From USD 97
+6 Additional options
A spectacular unique experience if you visit Cairo is to add to your tour a day trip to (Wadi Hitan) Valley of the Whales and Wadi Rayan Waterfalls. Wadi Hitan is a protected area designated by UNESCO as a world heritage. The area includes fossils of prehistoric extinct whales. The fossils depict the evolution of whales from being land mammals to water-based mammals. The area is rich of fossils of many other animals like sharks, turtles, sawfish which allows you to imagine how the ecology of the place used to be millions of years ago. The trip includes a visit to Wadi Rayan waterfalls which is a depression 43 meters below sea level and emerged recently due to inundation of irrigation water.
The tour includes a stop at Tunis Village for Lunch at a local restaurant
0 - 01.99 Free
2 - 05.99 pay 25% of the tour price
6 - 11.99 pay 50% of the tour price
12 years and over pay the full price of the trip per adult person.
Pick up from your hotel early in the morning and head to Fayoum located 95 km from Cairo. Pass by Lake Qarun one of the largest natural lakes in the world that extends to 40 kms. Stop to take photos and then proceed to Tunis Village to see the emergence of this local place to be a residence of pottery schools. On the way to Wadi Hitan (whales valley you will see Mudawara Mountain round shaped mountain from the top of the mountain you will enjoy spectacular views of desert sand and water.
Next, you will move to Wadi Hytan (Whale Valley) which is a natural protected area where scientists discovered early whales’ skeleton and fossils of other animals and plants well preserved in rocks.
Wadi El-Hitan Reserve is one of the most important nature reserves in Egypt that protect some endangered animals, such as the fennec fox, and some migratory birds, and some may not know that the valley is an astronomical observatory for its distance from the city’s noise and pollution.
The UNESCO has chosen the reserve as the best world heritage area for whale skeletons.
The valley separates you from all aspects of modern civilization, as there is no source of electrical current, so you have to bring flashlights to light, and the area is outside the coverage of mobile networks.
Wadi El Whale Reserve at night is unique from other places with thousands of stars, and you can see galaxies in its clear sky, and take pictures of them.
The valley has been greatly developed, where you can sleep in camping places, and eat while cooking it in front of you on fire, and there are people in the valley who provide you with all that effortlessly.
At the end of the tour head back to Wadi Rayan t see the waterfalls and enjoy a felucca ride on the nearby waters. Stop for lunch at a local restaurant.
At the end of the day, return back to your hotel in Cairo
Centrally located Cairo and Giza hotels
Daily 7:00 am
Outstanding Universal Value
The globally important fossils of Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley), in the Western Desert of Egypt, provide dramatic evidence of one of the iconic stories of evolution: the emergence of whales as ocean-going mammals, from their previous life as land-based animals.
Fayoum
Located around 130 kilometers from Cairo, you will find an amazing open air museum. Thousands of fossilized shells, cetaceans and walking cetacean skeletons lie under the feet of visitors. In 2005, the Cetacean Valley was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Criterion (viii): Wadi Al-Hitan is the most important site in the world to demonstrate one of the iconic changes that make up the record of life on Earth: the evolution of the whales. It portrays vividly their form and mode of life during their transition from land animals to a marine existence.
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