Geological and morphological structures of the country
1.1 Outline of the geology of Egypt
Egypt and the African continent as a whole were once part of the old
Gondwana continent, which started disintegrating in the Jurassic age. The
Egyptian Basement Complex consists of two different blocks of Precambrian
rocks: the southern part of Jebel Uweinat/Gilf Kebir belongs to the older
pan-African Eastern Saharan Block, while the eastern mountain range is
part of the Nubian Shield, which was joined to the continent later during
the phase of pan-Africa’s consolidation (Luger et al. 1990: 122). From the
Cambrian to the Carboniferous period, marine and continental sedimentation
took place in the west of the Libyan Desert, when the whole area sank and a
fault trough formed which extended from the present Syrte Basin to Darfur
(Sudan). During the Carboniferous period the area of present-day southern
Egypt was vaulted up when the African continent collided with the northern
continents. Following the prevailing gradient, the main direction of drainage
was southward, unlike the direction in which the Nile runs today. It was
not till the Jurassic age that the previous direction of drainage was restored,
when the Gondwana continent fell apart. At the same time the East Saharan
Block was tilted up to the north and the north-west. Owing to these tectonic
activities the basins of Ed-Dakhla and Asyut were created, the former being
an important precondition for the sedimentation of huge deposits of an ex-
cellent water-storing capacity.