Nakhla

Seen to fall in 1911 in Egypt · 10 kg recovered · Martian (nakhlite)

Nakhla is the heaviest of the two falls recorded in Egypt. It is the only fall in NASA’s Meteorite Landings dataset (records to 2013) classed Martian (nakhlite). It is one of five Martian meteorites among the observed falls.

Group: Martian meteorites
Recorded position: 31.317° N, 30.350° E

The map is centred on Nakhla. Rings every 250 km; numbers match the table below.

Nearest recorded falls

The closest recorded fall to Nakhla is Sinai, 208 km to the east. Within 250 km lies one other recorded fall.

#	Fall	Year	Class	Recovered	Distance
1	Sinai	1916	L6	1.5 kg	208 km east
2	Akaba	1949	L6	779 g	493 km south-east
3	Beyrout	1921	LL3.8	1.1 kg	560 km north-east
4	Kemer	2008	L4	5.8 kg	587 km north
5	Hedjaz	1910	L3.7-6	6.1 kg	679 km south-east
6	Didim	2007	H3-5	3.4 kg	726 km north

What Martian (nakhlite) means

Martian (nakhlite) is the label for a Martian meteorite of the nakhlite type.

Grey ticks: all 1,063 falls. Dark ticks: the 5 falls in the group Martian meteorites.

Nakhla in Egypt’s record

Egypt has one other recorded fall: Sinai, in 1916.

The 1910s

Nakhla is one of 65 falls dated to the 1910s. Elsewhere, the record lists four other falls in 1911, among them Demina in Russia, Kilbourn in the United States, Erevan in Armenia.