Already the most comprehensive guide ever for desert and oasis travel in Egypt west of the Nile, The Western Desert of Egypt: An Explorer’s Handbook has now been fully revised and updated for the latest generation of twenty-first century desert adventurers. Fully illustrated with some 50 maps and plans and over 270 drawings, the guide covers both the natural history and the human history of the desert and the oases. It then explores chapter by chapter the oases of Kharga, Dakhla, Farafra, Bahariya, Fayoum, and Siwa, and the desert areas of al-Diffa (the northern, semiarid edge of the desert), the Darb al-Arbain caravan route in the south, and Uwaynat (including Gilf Kebir) in the southwest. Descriptions of routes, sites, people, and places are complemented by practical information on places to stay, eat, and fill your gas tank. Global positioning system (GPS) waypoints are provided as an aid to navigation on many routes—though for the sake of conservation and the protection of unguarded antiquities they are not given for remote sites. Almost encyclopedic in its scope, this is the one guide that belongs on the bookshelf, dashboard, or rucksack of every Western Desert traveler.

Cassandra Vivian is a writer and photographer who lived in Egypt for many years, traveling extensively throughout the country but particularly in the Western Desert. She now lives in Pennsylvania.