Egypt embraces two large Eastern and Western Deserts:

Stretches on 86,101 square miles (223,000 square km), starting at the verge beneath the Mountains of the Red Sea and into central Egypt until the borders of the Nile Valley. The region is known as the Arabian Desert. The Arabian Desert has two distinct geographical regions being, the limestone in the northern Al Ma'aza Plateau and the southern Al' Ababda Plateau. There are no oases in the Eastern Desert.

Also know as the Libyan Desert, stretching on 332,434 square miles (681,000 square km). Nubian sandstone and limestone highlands separate from that of the North African or Great Sahara region. There are Six oases in the Western Desert.

Bahariya, the first of the six oases to be encountered, lies in a depression about 300 km southwest of Cairo. From an archaeological point of view, little seems to have survived the pharaonic period. The Greco-Roman period on the other hand is represented by one of the most important discoveries of the last years, a huge cemetery (about 6 square kilometers) in the area of el-Bawiti, the capital of Bahariya. More than one archaeological site is said to have been discovered by chance after a horse or a donkey stumbled into something. Also in this case, the hero seems to have been an unaware donkey trotting along.

The result was the discovery of over one hundred mummies beautifully decorated, some covered with a layer of gold, some wearing painted masks, some buried in pottery coffins and some wrapped in linen. Archaeologists excavating there expect to unearth over 10,000 mummies. Statuettes, pottery, jewels and coins were also found in Bahariya Oasis.