30 November 2009 - The Sudanese sector of the Jebel Uweinat still delivered a spectacular rock art site. Could this one be the last one of the "spectacular" unreported-site category?

At the end of November I was informed by my friend Andras Zboray (as now reported also on his web site) that he found in the Jebel Uweinat a new rock art site of paramount importance. He told me that this new site is located in the last unsurveyed corner of the Sudanese sector. I congratulated my friend. Andras started his project a long time ago and I was more than happy to cooperate with him by surveying the difficult Emeri Plateau on the Libyan sector of the massif. During the past two years other people joined the hunt, mainly working in the Sudanese sector. These guys were very lucky; they found many new sites and even a hieroglyphic inscription. Kudos to them.

I am not able to judge how many chances of finding new "rock art treasures" remain in the Gilf-Kebir-Uweinat region. I suspect we will soon enter a new research phase featured bya lot of apparently less important finding, mainly in the category of the "sites visible only after digital enhancement", i.e. very faded pictograms. With more than 500 rock art site in the Libyan Desert, the time to play with statistic is arrived.

04 February 2009 - Gilf Kebir - Jebel Uweinat: Warning against travelling in the region by the Ministero Affari Esteri (Italian Foreign Office).

The Italian Foreign Office (MAE) strongly advises the Italian nationals against travelling in the Egyptian region of the Western Desert between the Gilf Kebir and the Jebel Uweinat. The abduction and robbery risk is still considered very high. For the MAE it is a no-go area.

20 December 2008 - Two new Egyptian checkpoints near the international border with Sudan.

Following the October 2008 kidnapping of 19 tourists travelling from Wadi Sora (Gilf Kebir) to Karkur Talh (Jebel Uweinat), the Egyptian Army established two new check-points near the Sudanese border. According to our friends in Baharya Oasis, a third check point will be establish near the Prince Kemal el Dine's Monument (south-eastern termination of the Gilf Kebir).

14 December 2008 - Winter Rainfalls on the Gilf Kebir

The past three years, the Jebel Uweinat was hit by monsoonal rainfalls (originated by cloud systems arriving from the Indian Ocean) at the following dates:

1.         29 August 2005
2.         19-20 August  2006
3.         25-26 August 2007

During the 2007 event the Gilf Kebir received some localized rain (on the 26th). According to  the observations published on the Internet by Andars Zboray (see links page), the Wadi Hamra area was particularly blessed by this rainfall).

The past summer it did not rained but this winter the Gilf Kebir and the Uweinat, during the 22/11-18/12 period were repeatedly covered by cloud systems of Atlantic origin. According to Precipitation Estimates by satellite data, it rained on the Gilf Kebir the 22 November and the 23 November (likely it rained also on the Jebel Uweinat). The 14 December it rained on both the Gilf Kebir and the Jebel Uweinat (apparently it was a very important event, with up to 10 mm of rainfall or more). At present, confirmation by ground observations is missing.