Try this one...
Qattara-3
The other two Qattara worlds involve are marked out by the digging of a canal to the
Qattara Depression. In Qattara-1 Eisenhower convinced Nasser that damming the Nile would be a disaster for Egypt but that digging a canal to the Qattara depression would allow the generation of even more electrical power and would create new living space for the people of Egypt. The local year is 1972 and the project went splendidly and Egypt is reaping the benefits.
In Qattara-2, a steampunk world, a mad engineer dug a canal to link the Qattara depression to the sea. The flooding of the Qattara Depression seems to have awakened something in the desert. Strange things are happening in Egypt just beyond the new Electric lights of 1890's Cairo! Basically, a Gothic take on Egypt in a steampunk world.
Qattara-3 is different. First off the Qattara depression is far larger and extends mainly North South well over a thousand miles into the desert. Digging the canal was far less of a problem, as the nearest point of this Qattara depression to the sea was seven miles! The British rulers of Egypt dug the canal in order to have a new harbor for the navy. Now they have a new sea to explore and police.
British sailors and marines in
Beau Geste territory. Arab raiders versus British gunboats. Naval bases deep in the Sahara Desert. Mysterious ancient ruins and mystic secrets. Steampunk, pulp adventure, and spook stories blended together.