<iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-K3L4M3" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden">

Flat White

Valley of the Whales: science, power, and politics

10 January 2023

1:02 PM

10 January 2023

1:02 PM

Wādī al-Ḥītān, also known as ‘The Valley of the Whales’, is an extraordinary paleontological site sitting 150 km south-west of Cairo, Egypt.

There, the fossilised bones of Archaeoceti (ancient whales), lay exposed in the sands of the Western Desert. The find includes rare specimens of Basilosaurus and Dorudo. 50 million years ago in the beginning of the Eocene, these creatures hunted in the warm, shallow waters of a vanished sea.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Subscribe for just $2 a week

Try a month of The Spectator Australia absolutely free and without commitment. Not only that but – if you choose to continue – you’ll pay just $2 a week for your first year.

  • Unlimited access to spectator.com.au and app
  • The weekly edition on the Spectator Australia app
  • Spectator podcasts and newsletters
  • Full access to spectator.co.uk
Or

Unlock this article

REGISTER


Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator Australia readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Close