Whale Valley: Egypt’s fossil-rich desert that shows the evolution of whales from land to sea creatures

QUICK FACTS

Name: Wadi Al-Hitan, which translates to “Valley of the Whales” or “Whale Valley”

Location: Western Desert of Egypt

Coordinates: 29.26755158061781, 30.02249562989221

Why it’s incredible: The valley holds hundreds of primitive whale skeletons, some of which have “feet.”

Whale Valley is a region of the Egyptian Sahara desert that is peppered with archaic whale skeletons, some of which have feet and toes preserved.

These skeletons and other marine fossils date to the late Eocene epoch (55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago), when present-day Egypt was submerged beneath the Tethys Ocean and whales had just evolved into sea creatures, according to UNESCO.

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