Open Access

Abdu A. Shata, Georg Knetsch, Egon T. Degens, Karl Otto Münnich, M. El-Shazli

• In a joint enterprise, the ground water supplies in some Oases in UAR (namely El Kharga, El Dakhla, El Baharia and Siwa), in Wadi El Natrun (to the west of the Nile Delta), in Ayoun Mousa (West Sinai) and in some places along the Mediterranean Littoral, have been investigated. According to the dating of the water by the C14 method, the age of the artesian water from the Oases is between 25,000 and 40,000 years and the origin is obviously from rain water which fell and infiltrated within the "Nubian Sandstone" layers, occupying almost entirely the southern portion of the western Desert (the water underwent some evaporation before it disappeared in the subsurface as indicated from the loss of the 016). This process took place during one or more of the Pluvial periods which followed (and were not coincident with) the last "Würm" eustatic lowering of the Mediterranean. No infiltration water have presumably recharged the layers in question, so almost entirely fossil water reserves are tapped at present. The quantities of such reserves are unknown. More ancient waters, however, may be expected to the north of El Kharga and El Dakhla Oases. Such waters may- to their greater portions - enter these two oases from that direction. On the other hand, little or almost no water is expected to feed the reservoir from the opposite direction.