Called the "Island of the Blessed" by Herodotus, Kharga is the southernmost oasis in the Libyan Desert. It was inhabited as early as the Old Kingdom, but most of the ancient vestiges seen today date from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. The Temple of Hibis, built mostly under Darius I, is the best preserved of the ancient monuments of the oases. A great variety of reliefs depicting all the familiar Egyptian gods with their symbols and sacred animals adorn its walls.