Individual UNESCO Research Historic Cairo: The Wadi Al Hitan or the whale valley
The Wadi Al Hitan or the whale valley is a natural property that was inscribed in the world heritage list in the year 2005. This valley contains valuable remains of early and extinct fossils of archaeoceti and Whales. The fossils contained in this valley are very valuable in demonstrating the process of evolution and emergence of whales as ocean mammal rather than the land mammals. The fossils found in this this valley display the many forms and the life of the early species of whales in the transition period of their evolution (UNESCO, 2013).
This is the only area in the world where fossils and skeletons of archaic whales can be viewed in their geographic and geological settings consisting of shallow high nutrient rich sea bays. The sediments and the fossils in this area indicate the paleoecology conditions of the ancient ancestors of modern day whales. The first fossils of ancient whales were discovered in the year 1905. Geological studies of the area indicated began in the 1980s (Dolson et al, 2002)
The whale valley is located 150km southwester of the city of Cairo in the Wadi el Rayan government protected area. The nature conversation sector under the Egyptian environmental affairs agency manages the area. The climatic condition in the area is arid with a very dry and hot summer and very little rainfall during winter. The area has very little vegetation and is mainly barren for most of the year (Badman, 2005).
Fossil remains of mangroves, sea grasses and vertical pneumatrophes indicate that the area was once warm and humid. The area is devoid of human habitation. The whale valley has immense conversation value because of its unmatched record of Eocene life that shed light on the process of evolution (Badman, 2005).
References
Badman, T. (2005). World heritage nomination IUCN summary: Wadi Al Hitan ( Whale
Valley. Egypt.) Switzerland: IUCN, Gland
Dolson, J. Et al. (2002). The Eocene and the Oligocene Palaeo-ecology and paleo-
Geography of whale valley and Fayoum basins. Field trips no 7. Cairo: Rising star energy publications.
UNESCO (2013). Wadi al Hitan (Whale Valley). Retrieved from
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1186
.
