White Desert, EGYPT, 3/29/2010
White Desert
Here, the wind has eroded chalk monoliths into surreal forms resembling skulls, ostriches, hawks, camels, mushrooms and leopards, looming above a dusty pan strewn with shells, crystals and iron pyrites shaped like sea urchins or twigs. The chalk yardangs glint pale gold in the midday sun, turn violet and pink around sunset, and resemble icebergs or snowdrifts by moonlight – while gazelles may be glimpsed at daybreak as they forage for a few hours.
