IN THE ESNA-IDFU REGION, NILE VALLEY, EGYPT 51 



and repeated by Faris (1947) has completely confused the identity of the Paleocene 

 in Egypt. The fact that the stratigraphical break was overlooked, led authors to 

 assign the Owaina shale formation either partly or completely to the Danian. It 

 also led, as mentioned above, to the erroneous classification of the Esna shale into a 

 lower and upper member, separated by the middle chalk. As a result, the lower 

 Owaina shale member was lumped together with all or part of the underlying 

 Sharawna shale under the name " Lower Esna shale ". The latter, together with 

 the overlying chalk bed were assigned by most authors to the Danian, while others 

 also included the overlying shale succession in the " Danian ". 



Analysis of the various Paleocene successions described by previous authors who 

 wrongly assigned them to the Cretaceous and/or the Tertiary, shows the widespread 

 nature of the Owaina shale formation, the persistence of its lithological units and the 

 great extent of the Paleocene transgression over the Egyptian territory, (which 

 possibly represents the greatest transgression in the geological history of Egypt). 

 It also shows clearly the applicability of the term " Owaina shale " over vast areas 

 in Egypt, although the formation becomes progressively more calcareous towards 

 the north. 



(5) The Thebes Limestone and Calcareous Shale Formation. 



This formation is considered to be of Lower Eocene age for the following reasons : 



(a) It conformably overlies the " Upper Owaina shale member " which is 



proved to be of uppermost Paleocene age. 



(b) Its lower member, the " Thebes calcareous shale ", contains a rich planktonic 



foraminiferal fauna which correlates it with the Lower Eocene in various 

 parts of the world (Text-fig. 6). Among these, Globorotalia wilcoxensis 

 Cushman & Ponton is worth mentioning as it is taken as a guide fossil for 

 the Lower Eocene, in spite of its occurrence in the uppermost part of the 

 underlying Paleocene (see discussion under this species). Also of import- 

 ance in this assemblage is Globorotalia bollii {^Globorotalia rex of Bolli 

 1957&) which is considered by various authors as the zone marker of the 

 Lower Eocene (see Text-fig. 6). 



(c) The lithology and fauna of the " Thebes limestone member " of the Esna- 



Idfu region correlate it with the " Thebes limestone " in its type section 

 (Delanoue 1868 ; Said i960) and its equivalents elsewhere, which were 

 generally assigned to the Lower Libyan. Such characteristic lithology 

 and fossil content are almost uniform over a vast extent of the Egyptian 

 territory, constituting a particular rock unit which is generally assigned to 

 the Lower Eocene (Zittel 1883 ; Cuvillier 1930, etc.). 



(d) Although washed samples from the " Thebes limestone member " of the 



Esna-Idfu region did not yield any identifiable planktonic Foraminifera 

 (possibly because of its silicification), samples from the type section at 

 Thebes were recorded by Said (i960) to contain a few planktonic forms. 

 These, although misidentified, support the Lower Eocene age of the type 

 Thebes limestone. 



