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Kharga
Documenting a journey by camel across the desolate wasteland of the Kharga Oasis in 1932.
Overview
Documenting a journey by camel across the desolate wasteland of the Kharga Oasis in 1932. The film includes scenes at a train station, bustling street, scenes of digging/excavating, camel caravan carrying loads and travel between desert camps (party includes European women). The film shows Kharga - the largest oasis of the Libyan Desert, which consists of a depression about 160km long and between 20km to 80km wide; it is located 232km south of Asyut, 550km south of Cairo.
The footage is likely to be the work of Elinor Wight Gardner (1892-1980), who was a geologist. Along with Gertrude Caton–Thompson (1888 –1985) they undertook research on the ‘Pleistocene Fauna and Flora of Kharga Oasis’ between 1930 and 1933. It possibly shows the arrival of Elinor Wight Gardner and Gertrude Caton–Thompson at Baliana on 9th December 1930, and their subsequent journey (using eight camels) across the high desert plateau to Kharga; a distance of 170km which took 5½ days. It was a leisurely journey, and they took time to note interesting archaeological and geological features along the way.
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