Qattara Depression - History

History

The altitude of the depression was first measured in 1917 by an officer of the British Army leading a light car patrol into the region. The officer took readings of the height of the terrain with an aneroid barometer on behalf of Dr. Ball who later would also publish on the region. He discovered that the spring Ain EI Qattara lay about 60 metres (200 ft) below sea level. Because the barometer got lost and the readings were so unexpected this find had to be verified. In 1924-25 Dr. Ball once again organised a survey party this time with the sole purpose to triangulate the elevation on a westerly line from Wadi El Natrun. The survey was led by Mr. G.F.Walpole who had already distinguished himself by triangulating the terrain across 500 km from the Nile to Siwa via Bahariya. He confirmed earlier readings and proved the presence of a huge area below sea level with places as deep as -133 m.

Our knowledge about the geology of the Qattara Depression was greatly extended by Ralph Alger Bagnold, a British military commander and explorer, through numerous journeys in the 1920s and 1930s. Most notable being his 1927 journey during which he crossed the depression east to west and visited the oasis of Qara and Siwa. Many of these trips used motor vehicles (Ford Model-Ts) which employed special techniques for driving in desert conditions. These techniques were an important asset of the Long Range Desert Group which Bagnold founded in 1940.

After the discovery of the depression Dr. Ball published the triangulation findings about the region on October 1927 in The Geographical Journal. He also gave the region its name 'Qattara' after the spring Ain EI Qattara where the first readings were taken. The name literally means 'dripping' in Arabic. Six years later in 1933 Dr. Ball was the first to publish a proposal for flooding the region to generate hydro power in his article "The Qattara Depression of the Libyan Dessert and the possibility of its utilisation for power-production".

During World War II the depression's presence shaped the 1st and 2nd Battles of El Alamein. It was considered impassable by tanks and most other military vehicles because of features such as salt lakes, high cliffs and/or escarpments, and Fech fech (very fine powdered sand). The cliffs in particular acted as an edge of the El Alamein battlefield, which meant the British position could not be outflanked. Both the Axis and Allied forces built their defences in a line from the Mediterranean Sea to the Qattara Depression. These defences became known as the Devil's gardens and are for the most part still there, especially the extensive minefields. No large army units entered the Depression although German Afrika Korps patrols and the British Long Range Desert Group did operate in the area as these small units had considerable experience in desert travel.