Farafra Oasis

Farafra is the smallest of the four main Western Desert oases and for a long time was the most isolated, with a population in the low thousands and a single village of mud-brick houses, some painted, at the centre of palm and olive groves. It is best known now as the base for the White Desert immediately north of it. In the village, the Badr Museum is worth the stop: Badr Abdel Moghny is a local artist who built a mud-brick house and gallery filled with his own paintings and clay sculptures of oasis life, and it has become the unofficial cultural centre of the place. Hot springs at Bir Sitta and elsewhere are used for bathing, and the older part of the village retains its narrow covered lanes.

History

The name al-Farafra is an Arabic plural of farfar, a fizzy spring, and the ancient Egyptians called the oasis "the land of cattle". Archaeological evidence shows the region was inhabited from the late Pleistocene, it was known in Egyptian history at least from the Middle Kingdom, and in the Ptolemaic period it was administered as part of the Oxyrhynchite nome (Wikipedia, Farafra, Egypt).

What's there

• The Badr Museum - a local artist's mud-brick house of paintings and sculpture.
• Mud-brick village lanes - narrow covered streets in the old quarter.
• Hot springs - bathing pools in the palm groves.
• Palm and olive groves - the cultivation the oasis lives on.

When to go

October to April. A day, generally as a stop on a desert circuit or the night before a White Desert camp. Winter nights are cold. There is little reason to stay longer unless using it as a base.

Good to know

It is very small and quiet with limited accommodation and few restaurants. The Badr Museum keeps informal hours and depends on the artist or family being there. Springs are basic and communal, which affects women bathers. Bus connections are infrequent.

Nearby

The White Desert is immediately north; Dakhla lies south along the road.