Short Trips weekend getaways accompanyup to 3 days

Around Fayoum and Wadi Hitan The Fayoum and especially Wadi Rayyan are a great place to first taste the desert. Wadi Rayyan To get here from Cairo takes about an hour and a half if the traffic is

fine. Wadi Rayyan is a protected area with lakes and desert promising interest for all.Wadi Hitan - Whale Valley It is easy to visit the Whale Valley in a day from Cairo. An accompanyuping ranger from Wadi Rayyan will usually guide the driver. The whales in question are extinct mammals with eel shaped bodies about 20meters long- bigger than a grey whale- closer to the size of a blue whale. The teeth were sharp and saw-like, indicating a different diet to modern whales. They are believed to have existed here 40million years ago. Known as basilosaurus isis they retain feet, of a kind, unlike modern whales which just have remnant projecting bones.The incredible lines of vertebrae, each one weighing 20kilos or more,
make for an eerie sight, as if one has arrived at a graveyard of the dinosaurs, which, in a sense, one has. There are smaller whale remains too- the five meters dorudon which may be related to existing whales.