KHARGA (WAHA EL-KHARGA, the outer oasis), the largest of the Egyptian oases, and hence frequently called the Great Oasis. It lies in the Libyan desert between 24° and 26° N. and 3o° and 31° E., the chief town, also called Kharga, being 435 m. by rail S. by W. of Cairo. It is reached by a narrow-gauge line (opened in 1908) from Kharga junction, a station on the Nile valley line near Farshut. The oasis consists of a depression in the desert some 1,800 sq.m. in extent, and is about ioo m. long north to south and from 12 to 5o broad east to west. The inhabitants are of Berber stock. Administratively the oasis forms part of the mudiria of Assiut. It is practically rainless, and there is not now a single natural flowing spring. There are, however, numerous wells tapping the porous sandstone which underlies a great part of the Libyan desert. The oasis contains many groves of date palms ; the dom palm, tamarisk, acacia and wild senna are also found. Rice, barley and wheat are the chief cereals cultivated, and lucerne for fodder. Besides agriculture the only industry is basket and mat making—from palm leaves and fibre. Since 1906 extensive boring and land reclamation works have been undertaken in the oasis.
In hieroglyphics the oasis is Kenetn and its capital Hebi (plough). Palaeolithic peoples occupied it and there are neolithic remains; under the Pharaohs it was an abode of spirits; under the 27th Dynasty the Persians developed it economically. The principal ruin, a temple of Amen, built under Darius, is of sand stone, 142 ft. long by 63 f t. broad and 3o ft. in height. On the
eastern escarpment of the oasis on the way to Girga are the re mains of a large Roman fort with twelve bastions. On the road to Assiut is a fine Roman columbarium or dove-cote. Next to the great temple the most interesting ruin in the oasis is, however, the necropolis, a burial-place of the early Christians, placed on a hill 3 m. N. of the town of Kharga. There are some two hundred rectangular tomb buildings, most with a chamber in which the mummy was placed, the Egyptian Christians at first continuing this method of preserving bodies. The chapel is basilican; in it and in another building are crude frescoes of biblical subjects.
Kharga town is picturesquely situated amid palm groves. The houses are of sun-dried bricks, the streets narrow and winding and for the most part roofed over, the roofs carrying upper storeys. Some of the streets are cut through the solid rock. Kharga is usually identified with the city of Oasis mentioned by Herodotus as being seven days' journey from Thebes and called in Greek the Island of the Blessed. The oasis was traversed by the army of Cambyses when on its way to the oasis of Ammon (Siwa), the army perishing in the desert before reaching its des tination. During the Roman period, as it had also been in Pharaonic times, Kharga was used as a place of banishment, the most notable exile being Nestorius, sent thither after his con demnation by the council of Ephesus.