 Land Evaluation of some soils east of El-Fayoum Governorate, adjacent to Assuit desert road. MAHMOUD M. SHENDI, E. A. KHATER, and Ola R. Gomaa Soils and Water Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Egypt. Corresponding Author: Mahmoud Mohamed Shendi, Soils and Water Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Egypt. Tel: +20 2 8350837, Mobile: 0105350018, Fax: +20 84 334964, E-mail: mmshendi@yahoo.com ABSTRACT The current study was carried out on the soils east of El Fayoum Governorate, adjacent to Cairo - Assiut desert road, Egypt. The study aimed to conduct a semi-detailed soil map suitable to conduct a soil capability and physical suitability evaluation using ILWIS GIS and the Automated Land Evaluation System (ALES). Visual interpretation was first undertaken on an enhanced natural color composite Landsat TM image, overlaid on Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the preparation of geo-pedological soil map using the 3D GIS analysis. The mapping units were strictly verified in the field where transect of sample areas including 29 soil profiles were selected to represent the different mapping units. The soil profiles were carefully described; the main physical and chemical characteristics of the different mapping units were determined and stored into ILWIS-GIS database. The soils were classified up to the sub group according to the protocol of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA Soil Taxonomy, 2003). The main soils groups recorded in the studied area are; Petrogypsids, Haplocalcids, Haplosalids, Torriorthents and Haplotorrerts. USDA soil capability classification was applied followed by physical land suitability evaluation using ILWIS-GIS to create the resulted maps. Eight land use types were selected; cotton, wheat, sorghum, sugar beet, onion, chamomile, olive and citrus. Five land qualities were considered based on the requirements of the selected LUTs, i.e., salinity & alkalinity, nutrient availability, moisture availability, oxygen availability and rooting conditions. The physical evaluation results indicated that the southern, middle and eastern parts of the studied area are classified as moderately suitable. Whereas, the northern parts are mostly classified as marginally or not suitable due to their salinity and cementation constraints. Key words: Land Evaluation, Land use types, East Fayoum soils, GIS, ILWIS and ALES Systems. 1. INTRODUCTION El Fayoum Governorate occupies a circular depression in the Eocene Limestone plateau at the northern part of the western Desert of Egypt. It is Located at about 90 km to the south west of the Great Cairo. It is divided into six districts, namely; Tamia, Senours, Ibshaway, El Fayoum, Yousef El Sadic and Itsa. According to the population of 1997, the agricultural lands per capita is only 0.4 kirate. This hammers on the importance of exploring the desert lands around Fayoum Governorate to find out the