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The bare stone temple standing alone at the desert's edge, its blocks still in place.

Photo : Roland Unger — CC BY-SA 3.0 — Licence Wikimedia Commons

Fayoum · North of Lake Qarun

Qasr el-Sagha

An unfinished temple of cyclopean blocks, alone in the desert above the lake.

€ BudgetOff the beaten track

A Middle Kingdom building, never finished, raised from huge blocks fitted without mortar, above the depression. There is no road, no ticket, no keeper: only the track, the silence and a vast view over Qarun.

The extra bit

Combine with Wadi el-Hitan: both lie on the same northern desert track.

Know before you go

A 4×4 is needed and a guide advisable: the track disappears after the winds.

Directions

Qasr el-Sagha, north of Lake Qarun, Fayoum

Directions

In the same spirit

  • Wadi El Rayan

    A desert depression filled with the Fayoum's drainage water: two lakes and dunes.

    FayoumWadi El Rayan

    €€ Mid-rangeWhere locals go

  • Whale Valley

    Unmissable

    Skeletons of whales with legs, left in the sand exactly where they were uncovered.

    FayoumWadi El Hitan

    €€ Mid-rangeUNESCO

  • Lake Qarun

    A salt lake below sea level, all that is left of the ancients' Lake Moeris.

    FayoumLake Qarun

    € BudgetSunset