The geological heritage of the Kurkur–Dungul area in southern Egypt

Abstract

The inventory of the geological heritage of Egypt is important for its efficient conservation and usage for the purposes of science, education, and tourism. The field investigations in the Kurkur–Dungul area in southern Egypt have permitted to identify several unique geological features. Their type, rank, relative abundance, and intrinsic diversity, as well as importance of the entire geological heritage of the study area are investigated. Seven geological heritage types are distinguished, namely stratigraphical, sedimentary, palaeogeographical, mineralogical, structural, geomorphological, and economical types. The rank of the features belonging to the listed types ranges from local to global, and the relative abundance and the intrinsic diversity range from low to high. The global rank is established for the sedimentary type, which is determined by the wide distribution of palaeospring tufa deposits. The high relative abundance and intrinsic diversity are established for the geomorphological type. The entire geological heritage of the Kurkur–Dungul area can be employed for diversification of the existing tourism programs offered at the tourist destination of Aswan, as well as for geotourism development. A geopark can be created in the Kurkur–Dungul area for the better exploitation of its geological heritage. The combined development of geological and industrial tourism seems to be possible.