ABSTRACT
Until recently, surface exposures of Paleozoic strata occupied a small area on the geological map of Egypt. These included the well-known Carboniferous exposures along the Gulf of Suez and in the Gebel Uweinat area in the southwest comer of Egypt Subsurface Paleozoic occurrences have also been reported from the northern part of the Western Desert. Sediments of Cambrian age are exposed in the Um Bogma area of Sinai and at several places between there, Wadi Feiran and Abu Durba. In the area around Umm Bogma, the Precambrian basement is overlain by a sequence of clastic sediments, which represent several cycles of fluvial to near-shore marine environment. The Silurian is reported from the subsurface of the north Western Desert. Surface exposures cover large areas in southwest Egypt. Carboniferous until early Jurassic time, the drainage was toward the south and southwest. Large areas in central and south Egypt were elevated and the Paleozoic strata - where present, were now subjected to erosion.
