Word Finder - oases

definition

A spring of fresh water, surrounded by a fertile region of vegetation, in a desert.

definition

A quiet, peaceful place or situation separated from surrounding noise or bustle.

example

The park was an oasis in the middle of the busy city.

Besides the oases the desert is remarkable for two other valleys.

The other four oases lie parallel to and distant 100 to 150 m.

The oases of Sakaka and Kara are situated in a similar basin 15 m.

These oases were known and occupied by the Egyptians as early as 1600 s.c., and Kharga (q.v.) rose to special importance at the time of the Persian occupation.

In general barren, the country contains several oases, with a total population of about 10,000.

In the oases of Sahara, and in other parts of Northern Africa, dates are pounded and pressed into a cake for food.

It belongs to the series of oases (Uch-Turfan, Bai, Koucha, &c.) situated at the southern foot of the eastern T'ien-shan mountains.

These poljes may be described as oases in what is otherwise a desert expanse of mountains.

But the string of oases in Kan-suh province, which stretches between the towns named, lies on the lower level of the Mongolian plateau (4000 to 5000 ft.), so that the Lung-shan ought possibly to be regarded as a continuation of the Pe-shan mountains of the Gobi.

This country consists of seven oases, five in close proximity and two isolated.

They are the termination of a stony plateau, containing several small oases, which southward joins the more arid and uninhabitable wastes of the Libyan Desert.

East of the oases of Baharia and Farafra is a very striking line of these sand dunes; rarely more than 3 miles wide, it extends almost continuously from Moghara in the north, passing along the west side of Kharga Oasis to a point near the Nile in the neighborhood of Abu Siinbelhaving thus a length of nearly 550 m.

The other desert regions of Egypt are elevated stony plateaus, which are diversified by extensively excavated valleys and oases, and in which sand frequently plays quite a subordinate part.

Along the south foot of the Tian-shan, and in the high valleys which intervene between the constituent ranges of that system, there exist numerous flourishing oases, such as Uch-turfan, Ak-su, Kucha, Korla, Kara-shahr, Hami, Barkul, Turfan, Urumchi, Manas and Kulja.

Beyond the Nile valley east and west stretch great deserts, containing here and there fertile oases.

Oases.In the western desert lie the five large oases of Egypt, namely, Siwa, Baharia, Farafra, Dakhla and Kharga or Great Oasis, occupying depressions in the plateau or, in the case of the last three, large indentations in the face of limestone escarpments which form the western versant of the Nile valley hills.

Alum is found in the western oases.

The most important tree is the date-palm, which grows all over Egypt and in the oases.

Egypt normally included the whole of the Nile valley from the First Cataract to the sea; pure Egyptians, however, formed the population of Lower Nubia above the Cataract in prehistori.c times; at some periods also the land was divided into separate kingdoms, while at others Egypt stretched southward into Nubia, and it generally claimed the neighboring Libyan deserts and oases on the west and the Arabian deserts on the east to the shore of the Red Sea, with Sinai and the Mediterranean coast as far as Rhinocorura (El Arish).

Through the oases also ran paths to the Sudan by which the raw merchandise of the southern countries could be brought to Egypt.

This is, of course, due to the excess of evaporation over the amount of water supplied by its two feeders, the Amu-darya and the Syrdarya, both of which are seriously drawn upon for irrigation in all the oases they flow through.

The Murghab river and the Hari Rud, which terminate in the oases of Mer y and Sarakhs, almost certainly penetrated to the gulf of the Kara Kum, but the question whether the Oxus was ever deflected so as to enter the gulf with the Murghab cannot be said to be answered decisively at present.

Owing to a very equitable distribution of irrigation water in accordance with Moslem law, agriculture and gardening have reached a high stage of development in the oases.

The Tarim, which is on the whole a sluggish, shallow, winding stream, fringes the great desert of Takla-makan on the west, north and east, and, after being extensively drawn upon for irrigation purposes in the oases (Yarkand, Kashgar, Maral-bashi, Ak-su), through which it passes, it eventually dies away in the salt reed-grown lake or marsh of Lop-nor (Karakoshun).

A similar string of oases exist all along the north foot of the Kuen-lun, e.g.

The wild camel frequents the scattered oases along the margins of the desert and roams into the desert itself.

What cultivation there is, is confined to the oases which nestle at the foot of the mountains all round the Tarim basin.

The soil in them is of great fertility wherever it is irrigated, and despite the supineness of the Chinese authorities, irrigation is very extensively practised in nearly all the oases.

Excellent crops of wheat, barley, maize, sesame, millet, cotton, opium, tobacco and rice are grown, and several of the oases, e.g.

The agricultural population of the oases are principally of Turkish stock, powerfully influenced by Aryan blood.

The caravan routes mostly followed between China and the more populous centres (Kashgar and Yarkand) of East Turkestan start from An-si-chow and Sa-chow respectively, converge upon Hami on the north side of the Pe-shan swelling, and continue westward along the south foot of the Tian-shan Mountains through the oases of Turfan, Kara-shahr, Korla, Kucha, Ak-su and Uch-turfan.

Wherever oases are found they present similar features, and are naturally the halting-places and points of departure of desert caravans.

The desert regions yield support only to nomadic peoples, such as the Tuareg, Tibbu, Bedouins and Bushmen, though the presence of numerous oases in the north renders the condition of life easier for the inhabitants.

In the maritime parts of Malaga and Granada the vegetation is of almost tropical richness and beauty, while in Murcia, Alicante and Almeria the aspect is truly African, fertile oases appearing in the midst of rocky deserts or barren steppes.

West of the Nile there are a few oases-- those of Selima, Zaghawa and El Kab - but this district, part of the Libyan Desert, is even more desolate than the Nubian Desert.

North of Khartum agricultural land is confined to a narrow strip on either side of the Nile and to the few oases in the Libyan Desert.

The date-palm is cultivated along the Nile valley below Khartum, especially on the west bank in the Dongola mudiria and in the neighbouring oases.

The lowland, or Tehama, is hot and generally sterile; it contains oases, however, near the foot of the mountains, fertilized and irrigated by hill streams and supporting many large villages and towns.

As far south as Kurn Surtabeh most of the valley is fertile, and even between that point and the Dead Sea there are several wellwatered oases.

Emily looked around, trying to find the source of the laughing, and saw nothing but powdery sand, and oases.

Unfortunately the spread of cultivation is fatal to these oases (they are often called " islands " by the inhabitants); the axe and the plough ruthlessly destroy them.

Except on the scattered oases, where irrigation from springs and mountain streams has reclaimed small patches, the desert is barren and forbidding in the extreme.

In still more western fields of research much additional light has been thrown since 1875 on the physiography of the great deserts and oases of Arabia.

Akhdar, is perhaps the most fertile district in the peninsula; Hadramut, too, contains many large and prosperous villages, and the torrents from the Yemen highlands fertilize several oases in the Tehama (or Tihama) or lowlands of the western and southern coast.

Palgrave says little of the desert part of the journey or of its Bedouin inhabitants, but much of the fertility of the oases and of the civility of the townsmen; and like other travellers in Nejd he speaks with enthusiasm of its bright, exhilarating climate.

Water is found in it a few feet below the surface, and a little cultivation is carried on at the small oases of Kaf and Ithri, whence salt produced in the neighbouring salt lakes is exported.

Kasim and Wushm, where the water in the wadi beds rises nearly to the ground level, numerous fertile oases are found with thriving villages and towns.

In the north-west the Dhahira district sloping towards the Jewasimi coast is more steppe-like in character; but there two oases of great fertility are found, of which Birema, visited by both Miles and Zwemer, supports a population of 15,000.

This distinction between the characteristics of the two races is only true in a general sense, for a considerable population of true Bedouin origin has settled down to agricultural life in the oases of Hejaz and Nejd, while in southern Arabia the tribes dwelling on the fringe of the great desert have to a certain extent adopted the nomad life.

This abundant supply of fresh warm water maintains oases of extraordinary luxuriance in a country where rain falls very rarely.