to you my new little friend Revo the Revolution Rabbit whom I purchased two days ago.

25/01/2011

Anyhow, the main reason for this blog is to tell you all about my recent little voyage into the desert. I was recently fortunate enough to tag along on a two camping day trip with a couple of guests. I was to accompany the avid bird-watcher and American Poet Liz and Aussie teacher Keston. Our driver Naser would be our guide. As we left the town behind us we began making our way into the depths of the unknown. We circled the salt lake and left all traces of civilisation behind us, Liz's face pressed up against the window, her illustrated book of Egyptian birds clasped eagerly in her hands. We drove around the the huge rocky structures and passed a large group of flamingos which nearly make Liz wet herself.

Suddenly all the palm trees disappeared and we entered the huge baron expanse which consisted of the odd rock formation and deathly looking shurb. Naser dropped us off to let us go for a wander. There are still the tombs cut out of the rocks where mummies remained untouched for centuries. Over the years they have all been found/stolen and sold to various collectors or museums. I have been told the wealth of certain individuals in Siwa and the surrounding areas have been the result of the unearthing of such artifacts.

As we surveyed the area, Keston noticed three rather large white eggs sitting at the entrance to one of the tombs. It turns out they were Roman skulls, quite a few of them along with other various parts of the human skeleton. Eerie. I took a lovely picture so you can see for yourselves.

(Roman remains)

After our little run-in with the Romans we headed out into the sand sea. It's hard to imagine that this huge dry deserty region was once a sea bed. It's only when you walk the crusty stretches of terrain that you notice the crunch of fossilised shells beneath your feet. It is common to find whole shells and sections of coral left over form Cambrian period when the whole of Egypt was submerged and the only life which existed was underwater.

The Great Sand Sea provides evidence of forests, ferns, coral and the first land animals - spiders and insects and in other parts of the desert fossils of elephants and crocodiles. I had my heart set on finding a sharks tooth which I had heard was a possibility. Unfortunately I didn't manage to bagsey a sharks tooth, instead I had to settle for a 300 million year old piece of coral and a fossilised talon of some large bird of prey. Unfortunately Liz was unable to identify from which species my claw once belonged. Shame on you Liz, call yourself a bird watcher.

The temperature dropped as we arrived at our camp site (an areas of Sand between two dunes) The sunset was incredible and behind us the full moon was rising. I've never experienced silence like the that of the desert. It is actually deafening and hard to describe and it gave me a bit of a head ache. I was imagining I was hearing the sound of the inside of my head..but I can't have been, it's pretty empty up there these days.

In hindsight it was a good job no one was in the vicinity as our sand-boarding escapade resulted in a series of blood-curdling screams which would have woken any mummified remains within a million mile radius.

(Liz and Keston Dune gazing)

(Liz and Keston Dune Gazing)

After the fire and dinner cooked my Naser we star gazed using Liz's bird binoculars and I found out that what I had previously thought was Orions Belt for the last 27 years was in fact not his belt at all. Now I know.

The next day we visited a hot spring which just happens to be a tiny mini oasis right in the middle of nowhere.

These small natural springs or oases have usually come into existence due to the tapping of underground water.

The larger oases of the desert including Siwa are depressions causes by the combination of structual weakness and salt weathering. The oases are usually below the average surface of the desert, near or below sea level where huge underground chambers of trapped subterranean water is more easily accessible. The liquid which rises from these springs is over a million years old and contains gases and minerals of great medicinal value.

Later we visited the rather large fragments of a meteorite which had once crashed through the earths atmosphere and landed with a splat in the middle of the desert. It's surface was shiny and melted and the pieces I picked up had tiny shells embedded in it.