White Desert National Park, Egypt Dec 30, 2022

Snow, in the desert? Not quite. Today we"re in Egypt"s White Desert, which gets its colorful name from an abundance of chalk, limestone, and quartz rock formations that give the sand its special hue. Tourists flock to this place to see these naturally occurring structures, honed over thousands of years into unique shapes through a process known as differential weathering. Located about five hours to the southwest of Cairo, White Desert National Park is a lot more than just deteriorating rocks—it"s also a protected refuge for several endangered animal species.

© Anton Petrus/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

Dec 30, 2018Adorably evolutionary sea sheep
Dec 30, 2019Sky island views
Dec 30, 2020Winter in the Wild West
Dec 30, 2021Westerheversand Lighthouse
Dec 30, 2023Daiichi Tadami River Bridge, Fukushima, Japan
Dec 30, 2024Mount Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia
Dec 30, 2025Whooper swans, Kotoku Pond, Japan

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Jun 7, 2020A hermitage with a view
Jul 2, 2020All Rhodes lead to the beach
Dec 21, 2019Seventeen arches at sunset
Mar 14, 2022Pi Day
Sep 22, 2019Barcelona bids farewell to summer
Mar 25, 2023Cecil Brewer Staircase, London
Mar 23, 2026World Meteorological Day
Dec 25, 2018Happy holidays!
May 1, 2026Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Dec 3, 2025Sandhill cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico
Dec 7, 2018Honoring our fallen heroes
Jan 18, 2025Dunes at White Sands National Park, New Mexico
Apr 17, 2020It s a ruff life
Nov 30, 2024Saint Andrews Day
Apr 3, 2022Lake Tai s cherry trees in bloom
Apr 4, 2019Taking the forest to the cloud
Nov 30, 2021Giving Tuesday
Sep 19, 2022State funeral of Queen Elizabeth II
Nov 10, 2019Sunny day, sweepin the clouds away
Nov 29, 2019Opt outside today
Apr 10, 2025Siblings Day
Sep 17, 2020Citizenship Day and Constitution Day
Sep 17, 2023Cuban tody, Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, Cuba
Aug 19, 2020Freeze frame
Jul 10, 2025Independence Day of the Bahamas
Mar 26, 2024Vinh Hy Bay, Vietnam
Feb 16, 2023Horsetail Fall, Yosemite National Park, California
Aug 6, 2023Kagami-ike, Nagano, Japan
Sep 24, 2019With leaves this tasty, who cares about a view?
Jul 22, 2020Wildebeest on the move