© Richard Randall

SIWA OASIS

I know that we travelled by bus from Alexandria to Siwa and that it took about 9 hours, yet I have absolutely no memory of most of the journey. I do vaguely remember passing through Mersa Matrouh about 3/4 hours after leaving Alexandria to pick up a few more passengers. One passenger in particular, a young man, springs to mind because he caused a few problems. First he touched a young local girl who was travelling alone, the driver made him move seats. His new seat was right behind me, and it wasn't long before he reached round the side of my seat and touched my arm, as I was almost asleep this really made me jump. Before Richard even had the chance to point out the error of his actions, we were surprised when the bus practically performed an emergency stop. This young man was then unceremoniously removed from the bus by the driver aided by most of the other men on board. It was a very surreal moment. Once we were on the move again we settled down and slept until we were almost at our destination. We had really been looking forward to visiting Siwa as we knew that it was going to be sparsely populated, and very peaceful, which was going to be a refreshing change from our time so far in Egypt. When we visited Siwa it was perfect, very few people, and although the accommodation was basic we wouldn't have changed a thing. Whilst we were there, there were signs of development though, and we were told that several five star hotels were going to be built. Tourists first came to the area in around the middle of the 1980's. I hope that it hasn't become too developed since we visited, I don't think it will have as the local people were very certain that although they welcomed the financial benefits of tourism they were very keen that things didn't change too much. I think this was why up until the time we visited there had been no major hotel resorts. They knew that if they kept the accommodation pretty basic then they would be popular with independent travellers who would come in smaller numbers, and not as popular with the large tour groups. Siwa is isolated by hundreds of kilometres of desert and yet this has not deterred people being drawn to the area since antiquity. Siwa has been visited by Kings and presidents, generals and anthropologists. The legendary Army of Cambyses were heading toward Siwa when it disappeared in a sandstorm. Most famously Alexander the Great travelled to Siwa to consult the famous Oracle of Amun. Siwa was everything we had hoped it would be, thick palm groves surrounding freshwater springs and salt lakes, and enormous dunes, the perfect desert beauty spot. We spent about a week in Siwa mostly relaxing but we also visited the impressive ruins of Shali and Aghurmi, these labyrinthine mud built towns once protected the Siwans from desert raiders. Shali was founded in approximately 1203 when seven families left Aghurmi. As at Aghurmi, Shali was walled, built of kharsif: a salt impregnated mud which when dry is as hard as cement. This mud does melt during heavy downpours, but as it only rains heavily every fifty years or so it's not a major problem. Around the oasis are ruined temples from Greco-Roman times when Siwa was at the height of prosperity. Along with Alexanderia claiming that his body is buried in Alexandria, it is also claimed that the tomb of Alexander the Great is in Siwa? The ruins of Shali tower over the town and once reached a height of sixty metres. Walking round the labyrinth we found many chambers, passages and granaries. The views down over the town were great, we could see the palm groves, the salt lakes, it was breathtaking. At night Shali was floodlit. We walked through the palm groves to Aghurmi, there was a sign post with 'Alexander Crowning Hall' written on it directing us toward the ruins. It was an amazing feeling to think that we were walking in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. After liberating Egypt from its hated Persian rulers and ordering the creation of a city on the Mediterranean, Alexander rushed to Siwa during the spring of 331 BC. Apparently he asked for confirmation that he was the son of Zeus (the Greeks identified him with Amun), but the oracle's reply, which would have been whispered by the priest through an aperture in the wall of the sanctuary, is unrecorded. Alexander kept the oracle's reply a secret until he died in Asia eight years later. Alexander had expressed his wish to be buried near to the oracle, which is probably why some believe that his body does rest there. I do not remember the name of the hotel we stayed at, but our room was a good size and clean, but very basic. There was a sink in the bedroom and a separate toilet which had a shower head above it, so that the water could run down the toilet! The owners were very friendly, and it was right in the centre of town. We tried to get a room at the Palm Trees but we may have ended up at Youssef Hotel, anyway the hotel we stayed at had a good sized roof terrace with seating, and fantastic views over the surrounding palm trees. Restaurant wise, things were pretty good whilst we were there, we mainly ate at Abdou's restaurant and Restaurant Alexander. We hired bicycles one day from a place near to our hotel, and loaded up with many bottles of water we cycled way out to see the salt lakes and enjoy the peace. It was so lovely, we could see for miles in every direction, there was not a soul to be seen. That evening relaxing in Abdou's restaurant resting our saddle sore bottoms, we got chatting to a couple of other travellers, who we ran in to again in Dahab. One of the guy's we got chatting to also had a sore behind ... but not from cycling ... he had obviously eaten something well past its best! Our time in beautiful Siwa was over all to quickly, and we headed back to Alexandria. From Alexandria we got a bus to Nuweiba where we stayed overnight, before getting a boat to Aqaba in Jordan. I do not remember the name of the place we stayed at in Nuweiba, our accommodation was a round white washed hut on the beach. There were no beds as such, but all around the walls were very thin mattresses on top of stone seats. Needless to say this did not make for the best nights sleep we had during this trip. The hardness of our 'beds' were not the worst thing about that night though, the worst thing were the huge, and very hungry mosquitoes! The following morning we were covered from head to toe in bites. I had even been bitten on my lips, which was the first and last time I ever had a 'pout' to rival Angelina Jolie! Like the outside of our hut the interior walls were painted white, at least they were white when we first tried to get some sleep, but by the morning they had a pretty addition of tiny red splashes ... our blood, and mosquito corpses! Thankfully we were only in Nuweiba overnight to get the high speed catamaran to Jordan, which was fine by us as we couldn't leave fast enough! After an absolutely amazing visit to Jordan, (see Jordan Travelogue), we returned to Egypt and headed to Dahab.

Caribbean

Sundries

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Oceania