Visiting Wild Camels and Cleopatra’s Emeralds in Wadi el-Gemal
Located on Egypt’s Red Sea coast just to the south of Marsa Alam, Wadi el-Gemal (Valley of Camels) National Park combines a subtle desert beauty with archeological significance in intriguing ways. In fact, the mountains of this desert valley have sheltered both man and animal over the centuries. It has shared its mineral wealth to pharaohs and emperors, and continues to provide both shade and water to a variety of desert creatures, including wild camels!
This unique mix of natural beauty and cultural significance has placed it on a list of possible future UNESCO Heritage sites. However, whether it gains the prestige of becoming Egypt’s next heritage site or not, Wadi el-Gemal is worth checking out for families in search of an adventure.
Wadi el-Gemal National Park
Entry fee: 40EGP/person (foreigners) 5EGP/person (locals)
Note: This fee is just for entry into the park. Individual tours can have a wide range of prices, depending on what you want to do in the park.
My family visited Wadi el-Gemal as one of our group experiences with other worldschooling families in Marsa Alam, Egypt. We’ve been exploring the area with Wildlife Worldschool and have absolutely loved having a community to do these sorts of trips with!
If that sounds interesting to you, be sure to check them out on Facebook!
Exploring the interior of Wadi el-Gemel requires vehicles with 4×4 capabilities, and it is quite easy to get turned around in the park’s many valleys, so this is not a trip that you can take without a guide.
The Natural Beauty of the Wadi el-Gemal Desertscape
With Marsa Alam’s abundant reefs filled with all kinds of sea life, visitors to the area could be forgiven for focusing their attention on the Red Sea. But even so, the desert landscapes found in Wadi el-Gemal are beautiful in their own way and absolutely not to be missed!
From the coastal road, the desert looks much like you might expect. Sandy stretches with low-lying scrub bushes abound. However, deeper in the park water remains trapped under the mountains. This trapped water allows acacias and other desert trees to thrive in the shadow of the mountains and has been a source of drinking water for animals and nomads alike for millennia.

It is still not what could be considered a “lush” environment, but when compared to the other harsh desert stretches found across Egypt, it’s easy to see why desert animals would find it inviting.
We set out on our tour fairly early in the morning hoping to spot some of the larger animals that make Wadi el-Gemel home. Wild goats and gazelles both live in the mountains, as well as foxes, Egyptian wolves, and, of course, camels.
These animals are most often spotted by tourists near a small watering hole in the mountains, and we mostly headed straight there, only making a short stop to take pictures with the Wadi el-Gemal welcome sign next to a huge vein of quartz.

Once we arrived at the trailhead to the well, we all jumped out, topped off our water bottles and started walking. It was still early enough in the day that the trail was almost entirely in shade, which made it quite a pleasant walk. It only took about 10 minutes to get to where the trail ended at a small covered well with a small, water-filled depression next to it.
Our guide hauled up a single container of well water and poured it into the watering hole, and then urged us to keep our eyes out for gazelle. Unfortunately, while we found signs that animals had been there recently, we didn’t spot any ourselves.

Run-off from rain collects in a natural depression in Wadi el-Gemal, which keeps this well from running dry.
Soon after, we headed back to the cars and continued on our way.
While we ourselves didn’t see any animals at the watering hole, they are common in the area, and with a little luck you may be able to spot some. And I did manage to spot a lone desert fox breaking cover while we drove along through the park!
Wildlife is notoriously uncooperative on tours, so it’s not surprising that we didn’t see any at this first location.
Camels in the Valley
Our next planned stop was the ruined temple of Sekeit, however, before we even got halfway there, we spotted two wild camels in the shade of some acacias in the valley, and just had to make a small detour!

The ability to see wild camels in the desert was the first thing that caught our attention about the Wadi el-Gemal area, and this sighting, as small as it was, made the whole trip for us!
Roman era Ruins in the Heart of Wadi el-Gemal
While wildlife can often be hit or miss on tours like this, ruins are much more dependable! After all, they’ve already been there for hundreds of years, so it’s a pretty sure thing that you’ll get to see them.
There are several different archeological sites located throughout Wadi el-Gemal, but most of them aren’t accessible to tour groups. However, one of the most significant of the Wadi el-Gemal sites is accessible, and worth the trip!
There is a small temple carved into the mountainside among the ruins of a town called Sekeit. It is a small temple, and can’t compare to the larger temples in places like Aswan or Luxor, but if you look carefully you can still see carvings in the soft stone walls.
The carved stone pillars are from the temple’s original construction, but you can also see stacked stone pillars acting as additional supports. These were added much later, due to concerns that the stone roof would collapse.
Despite those concerns, this temple is in considerably better condition than much of the rest of the Sekeit. The town was larger than I was expecting, but from the temple there were only a handful of other structures that I could spot. It wasn’t until I zoomed in on satellite imagery on Google Maps that I could see just how much history was surrounding me.
This is a map of the area where Sekeit once stood.
Definitely check out the 3d view of the satellite imagery on Google Maps, if you get a chance! It’s crazy how many buildings were once in that area, especially when you realize that what you can see from the ground is such a small percentage of everything that was going on there.
You can also find GPS coordinates for other archeological sites in the area in this document.
The harsh desert conditions aren’t great for humans, so the fact that Sekeit had grown that big at all was surprising to me. And the fact that there were other settlements in Wadi el-Gemal was doubly interesting!
So, why did people invest so much energy in building in such an inhospitable place?
As it turns out, it was because of the emeralds.
Cleopatra’s Emerald Mines
For much of recorded history, Wadi el-Gemal was the source of some of the best emeralds in the world! Mines in this area started appearing as early as the Middle Kingdom, and they were eventually named after the Pharaoh Cleopatra due to her enjoyment of the green stones. In fact, she often gave emeralds away as gifts to visiting nobility!
During the Ptolemaic era, this area of the world was also important due to its access to the Red Sea, and there was actually a good-sized port city called Berenice Troglodytica just to the south of Wadi el-Gemel. This was a main trade port for many years, and teak wood artifacts in the area speak to trade being done with partners as far away as India.
Eventually, Wadi el-Gemel became part of la Via Hadriana, or Hadrian’s Way, under the Roman emperor Hadrian. All of this added to the importance of the different mining communities in Wadi el-Gemal, as they doubled as stopovers for traveling traders.
However, as other trade routes flourished, Berenice Troglodytica was eventually abandoned and the settlements in the area all fell into ruin. Nevertheless, emeralds, beryl, and even gold can still be found in abundance in the area, and small pieces of emerald are easy to spot in the sand surrounding the ruins.
Outside of the protected areas like Wadi el-Gemal, modern mining operations are still common, and the original infrastructure in Marsa Alam was built as housing for miners.
Desert Camping and Star-gazing
I’ll preface this section by saying that I have not yet had the opportunity to take a stargazing trip in Wadi el-Gemal itself, though I have done so just to the north of the National Park in Tondoba Bay.
Deserts are amazing places to admire the night sky in part because the lack of humidity in the air means there is less distortion when looking at far away objects, and in part because the lower population in desert areas means there is usually less light pollution to deal with.

However, if you want to get the most out of a stargazing trip, you’ll definitely want access to a telescope and a guide that knows what they’re doing. If you book a stargazing tour in Wadi el-Gemal, be sure that your tour includes a telescope! While it may seem like that would be a given for an astronomy tour, we have friends who ended up on a stargazing tour that didn’t have one. They told me the tour was enjoyable anyway, but it definitely wasn’t what they were expecting!
I’d love to link to some excellent tours for doing this, but the majority of tour operators in Marsa Alam do their bookings offline. The best bet for finding a Wadi el-Gemal star tour is to inquire at your hotel. There is a very good chance that they’ll know someone.
The Wadi el-Gemal Maritime Reserve
The huge size and variety of activities available in Wadi el-Gemal makes it impossible to explore the whole park in a single trip. Alongside hikes in desert valleys and exploring ancient ruins, Wadi el-Gemal also has long stretches of beautiful beaches, mangroves, and roughly 2,000 square kilometers of protected sea area.
The parts of Wadi el-Gemal that border the Red Sea are much easier to access than the interior of the park and don’t require a 4×4 vehicle, though some parts do require a boat. I’ve already written a bit about the Maritime Reserve in my article on the Best Snorkeling and Dive Spots for Families in Marsa Alam, so I’ll just supplement a bit here.

Also check out…
Coral, Dugongs, and Dolphins – Why Marsa Alam, Egypt is perfect for a family-friendly snorkeling adventure
White Sandy Beaches – Sharm el Shuli
Sharm el Shuli beach is one of my absolute favorite beaches in the Marsa Alam area for families with younger kids!
Because entry into the park is not free, the beaches inside Wadi el-Gemal are some of the least crowded and most pristine beaches that I have seen in Egypt. Sharm el Shuli, in particular, was spectacular!

It is located in a shallow bay area on the Red Sea coast, so the water is shallow and the waves are small enough for even younger kids to play in without being knocked over. My daughter, in particular, loved playing in the sand along the shore.
There are several shade shelters that allow guests to get out of the sun when they like, and public restrooms in case nature calls.
The snorkeling is great, too, if you want to go a bit deeper!
Basically, if you’re looking for a great, uncrowded beach location on the Red Sea, Sharm el-Shuli is your best bet.
Qulaan Mangroves
Mangroves are some of the most unique trees in the world, thanks in large part to their ability to filter saltwater. They play a huge role in preventing shoreline erosion, and provide shelter to tons of different animal species, including birds, crabs, and fish! Essentially, wherever you find mangroves, you find unique biological hotspots.
The mangroves in Egypt are shorter, and much more sparse than the mangrove forests I’ve seen in other parts of the world. Considering the desert climate, that’s probably not too surprising. Even so, they are definitely worth seeing, if you’re in the area.

The Qulaan Mangrove area is an excellent location for checking out these amazing trees. Not only are there several small groves where you can get up close to them, but there is a lovely shade shelter where you can relax, a clean beach, and water to play in.
The snorkeling here was not particularly good, but the shallow layer of water along the ground meant lots of tide pool creatures to find!
Hamata Islands
The Hamata Islands are one of the hardest to reach areas of the maritime reserve because they are far enough offshore that a boat is needed to reach them. However, if you go through the effort, you will find pristine corals and crystal clear water that has earned these small islands the nickname, the “Egyptian Maldives.”
Unlike the rest of the park, I’ve not yet had the chance to visit the Hamata islands, so I’m writing this section based off what others have told me, however I have yet to hear anyone say that they regretted taking a trip out there!

In a country known more for the splendor of its ancient ruins and impressive history, Wadi el-Gemal stands out as an amazing place to submerge yourself in the natural world. Whether you’re hoping for breathtaking desert landscapes, close encounters with wild camels, or just taking a moment to relax on the beach, this national park is worth exploring.