The Black Desert, Egypt, is a region in the Sahara Desert featuring volcano-shaped hills and mounds, with many capped by basalt sills, providing their characteristic black colour. Here, the landscapes vary from green oasis with palm trees and hot springs, to strange dormant volcanos surrounded by sand and mountains made of crystals.

The mounds of the Black Desert vary in size, composition, height, and shape as some are dark consisting of iron quartzite while others are more reddish as its surface rocks consist of iron sandstone. On the outskirts of the Black Desert are volcanic hills proving the eruption of dark volcanic dolerite, dating back to the Jurassic period 180 million years ago. At this time, the region was under the sea, and the intense volcanic activity which affected the entire planet changed its geology, raising ocean land, from where peaks, summits and mounds gradually emerged. During that process, a magnificent crater covered by volcanic veined marble emerged, whose layers fill wrinkles marked by time in its old rocks.