Sahara Desert Shadows – Egyptian Landscape Art

Description

I have no real explanation for how I had this Sahara Desert print in my mind’s eye well before I got to Egypt. There was just no way I should have been able to envision this view but I saw this image well before I found myself sitting on the back of a camel looking across the Sahara Desert near Aswan. And that is the one part I hadn’t envisioned. I saw the shadows stretching across the desert sands, but I never realized I would be on camel back at the time.

Framing this view of the Sahara Desert on the back of a camel in motion definitely upped the ante a bit. But there it was, just as I had imagined. The shadows of the camels on the golden orange sands and the dusk horizon. I know I may sound a bit offbeat suggesting that I had this in mind on the other side of the ocean, but when I saw it, my first thought was, “of course” and then I steadied my nerves and captured that gorgeous scenic Sahara Desert landscape. And just as quickly as it all crystallized before me, the golden moment was gone. The shadows receded as the sun grew fainter and that great golden orange color faded. It suddenly took on the feeling of a dream from the very moment I had conceived it until the moment I saw it. If I didn’t have this Sahara print, I would doubt the entire thing.

The truly funny thing is I don’t even remember seeing camel ride on the itinerary before I left for Egypt. Perhaps it was there and I subconsciously remembered it, but it was a happy surprise for me when our guide rounded us up for this late afternoon ride. I was simply excited by the thought of seeing the Sahara in the late afternoon light. Up until this point in the trip, the desert had mainly been seen through windows of cars and trains. That is, of course, no substitution for feeling the desert sands under your feet or seeing that seemingly vast and endless landscape.

The feeling of that moment will last a lifetime. The orange-reds of the sands near sunset were just as phenomenal as this Sahara Desert print suggests. Both the strange sense of deja vu and the natural beauty of the desert have made this a personal favorite among my Egyptian prints every since. And it’s a print that always seems to bring out the same sense of wonder in others, whether or not they’ve ever been to Egypt themselves.

Have you ridden camels on the Sahara Desert in Egypt? Or does this print strike you on an even deeper more intrinsic level? I hope you might take a second to share your thoughts on what you find most striking about this print.