Wadi Hower National Park - Gala Abou Ahmed (mixed natural and cultural site)

Description

Wadi Howar is a wadi in Sudan and Chad. It travels approximately 400 kilometres in a northeasterly direction from the Ouaddai highlands in Chad across the North Darfur state of Sudan, before losing itself in the Libyan Desert. Towards its western end it forms a part of the international boundary between Sudan and Chad, separating the West Darfur State of Sudan and the Borkou- Ennedi Region of Chad. Wadi Howar is located on the southern fringes of the Libyan Desert and is one of its most remarkable natural features. It is the largest dry river system in this presently hyper-arid part of the Sahara, stretching about 1,100km from its source area in the hilly Sudanese-Chadian border region to the Nile. 

Wadi Howar is one of the most remarkable natural features of the south Eastern Sahara. It was proclaimed on the 18th of July 2001, with an area of 100 thousand km sq. as one of the largest national park in the world. It has a diverse flora and outstanding geological features including the volcanic and crater landscape of Meidob Hills, Jebel Rahib complex, etc. Numerous paleo lakes and large active barachen done fields also exist. Dorcas gazelle, barbary sheep, ostrich and others also exist. The wadi was the largest Nile's tributary from the Sahara between 9500 -3000 years before present. Wadi Hower is one of the largest valleys located in the Sahara desert where hails from Apenida Heights Chadian and feed a number of valleys Aloseah such as Wadi Tina and Wadai Kornoy near the Chadian border "Dar Zaghawa region" and the Valley of the culvert and continues to split the desert that separates Libya, Sudan and 1,200 distance kilometers flows into the Nile in old Dongola region in the northern state where it is called the Valley by the population of those areas. Several years before reinterested in the environment, inter Sudanese idea "isolate Valley Howar" to be a nature reserve in order to bring life to it, and grab the Sudanese Organization for Education, Science and Culture the idea and adopted by the Ministry of Environment, and has already begun in the compilation of previous and subsequent studies. Fastaant in this matter at the University of Cologne German was the university concerned in terms of past experience accepted and because the project falls within the concerns in the fight against desertification, and already the university has sent scientists to assist in conducting a field survey about six months took included the area around the valley of the slopes in the Chadian border and valleys that feed from Dar Zaghawa population and cultural life and the environment historical and even its mouth when the West Bank of the Nile.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

It has diverse flora and outstanding geological features including the volcanic and crater landscape of Meidob Hills, Jebel Rahib complex, etc. Numerous paleo lakes and large active barachen done fields also exist. Dorcas gazelle, barbary sheep, ostrich and others also exist. More than 2,400 archaeological sites have been documented, and monument of Gala Abou Ahmed, providing evidence for human settlement and broad interregional cultural contacts between the 6th and 1st millennium BC. The wadi is the remnant of the ancient Yellow Nile, a tributary of the Nile, during the Neolithic Subpluvial, it was one of the largest rivers, lasting until 3000 BC, when the Sahara Desert returned to it present point. It met the Nile near the southern point of the Great Bend. The present extremely arid western part of Upper Nubia (northern Sudan) was temporarily linked to the Nile by way of a hitherto unknown 400 kilometer long tributary. The area is divided into three zones: the upper part which is located in Northern Darfur, the middle is located in Northern Kordofan while the lower part is located in the Northern State. Each zone has an outstanding feature. The upper zone has more endangered species of gazelles while the middle part contains geological important rocks that of marine nature situated in the Sahara.

Criterion (ii) : Gala Abou Ahmed is a unique fortress in the Sahara at the lower reached of Wadi Howar. It represents an interchange of values during the Napatan Period. It is of an outstanding architectural of dry-stone masonry. It is well integrated in the hyperarid Saharan desert. Wadi Howar offers a large diversity of outstanding potential of more that 2400 archaeological sites including unique prehistoric dune habitats as well as, for example, the Meidob Hills with numerous volcanic craters, the Jebel Rahib complex and the impressive sandstone formations of Zolat el Hammad providing suitable place for the prehistoric man.

Criterion (iii): During the early and middle Holocene, Wadi Howar was a chain of freshwater lakes and marshes supported by local rainfall, until they ultimately disappeared about 2,000 years ago. A savannah type landscape featuring a wide range of aquatic and savannah animals among them elephant, hippopotamus, giraffe and fish can be imagined. The first occupants of the Wadi Howar region were hunter-gatherers and fishers, and from the 4th millennium BC cattle herders occupied large territories. As the region became increasing arid sheep and goat were added to the herds. When climatic conditions became too hostile for permanent settlement at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, Wadi Howar was still used as a thoroughfare. Archaeological and geo-scientific research conducted in the Wadi Howar and adjacent areas since the 1980s have demonstrated that Wadi Howar was once an ecologically favoured area of settlement and a communication route between the inner regions of Africa and the Nile valley. More than 2,400 archaeological sites have been documented, providing evidence for human settlement and broad interregional cultural contacts between the 6th and 1st millennium BC.
 
Criterion (v): Wadi Howar is located on the southern fringes of the Libyan Desert and is one of its most remarkable natural features. It is the largest dry river system in this presently hyper-arid part of the Sahara, stretching about 1100km from its source area in the hilly Sudanese-Chadian border region to the Nile. It proved to be a key area for the study of past climates, environments and cultural evolution as well as their interrelations during the Holocene, from the onset of humid conditions about 11000 years ago up to the present. Archaeological and geo-scientific research conducted in the Wadi Howar and adjacent areas since the 1980s have demonstrated that Wadi Howar was once an ecologically favoured area of settlement and a communication route between the inner regions of Africa and the Nile valley. More than 2400 archaeological sites have been documented, providing evidence for human settlement and broad interregional cultural contacts between the 6th and 1st millennium BC.
 
Criterion (vii): The naturalness and the esthetic features of Wadi Hower gave it an increasing interest both regionally and internationally. Numerous paleo lakes and large active barachon dune fields of beautiful nature exist. The area contains rare oases and historical Darb Alarbaeen which is a known famous desert road for desert caravan.
 
Criterion (ix): The wadi was the largest Nile's tributary from the Sahara between 9500 -3000 years before present. The middle part of the wadi contains geological important rocks that of marine nature situated in the Sahara, with outstanding geological features including the volcanic and crater landscape of Meidob Hills, Jebel Rahib complex, etc. Field research into the climatic history and shifting of the East Saharan desert has furnished evidence that during Quaternary time the present extremely arid western part of Upper Nubia (northern Sudan) was temporarily linked to the Nile by way of a hitherto unknown 400 kilometer long tributary. From about 9500 to 3000 years ago, lower Wadi Howar flowed through an environment characterized by numerous ground water outlets and freshwater lakes. Savanna fauna and cattle-herders occupied this region, which today receives at most 25 millimeters of rainfall per year. At that period the southern edge of the eastern Sahara was some 500 kilometers further north than today and ground water resources were recharged for the last time. 
 
Criterion (x): The area contains rare oases of exceptional diverse flora in the desert. Mountainous habitats provide protection to the Dorcas gazelle, barbary sheep, ostrich, other desert fauna. Nomadic tribes traverse the area with cattle and camels.

Statements of authenticity and/or integrity

It was proclaimed on the 18th of July 2001, with an area of 100 thousand km sq. Sudan Government declared part of it as the NP with Total area 69,000.0 km2.  It is one of the largest national park in the world, managed by Wildlife Conservation General Administration supported by wardens and rangers in the vast deserted areas. The monument of Gala Abou Ahmed in Wadi Howar is authentic and retain its integral parts within the natural environment without any significant change.

Comparison with other similar properties

Wadi Hower could be compared with El Pinacate and Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve (Mexico). The 714566 hectare site comprises two distinct parts: the dormant volcanic Pinacate Shield of black and red lava flows.The site has desert pavements to the east, and, in the west, the Gran Altar Desert with its ever changing and varied sand dunes that can reach a height of 200 meters. This landscape of dramatic contrast notably features linear, star and dome dunes as well as several arid granite massifs, some as high as 650 metres. The dunes emerge like islands from the sea of sand and harbour distinct and highly diverse plant and wildlife communities, including endemic freshwater fish species and the endemic Sonoran Pronghorn, which is only to be found in northwestern Sonora and in southwestern Arizona (USA). This site is only differ from Wadi Hower by comprises two distinct parts: the dormant volcanic Pinacate Shield of black and red lava flows. It has ten enormous, deep and almost perfectly circular craters, believed to have been formed by a combination of eruptions and collapses, also contribute to the dramatic beauty of the site whose exceptional combination of features are of great scientific interested site. 
There is no parallel fortress in region similar to Gala Abou Ahmed.