From Camel Racing to Falconry: How Egypt’s New Valley Festival Revives Desert Heritage

For four consecutive days, the city of Kharga, the capital of Egypt’s vast New Valley Governorate in the Western Desert, hosted the New Valley International Festival of Traditional Sports and Arts. The event brought together participants from several Egyptian governorates alongside delegations from Arab countries, positioning the New Valley as a growing hub for cultural heritage, traditional sports, and people-to-people diplomacy.

The festival offered a rich program of camel and horse racing, traditional archery, falconry, Saluki hunting dog competitions, folkloric performances, poetry, and handicrafts, demonstrating that Egypt’s living heritage is not confined to museums but remains practised, evolving, and shared across generations.