Wadi Al-Hitan is one of the World Heritage Sites listed by UNESCO in Egypt. It is in the Western Desert of Egypt. It is known as Whale Valley due to the presence of invaluable and globally important fossil remains of Whales.
The fossil remains are of the now extinct, suborder of whales Archaeoceti or Zeuglodonts. These are a group of primitive lived 50 to 23 million years ago. The fossils demonstrate the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a land-based animal.
Wadi Al-Hitan is a strictly protected zone within the Wadi El-Rayan protected area. This is a global reference site due to the evidence in the form of complete skeletons and environment that they lived in.
The Nature Conservation Sector (NCS) of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) is responsible for the management and protection of the site. Wadi Al-Hitan is declared as World Heritage Site in the year 2005 by UNESCO.
Read more about Wadi Al-Hitan here
