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 Qasr Kharga, 86 meters (275 feet) above sea level, became the capital of Kharga Oasis during Islamic times, replacing Hibis a few kilometers away. Located in the center of depression, it stands due south of Gebel Tarif which not only protects it from the howling northern winds, but deflects the bands of marching sand dunes of the Abu Muharrik dune belt which tumble down the northern escarpment around Ain Umm Dabadib.
Founded by a little over thirty families, the community had an influx of additional families around A.D. 300 (A.H. 1316). These families were mainly from the Nile Valley. Hoskins, in 1832, found Qasr Kharga to be inhabited by 3,000 people, only 600 of them male. (This is an unusual head count. The villagers often believed that travelers represented the Pasha in the Nile Valley and did not wand them to know the exact number of men in the village.) The town was " prepossessing," and its greatest asset was "a magnificent thick forest of date trees, which extends probably a mile toward the north and south and is surrounded by a brick enclosure, like the was of a park." He found a cemetery to the north and a second to the south. He found the town as "difficult for a stranger to pass through… without a guide, as it would have been to thread the mazes of the Cretan labyrinth."
 Harding King described Qasr Kharga as built of mudbrick and riddled with tunnels "so low that it is impossible to stand upright in them, and of such a length as to be completely dark." In 1898, John Ball found it an "uninteresting collection of mudbrick dwellings… with dark covered-in streets resembling tunnels." He also reported it had no shops or bazaars.
The Qasr Kharga of today is very different. The covered fortress town described by nineteenth-century travelers expanded north and east during the British occupation. The English governor's residence to the east of the Darb al-Sindadiya (the original town) is still in existence, as is the British compound, a series of gardened bungalows shaded by lofty palm and casuarina trees, and the Kharga railway station, now a sporting club. In the 1960s, the oases underwent great changes: new housing, wide streets, clubs, indoor plumbing, and electricity. The population grew to over 16,000. As the seat of the governorate of the New Valley, the city has grown in all directions.
Today 30,000 inhabitants live in Qasr Kharga. Hotels, schools, a hospital, a museum, municipal and governorate buildings keep increasing. Factories exist on the outskirts of the town. More and more residents are abandoning the gallabiya for western dress and women, once hidden away in their homes, are seen walking the streets, shopping, and working in government offices.
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