“Wadi Al-Hitan”: A Journey through Millions of Years Revealed by the BA
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In a new episode rich in Egyptian heritage narratives as part of its documentary series “Aref,” the Bibliotheca Alexandrina explores the site of “Wadi Al-Hitan” (Whale Valley), one of Egypt's natural and global treasures.
Located in the governorate of Fayoum, nearly 200 kilometers southwest of Cairo, this unique site offers a vivid and astonishing testimony to the evolutionary stages of the largest marine creature on Earth: the whale. Situated in the middle of Egypt's Western Desert, Wadi Al-Hitan is an exceptional site that tells a geological story spanning millions of years. About 40 million years ago, the Fayoum region and Lower Egypt were submerged under the sea. With the gradual ebbing of the sea almost 20 million years ago, the skeletons of whales and other marine creatures emerged, revealing a rich marine past.
The valley contains more than 1,000 skeletons of giant ancient whales, which also includes fossils of other marine creatures, thus rendering it key to understanding the remarkable evolution of whales from mammals that walked on land to giant marine creatures that roam the oceans.
The film can be viewed on "Aref" official website or through the "Aref" playlist on the BA official YouTube channel in the following links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtaAVmcvpS4&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Freels.cultnat.org%2F&source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ
https://reels.cultnat.org/