Siwa Oasis

Siwa is the most isolated of Egypt's oases, set in a depression deep in the Western Desert near the Libyan border, and its remoteness has preserved a distinct Berber culture, with its own language, crafts and customs quite unlike the Nile Valley. At its heart rise the crumbling mud-brick towers of the Shali fortress, the old town abandoned after a rare flood dissolved its walls, and on the edge of the oasis stand the ruins of the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, famous in antiquity and said to have been consulted by Alexander the Great. Around the town spread dense groves of date palms and olives, freshwater springs to bathe in, and beyond them the great salt lakes whose brilliant blue pools are ringed by white crusts, with the dunes of the Great Sand Sea rolling away to the horizon. It is a place to slow down, soak in the springs and drive out into the desert.

History

The oasis has been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, but its first known link with Ancient Egypt comes with the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was founded; at about the same time, in the 7th century BC, Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with its oracle of Amun, whom the Greeks called Zeus Ammon. Herodotus wrote of a "fountain of the Sun" here that ran coldest in the midday heat, and Alexander the Great made the journey across the desert, his court historians claiming that the oracle confirmed him as divine and as the rightful Pharaoh. In the 12th century al-Idrisi described the people as mainly Berbers with an Arab minority, and in the 15th century al-Maqrizi noted that their language was like that of the Zenata. The English traveller William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the temple of the oracle, was the first European known to visit since Roman times; Muhammad Ali of Egypt annexed Siwa in 1820, and in the spring of 1893 the German explorer Hermann Burchardt photographed the architecture of the town, pictures now held by the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. In the mid-20th century the Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry worked here, and in 2013 it was announced that the equinox sun rises over the Aghurmi mound and the oracle temple when seen from the Timasirayn temple, 12 km away across Lake Siwa (Wikipedia, Siwa Oasis).

What you'll find

• The Shali fortress - the melting mud-brick towers of the old town.
• The Temple of the Oracle - the ruined Amun temple linked to Alexander the Great.
• The salt lakes - vivid blue pools ringed by white salt on the oasis edge.
• The springs and palm groves - freshwater pools among the dates and olives.

When to go

October to April is the comfortable season; summer is extremely hot. Dawn and dusk are best for the fortress and the dunes. The salt lakes are dazzling under high sun. Allow time for the long approach and to settle into the oasis's slow pace.

What to expect

Siwa is genuinely far: a long desert drive from the Mediterranean coast, with the last stretch through empty country. Facilities are simple and the pace is slow, which is the appeal. The mud-brick ruins are fragile, and the desert beyond should only be explored with a local guide.

Nearby

The Great Sand Sea stretches west and south; Marsa Matrouh on the coast is the distant gateway.

Key facts