The White Desert is a 300-sq-km national park.
About 20km northeast of Farafra, on the east side of the road, blinding-white chalk rock spires sprout almost supernaturally from the ground, each frost-coloured lollipop licked into a surreal landscape of familiar and unfamiliar shapes by the dry desert winds.
These sculptural formations are best viewed at sunrise or sunset, when the sun lights them with orangey-pink hues, or under a full moon, which gives the landscape a ghostly Arctic appearance.
The sand around the outcroppings is littered with quartz and different varieties of deep-black iron pyrites, as well as small fossils.
On the west side of the Farafra–Bahariya highway, away from the wind-hewn sculptures, chalk towers called inselbergs burst from the desert floor into a spectacular white canyon.
Between them run grand boulevards of sand, like geologic Champs-Élysées. No less beautiful than the east side of the road, the shade and privacy here makes it a great area to camp.
About 50km north are two flat-topped mountains known as the Twin Peaks, a key navigation point for travellers.
A favourite destination of local tour operators, the view from the top of the surrounding symmetrical hills, all shaped like giant ant-hills, is spectacular.
Just beyond here, the road climbs a steep escarpment known as Naqb As Sillim (Pass of the Stairs); this is the main pass that leads into and out of the Farafra depression and marks the end of the White Desert.
