General Information

Wadi Degla Protectorate (“wadi” means valley in Arabic) lies in the northern part of the Eastern Desert and runs east to west for 30km to drain into the Nile Valley at Maadi, south of of Cairo, Helwan Governorate. The area, which encompasses 60 km², was declared by the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA) as Natural Protectorate in 1999.

Wadi Degla is one of the most important valleys in Egypt. It passes through the limestone rocks that had remained in the marine environment during the Eocene Epoch in the eastern desert (60 million years). Therefore, it is rich with fossils. The height of these rocks alongside the valley is around 50 m. A group of valleys flew into this valley. The protectorate has a group of animals including mammals like dear, taital, mountain rabits , red fox , feather tailed rat , oviparous , barbed rat, little tailed bat and others. Among the insects there are and many others. 18 species of reptiles have been recorded. The rain water dropping from the waterfalls affected the limestone rocks along the years and formed the so called canyon Degla, which resembles the Grand Canyon in the states.