The Qattara Depression ( ar, منخفض القطارة, Munḫafaḍ al-Qaṭṭārah) is a depression in northwestern

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, specifically in the

Matruh Governorate Matrouh Governorate ( ar, محافظة مطروح ) is one of the governorates of Egypt. Located in the north-western part of the country, it borders Libya. Its capital is Mersa Matruh. Municipal divisions The governorate is divided into munic ...

. The depression is part of the Western Desert of Egypt. The Qattara Depression lies below sea level, and its bottom is covered with salt pans, sand dunes, and salt marshes. The depression extends between the latitudes of 28°35' and 30°25' north and the longitudes of 26°20' and 29°02' east.El Bassyony, Abdou. 1995. ''"Introduction to the geology of the Qattara Depression,"'' International Conference on the Studies and Achievements of Geosciences in Egypt, 69 (85-eoa) The Qattara Depression was created by the interplay of salt weathering and wind erosion. Some west of the depression lie the oases of Siwa in Egypt and Jaghbub in Libya in smaller but similar depressions. The Qattara Depression contains the second lowest point in Africa at an elevation of below sea level, the lowest point being Lake Assal in Djibouti. The depression covers about , a size comparable with

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border ...

or twice as large as

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

. Due to its size and proximity to the shores of the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

, studies have been made proposing to flood the area for various usages, such as the potential to generate

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

there.

Geography

The Qattara Depression, Egypt, Matruh Governate

The Qattara Depression has the shape of a teardrop, with its point facing east and the broad deep area facing southwest. The northern side of the depression is characterised by steep escarpments up to high, marking the edge of the adjacent El Diffa plateau. To the south the depression slopes gently up to the

Great Sand Sea The Great Sand Sea is an approximately sand desert (erg) in the Sahara between western Egypt and eastern Libya in North Africa. Some 74% of the area is covered by sand dunes. Geography The Great Sand Sea stretches about from north to south an ...

. Within the Depression are salt marshes, under the northwestern and northern

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

edges, and extensive dry lake beds that flood occasionally. The marshes occupy approximately , although wind-blown sands are encroaching in some areas. About a quarter of the region is occupied by dry lakes composed of hard crust and sticky mud, and occasionally filled with water. The depression was initiated by either wind or fluvial erosion in the late Neogene, but during the

Quaternary Period The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

the dominant mechanism was a combination of salt weathering and wind erosion working together. First, the salts break up the depression floor, then the wind blows away the resulting sands. This process is less effective in the eastern part of the depression, due to lower salinity groundwater.Aref M.A.M., El-Khoriby E., Hamdan M.A. 15 June 2002
''The role of salt weathering in the origin of the Qattara Depression, Western Desert, Egypt''
Geomorphology, Volume 45, Issues 3-4, Pages 181-195.

Ecology

Groves of umbrella thorn acacia (''

Vachellia tortilis ''Vachellia tortilis'', widely known as ''Acacia tortilis'' but now attributed to the genus '' Vachellia'', is the umbrella thorn acacia, also known as ''umbrella thorn'' and Israeli babool, a medium to large canopied tree native to most of Afr ...

''), growing in shallow sandy depressions, and ''

Phragmites ''Phragmites'' () is a genus of four species of large perennial reed grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Taxonomy The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in L ...

'' swamps represent the only permanent vegetation. The acacia groves vary widely in

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

and rely on runoff from rainfall and groundwater to survive. The

Moghra Oasis The Moghra Oasis is an uninhabited oasis in the northeastern part of the Qattara Depression in the Western Desert (Egypt), Western Desert of Egypt. It has a lake containing brackish water, salt marshes and a swamp with Phragmites, reeds. Geograph ...

in the northeastern part of the Depression has a brackish lake and a ''Phragmites'' swamp.Hughes, R. H. and J. S. Hughes. 1992. ''A Directory of African Wetlands''. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. . The southwestern corner of the depression is part of the Siwa Protected Area which protects the wild oasis in and around the Siwa Oasis. The Depression is an important habitat for the

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

, with the largest number of recent sightings being in areas in the northern, western and northwestern part of the Qattara Depression, including the highly isolated, wild oases of Ain EI Qattara and Ein EI Ghazzalat and numerous acacia groves both inside and outside the depression.Saleh, M.A., Helmy, I. and Giegengack. 2001. ''The Cheetah, "Acinonyx jubatus" (Schreber, 1776) in Egypt (Felidae, Acinonychinae)''. "Mammalia" 65 (2): 177–194.

Gazelle A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...

s (''Gazella dorcas'' and ''Gazella leptoceros'') also inhabit the Qattara Depression, being an important food source for the cheetah. The largest gazelle population exists in the southwestern part of the Qattara Depression within a vast area of wetlands and soft sand. The area of , includes the wild oases of Hatiyat Tabaghbagh and Hatiyat Umm Kitabain, and is a mosaic of

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s, salt marshes, scrubland, wild

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

groves and ''

Desmostachya bipinnata ''Desmostachya bipinnata'', commonly known as halfa grass, big cordgrass, and salt reed-grass, is an Old World perennial grass, long known and used in human history. The grass is tall, tufted, leafy, perennial grass, branching from the base, erec ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

. Other common fauna include the

Cape hare The Cape hare (''Lepus capensis''), also called the brown hare and the desert hare, is a hare native to Africa and Arabia extending into India. Taxonomy The Cape hare was one of the many mammal species originally described by Carl Linnaeus ...

(''Lepus capensis''), Egyptian jackal (''Canis aureus hupstar''), sand fox (''Vulpes rueppelli'') and more rarely the

fennec fox The fennec fox (''Vulpes zerda'') is a small crepuscular fox native to the deserts of North Africa, ranging from Western Sahara to the Sinai Peninsula. Its most distinctive feature is its unusually large ears, which serve to dissipate heat and ...

(''Vulpes zerda'').

Barbary sheep The Barbary sheep (''Ammotragus lervia''), also known as aoudad (pronounced �ɑʊdæd is a species of caprine native to rocky mountains in North Africa. While this is the only species in genus ''Ammotragus'', six subspecies have been descri ...

(''Ammotragus lervia'') were once common here but now they are few in number. Extinct species from the area include the

scimitar oryx The scimitar oryx (''Oryx dammah''), also known as the scimitar-horned oryx and the Sahara oryx, is a ''Oryx'' species that was once widespread across North Africa. In 2000, it was declared extinct in the wild on the IUCN Red List. A captive b ...

(''Oryx dammah''), addax (''Addax nasomaculatus'') and

bubal hartebeest The bubal hartebeest, also known as northern hartebeest or bubal antelope or simply bubal (''Alcelaphus buselaphus buselaphus'') is the extinct nominal (i.e., first described) subspecies of hartebeest. It was formerly found north of the Saharan De ...

(''Alcelaphus buselaphus''). Also the '' Droseridites baculatus'', an extinct plant known only from fossils of its pollen, was found at the Ghazalat-1 Well.

Climate

The climate of the Qattara Depression is highly

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

with annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

between on the northern rim to less than in the south of the depression. The average daily temperature varies between during summer and winter months. The prevailing wind forms a largely bimodal regime with most wind coming from north easterly and westerly directions. This causes the linear dune formations in the Western desert between the Qattara Depression and the Nile valley. Wind speeds peak in March at and minimal in December at . The average wind speed is about .Mortensen, N. G.; Said, U.S.; Badger, J. (2006). ''Wind Atlas for Egypt: Measurements, Micro- and Mesoscale Modeling''. New and Renewable Energy Authority, Cairo, Egypt Several days each year in the months March to May khamsin winds blow in from the south and bringing extremely high temperatures as well as sand and dust with them.

Land use

There is one permanent settlement in the Qattara Depression, the

Qara Oasis The Qara Oasis (also spelt Cara or Gara; ar, واحة القارة; also Qarat Umm El Sagheir, i.e. ) is an inhabited oasis in Egypt, with a population of only 363 (as of the 11 November 2006 census). This oasis is often disregarded when it come ...

. The oasis is located in the westernmost part of the depression and is inhabited by about 300 people. The Depression is also inhabited by the nomadic Bedouin people and their flocks, with the uninhabited Moghra oasis being important in times of

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is whe ...

during the dry seasons. The Qattara Depression contains many oil concessions, and several operational oil fields. The drilling companies include Royal Dutch Shell and the Apache Corporation.

History

Measurement

The elevation of the depression was first measured in 1917 by an officer of the British Army leading a light car patrol into the region. The officer took readings of the height of the terrain with an aneroid barometer on behalf of John Ball, who later would also publish on the region. He discovered that the spring Ain EI Qattara lay about below sea level. Because the barometer got lost and the readings were so unexpected, this find had to be verified. During 1924–25, Ball again organised a survey party, this time with the sole purpose to

triangulate In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle me ...

the elevation on a westerly line from Wadi El Natrun. The survey was led by G.F. Walpole who had already distinguished himself by triangulating the terrain across from the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...

to Siwa via Bahariya. He confirmed the earlier readings and proved the presence of a huge area below sea level, with places as deep as below sea level. Knowledge about the geology of the Qattara Depression was greatly extended by

Ralph Alger Bagnold Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold, OBE, FRS, (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was an English 20th-century desert explorer, geologist and soldier. In 1932, he staged the first recorded East-to-West crossing of the Libyan Desert. His work in the ...

, a British military commander and explorer, through numerous journeys in the 1920s and 1930s. Most notable was his 1927 journey during which he crossed the depression east to west and visited the oases of Qara and Siwa. Many of these trips used motor vehicles ( Ford Model-Ts) which used special techniques for driving in desert conditions. These techniques were an important asset of the

Long Range Desert Group The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. Originally called the Long Range Patrol (LRP), the unit was founded in Egypt in June 1940 by Major Ralph Alger Bagnold, acti ...

which Bagnold founded in 1940.Bagnold, R.A. 1931. "Journeys in the Libyan Desert, 1929 and 1930". ''The Geographical Journal'' 78(1): 13-39; (6):524-533. After the discovery of the depression, Ball published the triangulation findings about the region in October 1927 in '' The Geographical Journal''. He also gave the region its name "Qattara" after the spring Ain EI Qattara where the first readings were taken. The name literally means "dripping" in Arabic. Six years later in 1933, Ball was the first to publish a proposal for flooding the region to generate hydroelectric power in his article "The Qattara Depression of the Libyan Desert and the possibility of its utilisation for power-production".

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the depression's presence shaped the 1st and 2nd Battles of El Alamein. It was considered impassable by

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...

s and most other

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

vehicle A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), ...

s because of features such as salt lakes, high cliffs and/or

s, and fech fech (very fine powdered sand). The cliffs in particular acted as an edge of the El Alamein battlefield, which meant the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

's forces could not be outflanked to the south. Both Axis and Allied forces built their defences in a line from the

to the Qattara Depression. These defences became known as the Devil's gardens, and they are for the most part still there, especially the extensive minefields. No large army units entered the Depression, although German

Afrika Korps The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the ...

patrols and the British

did operate in the area, since these small units had considerable experience in desert travel. The RAF's repair and salvage units (e.g. 58 RSU) used a route through the depression to salvage or recover

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...

that had landed or crashed in the Western desert away from the coastal plain. The RSUs included six-wheel-drive trucks, Coles cranes, and large trailers, and were particularly active from mid-1941 when

Air Vice-Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...

G.G. Dawson arrived in Egypt to address the lack of serviceable aircraft. A German communications officer stationed in the depression was cited by

Gordon Welchman William Gordon Welchman (15 June 1906 – 8 October 1985) was a British mathematician. During World War II, he worked at Britain's secret codebreaking centre, "Station X" at Bletchley Park, where he was one of the most important contributors. ...

as being unintentionally helpful in the breaking of the Enigma machine code, due to his regular transmissions stating there was "nothing to report".

Qattara Depression Project

The large size of the Qattara Depression and the fact that it falls to a depth of below mean sea level has led to several proposals to create a massive

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

project in northern Egypt rivalling that of the

Aswan High Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan L ...

. This project is known as the Qattara Depression Project. The proposals call for a large canal or tunnel being excavated from the Qattara due north of depending on the route chosen to the

to bring seawater into the area. An alternative plan involved running a pipeline northeast to the freshwater Nile River at

Rosetta Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Ro ...

.Mahmoud, Mohamed
''The River Nile - Qattara Depression Pipeline''
June 2009User:TGC
''Great Circle Mapper - Rosetta to Qattara''
2011 Water would flow into a series of water

penstock A penstock is a sluice or gate or intake structure that controls water flow, or an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines and sewerage systems. The term is inherited from the earlier technology of mill ponds and watermills. H ...

s which would generate electricity by releasing the water at below sea level. Because the Qattara Depression is in a very hot dry region with very little cloud cover, the water released at the level would spread out from the release point across the basin and evaporate from solar influx. Because of evaporation, more water can flow into the depression, thus forming a continual source of power. Eventually this would result in a hypersaline lake or a salt pan as the water would evaporate and leave behind the salt that it contained. Plans to use the Qattara Depression for the generation of electricity date back to 1912 from Berlin geographer

Albrecht Penck Albrecht Penck (25 September 1858 – 7 March 1945) was a German geographer and geologist and the father of Walther Penck. Biography Born in Reudnitz near Leipzig, Penck became a university professor in Vienna, Austria, from 1885 to 1906, a ...

.Murakami M
''Managing water for peace in the Middle East''
United Nations University Press. p.64-66 The subject was discussed in more detail by Dr. John Ball in 1927, who estimated a hydroelectric potential of 125 to 200 megawatts. In 1957, the American

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

proposed to President Dwight Eisenhower that peace in the Middle East could be achieved by flooding the Qattara Depression. The resulting lagoon, according to the CIA, would have four benefits: *it is easier to extract oil from offshore platforms than in swamps *the flow will turn the hydroelectric power station". *fishing, resorts, pearls". *It would get

ian president Gamel Abdel Nasser's "mind on other matters" because "he need dsome way to get off the Soviet hook". In the 1970s and early 1980s, several proposals to flood the area were made by

Friedrich Bassler Friedrich Bassler (21 June 1909, Karlsruhe – 7 September 1992, Freiburg im Breisgau) was a German hydraulic engineer. From 1961 to 1977 he was director of the ''Institut für Wasserbau und Wasserwirtschaft'' (Department of water engineering ...

and the ''Joint Venture Qattara'', a group of mainly German companies. They wanted to make use of

peaceful nuclear explosions Peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes. Proposed uses include excavation for the building of canals and harbours, electrical generation, the use of nuclear explosions to drive spacecraft, and a ...

to construct a tunnel, drastically reducing construction costs compared to conventional methods. This project proposed to use 213 H-bombs, with yields of one to 1.5 megatons, detonated at depths of . That fit within the Atoms for Peace program proposed by US President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. The Egyptian government turned down the idea. Planning experts and scientists intermittently put forward potentially viable options, whether of a tunnel or canal, as an economic, ecological, and energy solution in Egypt, often coupled with the idea of new settlements.Kelada, Maher
''Global Hyper Saline Power Generation Qattara Depression Potential''
MIK Technology

References

*Antonio Mascolo Die Kattara-Utopie http://www.kattara-utopie.de

External links

A detailed map of Egypt (including the Qattara Depression) from 1955 by the Army Map Service, US Army, scale 1: 250,000

{{Egypt topics Deserts of Egypt Depressions (geology) Landforms of Egypt Lowest points Western Desert (Egypt) Basins of Africa