The Qasr Dakhleh Project

Director: Dr. Fred Leemhuis

The Qasr Dakhleh Project (QDP) started in 2002 with two objectives:

1. To document and restore some of the unique mud brick architecture of the little oasis town of al-Qasr in the Dachla Oasis.
2. To try to find out as much as possible about the history of al-Qasr.

Supported by the University of Groningen and the Netherlands Embassy in Cairo we were, over the years, able to restore or reconstruct five rather large houses, some of them four stories high.  In the course of this some six hundred documents were found in the largest house; all part of a family archive. Since the end of 2006 we have tried to obtain permission to introduce water and electricity. The idea behind this was to make them ready for contemporary use, so that they will be maintained in good order. Just now, we have put the first electrical conduits in place.

After the discovery in 2006 of big part of a Roman wall of about six meters wide excavations were started in 2008 to know more about it. We now know that al-Qasr started as a Roman castrum. This year the excavations are going on. We hope to find indications of the continuity of habitation, or otherwise, since the Byzantines left the oasis.

For more information, visit The Qasr Dakhleh Project