X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Libyan Desert


Belgian International Air Services

On 28 March 1969, a BIAS Douglas DC-3 (registered OO-SBH) was damaged beyond repair in a wheels-up landing in the Libyan Desert.

Jaghbub, Libya

The fence still runs along the Libyan-Egyptian border from near Tobruk, finishing at Jaghbub where the desolate Great Sand Sea begins.

Matthew Offord

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and undertook a 2,000 km exploration of the Libyan Desert in 2005.

Western Desert

Libyan Desert, in the northern and eastern part of the Sahara Desert


Libyan Sibyl

The Libyan Sibyl, named Phemonoe, was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Zeus Ammon Oracle (Zeus represented with the horns of Ammon) at Siwa Oasis in the Libyan Desert.

Long-range penetration

Though the concept of long range penetration is as old as war itself, in the modern era it is recognized as starting with Major Ralph Alger Bagnold with his 1940 Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) in the Western Desert and Orde Wingate with his Chindits in Burma in World War II.

Neolithic Subpluvial

In the highlands of the central Sahara beyond the Libyan desert,... in the great massifs of the Tibesti and the Hoggar, the mountaintops, today bare rock, were covered at this period with forests of oak and walnut, lime, alder and elm.

Qasr Hur

Qasr Hur is a village in the governorate of Minya, Egypt, around 300 km south of Cairo, on the edge of the Western or Libyan desert.

Wadi Zighen

Wadi Zighen (also Wadi Zighan) is a depression (height 310 metres) located in the Libyan Desert in the Kufra District of Libya, about 180 km north-northwest of El Tag and east of Tazirbu.


see also

Bayle St. John

During a residence of two years in Egypt he wrote The Libyan Desert (1849), and while in Egypt he learnt Arabic and visited the oasis of Siwa.