No abstract

The future development of agriculture, industry, and civil activity is planned to be in the Western Desert, Egypt. El-Bahariya Oasis is located in the heart of the Western Desert at a distance of about 370 km to the southwest of Cairo. The area under investigation is located between latitudes 28°06 0 N & 28°16 0 N and longitudes 28°54 0 E & 29°04. The Bahariya depression comprises a total area of approximately 2250 km 2 . The main target of the present study is to delineate the shallow and deep subsurface structures of the study area. To achieve this, two geophysical methods (magnetic and geothermal) have been used. A detailed land magnetic survey has been acquired. Fifty three land magnetic stations have been measured in a mesh like area with 500 m spacing interval. The necessary corrections concerning daily variation, the regional gradient and time variations have been applied. Then, the total magnetic intensity anomaly map (TMI) has been constructed and reduced to the pole magnetic map (RTP). The Euler deconvolution has been applied to the TMI anomaly data as well as the analytical signal technique. Also, the magnetic interpretation has been carried out using the high-pass filtering technique and spectral frequency analysis. The analysis of the magnetic data shows that the dominant tectonic trends are NW-SE and E-W. The results show that, the average calculated depth ranges between 0.1 km and 0.32 km, while the depth to the basement intrusion is 0.4 km, below the measuring level.The geothermal studies in EL Bahariya-Oasis comprise subsurface temperature contour map which illustrates that the study area has geothermal groundwater reservoirs. The measurements of the geothermal properties for measured rock samples show that the rocks of the study area have moderate values of geothermal properties. This may be due to the seasonal variation in soil temperatures. These soil thermal properties depend on soil porosity and moisture content. Ó 2015 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf

The ancient Egyptian Abedju (original name of the present Abydos) locality is a famous archaeological site southwest of Balyana town, Sohag Governorate, Upper Egypt. It is located to the west of the agricultural land of the Nile Valley. The locality represents one of the most important burial grounds for kings and high court dignitaries in ancient Egypt. Shallow geophysical techniques are considered as one of the most accurate and cost‐effective methods used in archaeological prospecting and are considered as rapid and safe techniques in detecting a wide range of buried archaeological features. The geoelectric resistance scanning technique, using the Geoscan RM‐15 Resistance Meter, is applied with a twin‐electrode configuration at three sites of the unexcavated localities of Abydos area. This technique proved to be a useful means of exploring the sites through mapping the subsurface burial inhomogeneities resulting from the marked resistance contrast between the buried stone and brick walls and the covering fill of sand, silt and clay. Interesting different buried features are imaged and displayed on maps and three‐dimensional representations to guide the archaeological excavation programmes at the sites of Umm El‐Qaab, Shunet El‐Zebib and Kom El‐Sultan within the Abydos region. At the Umm El‐Qaab site the combined interpretation of the tomography resistance ranges and maps indicate buried walls and rubble as well as an amorphous background area. At the Shunet El‐Zebib site, the texture of the images, which show scattered and crowded high‐resistance anomalies, confirms the existence of buried tombs at the site, which is surrounded by defence walls. Thus, this site was not a fortress or a palace, but a special cemetery for higher dignitaries. Kom El‐Sultan, however, shows a concentration of high‐resistance anomalies at the northern part. Thus, these may be related to walls and rubble related to a nearby elevated temple. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.