The geological heritage sites in the northeastern Sahara
Desert in North Africa provide important information about
palaeoenvironmental, palaeoclimatic and palaeogeographical
reconstructions (e.g. Plyusnina et al. 2016; Sallam and
Ruban 2017; Al-Dhwadi and Sallam 2019; Mashaal et al.
2020; Sallam et al. 2020a, b; Abd-Elhakim et al. 2021;
Ruban et al. 2021; Sallam 2022; Mashaal and Sallam 2023).
The inland terrestrial playas (palaeolake mud pans) of Farafra
Oasis (latitudes 26° 40ʹ to 27° 30ʹ N and longitudes 27°
30ʹ to 28° 40ʹ E), located in the central Western Desert of
Egypt, a vast desert territory in the northeastern Sahara,
are good examples of such geological sites. Farafra Oasis
is an erosion-related depression located ~ 200 m above sea
level and displays spectacular geomorphological landforms
including high scarps and residual hills that were shaped
by differential weathering and erosion, endokarst (solution)
caves, and aeolian sand and nebkha (phytogenic-coppice)
dunes. Stratigraphically, the Farafra Depression is made
up of a thick-bedded sedimentary succession of Late Cretaceous–
Paleogene age represented by the Khoman Chalk
and Dakhla Shale formations (Maastrichtian–Danian) at
the base, succeeded upward by the Tarawan Chalk (Selandian–
Thanetian), Esna Shale (Thanetian–Ypresian) and |
