A photo of a whale skeleton in the middle of the desert taken in 1902.
Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) is the largest and most important site in the world for whale fossils.
The fossils belong to a now extinct subspecies of whales, which shows their transition from land animals to marine mammals: they still have hind legs. The fossils have been found on the surface in a now completely dry desert landscape, which was part of the enormous Tethys Ocean 40 million years ago.
Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) is the largest and most important site in the world for whale fossils.
The fossils belong to a now extinct subspecies of whales, which shows their transition from land animals to marine mammals: they still have hind legs. The fossils have been found on the surface in a now completely dry desert landscape, which was part of the enormous Tethys Ocean 40 million years ago.