Farafra Oasis travel guide

Farafra offers a good starting point for safaris into the nearby White Desert and a thorough taste of oasis life, much unfettered by the onslaught of tourism. It is the smallest and most isolated of the oases in the Western Desert though the deep depression in which it lies suggests that it was once larger. The village of Qasr El-Farafra was based around a large 116-room mud-brick fort or castle (qasr) from which it got its name. This was used by the villagers when they were under attack until it collapsed in 1958.

The inhabitants of Farafra, who spawn mainly from two extended families, have been involved in trade and contact with the Nile Valley since earliest times. Until quite recently, residents in Farafra numbered less than 5000, before a wave of Saidis (Upper Egyptians), migrated to the isolated oasis to exploit the vacant fertile land. Now there are more than 15,000 people living peacefully together, though the separation of quiet-natured Farafrans and more animated Saidis is apparent in the local ahwas.