Whale Valley
This site has been well-known for a long time because of the fossils that can be found there. It is in the Western Desert, which is a part of Egypt’s Fayoum Governorate. The Egyptians have called it “Wadi Al Hitan” for a long time.
Discoveries:
Here is a well-known paleontological site with a lot of fossils of Archaeoceti, a group of whales that used to be very common but are now extinct. This place is in the United States.
It gives a fascinating look at evolution and shows how whales changed from animals that lived on land to animals that lived in the ocean. Most people agree that it was one of the best and most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century. [Needs to be cited] The bones show that these species started to lose their limbs when they were land animals. When they lost their limbs, they changed into animals that live in water. Before the species started living in water, this is what happened.
A famous American paleontologist found a complete skeleton of a Basilosaurus not too long ago. This species came from an earlier species that lived in Pakistan, Europe, North America, and Asia. At the time it was discovered, it was made up of animals that walked instead of swam.
Whale Valley has a lot of fossils from both the ocean and the land. Some of these fossils are 40–50 million years old. There is a lot of proof that the Wadi Hitan basin used to be part of the oceanic plate. These fossils were made in Whale Valley when it was part of the oceanic plate. During this time, the Tethys Sea was much farther south than where the Mediterranean Sea is now.
Visitors:
In the Whale Valley area, each year more and more things are found, so excavations are usually still going on there. People who are interested in paleontology and people who are going to the museum for the first time both find the discoveries fascinating and mind-boggling. Every year, more and more people come to visit, and the place itself is beautiful. This means that people who visit Egypt and then go home will always have good feelings about it.
