Amazing places in Egypt, which holidaymakers have not yet discovered: it looks incredible! | Life

Valley of the Whales (Wadi Al-Hitan), 150 km from Cairo

Egypt’s Valley of the Whales is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the hundreds of earliest whale fossils found here, The Travel reports. This valley is unique because of the concentration and quality of fossils found here. The availability of fossils and the natural beauty of the environment add to the tourist value of this place.

37 million years ago, the Egyptian desert was covered by the waters of the prehistoric Tethyan Ocean. In this prehistoric ocean swam the early 50-foot long whales with elongated and toothed jaws.

When they died, they sank to the bottom of the sea, and over thousands of millennia, their bones were covered by a layer of sediment. These sediments preserved their fossilized remains, and the former seabed turned into a desert.

Now the old seabed is being eroded away by the forces of erosion, and wind is eroding the sandstone and shale in which the whale bones are encased.

Sediments preserved their fossilized remains, and the former seabed turned into a desert.

In addition to prehistoric basilosaurs (predatory whales), you can find fossilized shark teeth (cartilaginous skeletons of sharks do not usually fossilize), sea urchin spines, fossilized mangrove bushes, fossilized coral, giant catfish bones, and many other sea creatures that once swam in prehistoric seas in the Valley of Whales.