oasis

1. A fertile or green spot in a desert or wasteland, made so by the presence of water.
2. A situation or place preserved from surrounding unpleasantness; a refuge: an oasis of serenity amid chaos.

[From Late Latin Oasis, an oasis in the Libyan desert, from Greek, from Coptic ouahe, from Egyptian wḥ't.]

For more information on oasis, visit Britannica.com.

Thousands of years before other parts of the world entered the pages of history, the ancient Egyptians created in the desert of North Africa an oasis not only of green fertile land but also of civilization. Their oasis was only as wide as the floodplain of a river, but the river was the world's longest, extending more than four thousand miles. The first Egyptian empire, encompassing the river from its delta to a thousand miles upstream, was founded there some five thousand years ago. Each year the river would flood, depositing new fertile soil on the farmland and making the desert bloom. In the idle farming time of the flood, rulers employed the farmers in public works like the building of the pyramids.

We think the Egyptians were the first to use the word oasis. It is not used in the written Egyptian records that have been preserved, but a word similar to oasis meaning "dwelling-place" is found in the descendant of Egyptian known as Coptic. From the Egyptians, Greek and Roman writers learned the word.

Its presence in English is much more recent, stemming from the time when English speakers were first becoming world travelers. In Samuel Purchas's 1613 travel book we find mention of Oasis as a fertile place in the Libyan desert. Nowadays we use oasis far from the deserts of Africa to mean a peaceful, flourishing place that makes a pleasant contrast to its surroundings, like an oasis of free time in the midst of a busy schedule.

Egyptian is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family, cousin to Arabic and Hebrew. It is uniquely important to linguists and historians because its written records, beginning with the famous hieroglyphs, go back five thousand years. Through Latin and Greek it has given English a dozen or so other words that have stuck with us, including ammonia (1799) and basalt (1601), ebony (1382) and ivory (1300), and gum (1385)--the chewing kind. But there are no speakers of Egyptian today, the last having died about five hundred years ago. Arabic is now the language of Egypt.

A fertile, watered spot in a desert. Oases result when the water-table reaches the surface, perhaps because a deflation hollow has formed.

Watered area surrounded by desert. An oasis is a fertile area, watered by wells, that is found in the midst of a desert. They can be small or large.

An oasis may suggest the need to give oneself a respite from conditions or relationships that may be overwhelming. The water nourishes the soul and the psyche. Emotional needs may be an issue that require immediate attention. Also, this dream symbol sometimes indicates the need for a vacation.

For the English rock group, see Oasis (band). For other uses, see Oasis (disambiguation).

Ein-Kelt, an oasis in the Judean Desert, Israel

In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) or cienega (southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough.

The location of oases has been of critical importance for trade and transportation routes in desert areas. Caravans must travel via oases so that supplies of water and food can be replenished. Thus, political or military control of an oasis has in many cases meant control of trade on a particular route. For example, the oases of Awjila, Ghadames and Kufra, situated in modern-day Libya, have at various times been vital to both North-South and East-West trade in the Sahara. The word oasis came into English via Greek ὄασις oasis, borrowed directly from Egyptian wḥ3t or Demotic wḥỉ. It was not borrowed from Coptic ouaḥe (*/waħe/), as is sometimes suggested; the Greek word is attested several centuries before Coptic existed as a written language.^{[citation needed]}

The Huacachina oasis in Ica, Peru

Oases are formed from underground rivers or aquifers such as an artesian aquifer, where water can reach the surface naturally by pressure or by man made wells. Occasional brief thunderstorms provide subterranean water to sustain natural oases, such as the Tuat. Substrata of impermeable rock and stone can trap water and retain it in pockets; or on long faulting subsurface ridges or volcanic dikes water can collect and percolate to the surface. Any incidence of water is then used by migrating birds who also pass seeds with their droppings which will grow at the water's edge forming an oasis.

Contents 1 Growing plants 2 Notable Oases 3 See also 4 Bibliography 5 References 6 External links

Growing plants

Oasis in the Libyan part of the Sahara

People who live in an oasis must manage land and water use carefully; fields must be irrigated to grow plants like dates, figs, olives, and apricots. The most important plant in an oasis is the date palm which forms the upper layer. These palm trees provide shade for smaller trees like peach trees, which form the middle layer. By growing plants in different layers, the farmers make best use of the soil and water. Many vegetables are also grown and some cereals, such as wheat, barley and millet are grown where there is more moisture. ^[1]

Notable Oases

• Nile River valley and delta, Egypt, is claimed as the world's biggest oasis by the 2007 edition of The Guinness Book of World Records with a stated area of 22,000 square kilometres.
• Al-Qatif,Saudi Arabia, large oasis on the coast of the Persian Gulf.
• Al Hasa,saudi arabia.
• Azraq, Jordan
• Bahariya Oasis, Egypt
• Ein Gedi, Israel
• El Tour, Sinai peninsula,
• Farafra Oasis, Egypt
• Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, United States
• Gaberoun, Libya
• Herðubreiðarlindir, a so-called oasis-like area in the frozen Highlands of Iceland
• Huacachina, Peru
• Kufra Oasis, Libya

Ein Gedi, Israel

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah, United States of America.

• La Cienega, New Mexico, a paraje on El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
• Las Vegas Valley, United States, what was once an oasis in the vast Mojave desert has over the years grown into a vibrant metropolitan area of over 1.8 million people, location of the famed Las Vegas Strip.
• Loulan, China
• M'Zab Valley, Algeria
• Marin, China
• Mulege, Baja California Sur, Mexico
• Niya, China
• Ouargla, Algeria
• Palm Valley, Central Australia
• Safsaf Oasis, Egypt
• San Ignacio, Baja California Sur, Mexico
• San Pedro de Atacama, Chile
• Siwa Oasis, Egypt
• Tabas, Iran
• Tafilalt, Morocco
• Timimoun, Algeria
• Tozeur, Tunisia
• Tuat, Algeria
• Turpan, China
• Twentynine Palms, California, United States
• Warm Springs Area, Nevada, United States
• Yarkand, China
• Zerzura, a mythical oasis in Egypt or Libya

See also

• Oasification
• Qanat
• Guelta

Bibliography

• (French) Battesti (Vincent), Jardins au désert, Evolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens, Jérid tunisien, Paris, Éditions IRD, coll. À travers champs, 2005, 440 p. ISBN 2-7099-1564-2 Open Archives: book in free access / in French

References

1. ^ http://library.eb.co.uk/eb/article-9056610

External links

• Media related to Oasis at Wikimedia Commons
• The Wiktionary definition of oasis

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - oase

Nederlands (Dutch)
oase

Français (French)
n. - oasis, (fig) oasis, havre

Deutsch (German)
n. - Oase

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (γεωγρ., μτφ.) όαση

Italiano (Italian)
oasi

Português (Portuguese)
n. - oásis (m)

Русский (Russian)
оазис

Español (Spanish)
n. - oasis

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - oas

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
绿洲, 舒适的地方

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 綠洲, 舒適的地方

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 사막의 오아시스 , 휴식처

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - オアシス, 憩いの場

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الواحه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮נווה מדבר, נאת מדבר, נקודה או תקופה שקטה בתוך מערבולת, חוויה מרעננת‬

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