Bahariya
Bahariya is the closest oasis to Cairo. From north to south Bahariya is around 90 km long and around 40 km broad. With this size Bahariya is the smallest oasis of the four oases Farafra, Dakhla, Bahariya and Kharga. Because of that Bahariya was often called "small oasis". The oasis consists of several villages and cities, with Bawiti, the capital, and El Qasr, the original center.
Today there are around 36,000 people living in Bahariya. They mainly live from agriculture. Main crops are dates and olives, but besides that people also grow lemons, apricots, tomatoes, mangos, potatoes, of course beans (they call it foul) and many more for daily life.
Nowadays many people also live from tourism (like we do). Since Bahariya was discoverd in the 1980s by several individual travellers, more and more people are coming every year to visit not only the oasis, but also the Western Desert, especially the famous White Desert. Because of that travellers can find a lot of facilities for visitors in Bahariya. There are several more or less comfortable hotels and camps and there are also restaurants, shops and oriental coffee shops which can be visited. Besides that, the famous bedouin musician Abdel Sadik is playing every night his arabic music in the village of Agouz.
Visitors can also do some sightseeing. The Oasis Heritage Museum, the english mountain, the pyramid mountain (where the secondbiggest scelett worldwide of a dinosaur was found), the saltlake, and several springs and gardens are worth being visited. For those interested in history Bahariya offers the tomb of Banetiu and the tomb of Zed Amun as well as the tempel built by Alexander the great. Furthermore, Bahariya is famous all over the world for its golden mummies, which have been found some 10 years ago by coincidence. Because Bahariya can look back to a long, long history (to the Middle Kingom, some 2000 years b.c.) there might still lie some archeological surprises covered by sand....
The 36,000 people living in Bahariya are not that much interested in such things. They still do their work like they use to do it since centuries. Because of that you should have a look around. Take a walk in the gardens or in the "old city" (close to "Old Oasis Hotel" or "El Beshmo Lodge").
Maybe this oasis will fascinate you as much as it fascinates me...