法尤姆绿洲、拉扬谷与希坦谷

The Fayoum has been farmed since the Middle Kingdom, when the pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty regulated the branch of the Nile that feeds it. Today it is fields, canals and palms around the salt lake of Qarun, with the Sahara beginning at the edge of the fields.

Wadi El Rayan is where drainage water from the oasis formed two lakes in the 1970s, joined by the waterfalls. Beyond them the dunes rise and the Magic Lake changes colour with the sun. An hour further along a desert track lies Wadi El Hitan, where the skeletons of early whales with hind legs lie where the sea left them 40 million years ago, with a small excellent museum.

Tunis village on the lake shore is where Cairo's potters and artists settled in the 1980s; its garden restaurants serve lunch on both our day trips.