By Egyptian standards there was no water west of the Oases, and the world ended.
-R.A. Bagnold, Geographical Journal, March 1937
D’Agostino: I’ve never seen anything like it. There would have been enough water here to serve an army. Almásy: Which means we’re in the wrong place.
-The English Patient, screenplay
Michael Ondaatje cites Bagnold’s article in the Acknowledgments of The English Patient, writing almost the exact same sentence. Anthony Minghella’s film has this exchange between two explorers at Abu Ballas, Father of Pots, an archeological site of hundreds of amphorae in the Western Desert that allowed ancient Egyptians to cache water and travel far beyond the Oases. Hajj Bashīr’s drovers could have taken Almásy to Um Qirab, Mother of Goat Skins, even farther beyond.