Whale skeleton in Wadi Al-Hitan

Wadi Al-Hitan (Arabic: وادي الحيتان‎, "Whales Valley") is a paleontological site in the Al Fayyum Governorate of Egypt, some 150 km southwest of Cairo. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site^[2] in July 2005^[3] for its hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whale, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales). The site reveals evidence for the explanation of one of the greatest mysteries of the evolution of whales: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. No other place in the world yields the number, concentration and quality of such fossils, as is their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape.^[4] This is why it was added by the UNESCO to the list of protected World Heritage sites.^[5]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi Al-Hitan