The White Desert, also called The Farafra Desert is a national park in Egypt known for its snow-white to cream coloured rocks. It has massive chalk formations that have been sculpted into rigid, seemingly off balance, pillars by occasional sandstorms.
The desert also seems to be home to the ghost of Akhenaten, who has been spotted by both tourists and nomadic Bedouins, the latter populating the Farafra depression in which the White Desert is found. Legend has it that upon his death, the priests of Egypt cursed the pharoah’s spirit to wander the deserts forever as punishment for his attempt to abolish Egyptian polytheism and convert the empire to a monotheistic religion centred on Aten.
Whether or not the curse is true, no one can say, but we do know that Akhenaten did in fact abandon Egyptian polytheism. This departure was so radical that ultimately it could not be accepted, and after his death, all of Akhenaten’s monuments were dismantled and hidden, his statues destroyed, and his name was forbidden from being entered in the king lists. After about a dozen years traditional religious practices returned, and a new monastic dynasty was formed which discredited Akhenaten and referred to him as “the enemy” or “the criminal” in their records.
