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Al-Kharga Museum of Antiquities
The two-storey Al-Kharga Museum of Antiquities is housed in a cavernous, well-lit building made from local bricks and designed to resemble the architecture of nearby Bagawat. Inside is a small but interesting selection of archaeological finds from around Al-Kharga and Dakhla Oases. There's a particularly good selection of prehistoric objects, flints, ostrich eggs and tools tracing the prehistory of the oases in both English and Arabic.
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Monastery of Al-Kashef
Dominating the cliffs to the north of Al-Bagawat is the ruined Monastery of Al-Kashef, named after Mustafa al-Kashef, a tax collector, and strategically placed to overlook what was one of the most important crossroads of the Western Desert - the point where the Darb al-Ghabari from Dakhla crossed the Darb al-Arba'een. The magnificent mud-brick remains date back to the early Christian era, although the site was occupied as early as the Middle Kingdom.
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Necropolis of Al-Bagawat
It may not look like much from afar, but the Necropolis of Al-Bagawat is one of the earliest surviving and best-preserved Christian cemeteries in the world. About 1km north of the Temple of Hibis, it's built on the site of an earlier Egyptian necropolis, with most of the 263 mud-brick tombs appearing to date from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD. While many of the domed Coptic tombs are fairly plain, a few have vivid murals of biblical scenes inside and some have ornate facades.
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Temple of An-Nadura
Located on a hill off the main road at the north end of town, the Temple of An-Nadura has strategic views of the area and once doubled as a fortified lookout. It was built during the reign of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161) to protect the oasis, and inside are the remains of a sandstone temple with hieroglyphic inscriptions. It later housed a Coptic church and was used as a fortress by the Ottomans.
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Temple of Hibis
The town of Hebet ('the Plough', now corrupted into Hibis) was the capital of the oasis in antiquity, but all that remains is the well-preserved limestone Temple of Hibis . Once sitting on the edge of a sacred lake, the temple was dedicated to the Theban god triad of Amun-Re, Mut and Khons. Its construction began during the 25th dynasty, though the decorations and a colonnade were added over the next 300 years.
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