I had most of this past week off due to Armed Forces Day, a celebration of the Egyptian "victory" over Israel during the Yom Kippur War, about which I'll write later. But long story short, I had time to go elsewhere for a while. John (my roommate), Phil (my roommate from AU), and I went to Siwa Oasis near the Libyan border, which is a city with some fascinating history and culture. I'll give a rundown of our trip within the context of its history, just because it's so unique in the history of the rest of the country.
We arrived on Wednesday night, where we were greeted by numerous youth driving donkey carts offering to take us to our hotels. They're all in all a really friendly bunch, and Siwis don't try to rip you off like Cairenes do from time to time, which is a nice change of pace. But we ended up getting hooked up with a guy named Osman who was incredibly helpful and ended up being a constant presence in our two-day trip. After getting something to eat, we decided to tool around downtown and ended up exploring Shali, a massive fortress at the center of the city.
Shali is an imposing monument to old-style architecture that exists solely as its environment demands. Constructed sometime in the 13th century, it is a massive fort composed of salt bricks, most of which were destroyed during a three-day rainstorm in 1926. There was a sign at the base of the monument that showed what it looked like in its prime, and it looks much more like the old Yemeni skyscrapers at Shibam, which were built with mud, than the massive limestone edifices of Cairo. The ruins themselves are pretty breathtaking and offer an amazing view of the city. Rare for a city, the view at night is far less impressive than that during the day when you can see the oasis in all of its leafy glory.
The next day we started early at the Cleopatra Spring. It's a clear cold-water spring that's pretty popular with the locals just east of the city near where the original Siwa settlement was in Aghurmi. It was a really refreshing way to get the day started before we drove up the road to the ruins of the Temple of Umm Ubaydah, an old temple to the Egyptian god Amun. All that remains today are a few columns and (what I presume were) graves just off the road, though the remarkably well-preserved inscriptions left on the main column that stands above the rest are worth checking out. We next went to the most historical icon in Siwa, the Temple of the Oracle.
The temple likely dates to the 26th Dynasty, which is the last native dynasty of Pharaohs to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC. The premise of the oracle, which was supposedly housed within the temple, was that an individual who resided within constituted a physical connection between worshippers and the divine. In this case, the oracle was to Amun, the chief deity during the 26th Dynasty. The temple clearly had such significance that Cambyses II, the son of Cyrus the Great of Persia, sent a 50,000 man-strong army to take the Oracle so that he might validate his rule among the Egyptian populace, only to have the army get lost somewhere in the Great Sand Sea, the remains of which have never been found. Alexander the Great is known to have traveled to the Oracle presumably the similarly legitimize his authority within Egypt, though without conquest in mind. The top of the temple had some absolutely gorgeous views of the surrounding area, including the town of Siwa itself and the Great Sand Sea stretching past that.
Following the Oracle we rode to Gebel al-Mawta, or the Mountain of Death. This is a massive ancient funerary complex built into the side of a mountain overlooking the city. The most remarkable feature here are the well-preserved paintings within several of the tombs. While there are graves all over the mountain, many that date back to the Pharaonic era have some incredible full-color paintings that date back over two and a half millennia. The chance to see these was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me, just given my lifelong fascination with Ancient Egypt. Seeing things in full color instead of as ruins mobbed with tourists made things feel a lot more real and really gave me a feel for how amazing it was to witness something like this that has been preserved for so long.
Just as Shali and the Oracle, Gebel al-Mawta had some amazing views of the rest of the oasis. It was here I realized how mind-blowingly isolated Siwa really is; it is five hours away from the next city, smack in the middle of some of the most isolated terrain in the world. I've really never seen anything like it before. It's five hours away from anything else, and to get out of the city by any road other than the main road to Marsa Matrouh you have to take a 4x4 into the desert, which we did after Gebel al-Mawta.
The Great Sand Sea was one of the most amazing experience I've had in my life. The sheer sense of isolation one has when looking around and seeing nothing but mountains of sand is awe-inspiring and there aren't many places in the world that can replicate that feeling. It's absolutely gorgeous. The chance to see the sun set over some of the larger dunes is something I'll always be grateful for and think of when I think back on my time here.
I had the chance to sandboard, which was a lot of fun. You get some serious speed going down dunes. It's really wild. We drove around the desert in a 4x4 for a good while, driving up and down dunes. The physics of driving in sand are really bizarre. For instance, we were able to drive at a good clip down a slope of around 60 degrees with no difficulty (though with much terrified screaming from those who accompanied us). I couldn't really figure out why it would be any different from concrete in that particular instance, and my lack of knowledge of anything that requires math beyond a fifth grade level makes me reluctant to comment. But whatever; it was really, really cool. We stopped at cold and hot springs throughout the desert. These are scattered throughout the area, and are incredibly refreshing. To be in water that won't give you bilharzia is a gift I've come to treasure in my time here. Following these, we raced to see the sunset I described earlier and started a fire so that we could make some Siwi tea, which is a reddish tea that has a flavor different from any I've had. You can apparently get some in town for 15 LE, though I blanked on doing this and missed a good opportunity for good tea as a result.
That night we spent most of the time at an 'ahwa smoking sheesha and drinking tea and took it pretty easy. The next day we stopped in Marsa Matrouh for a little while so we could swim in the Mediterranean. The water was gorgeous and pretty warm, and the beach was dead since tourist season is over. So it was a really refreshing break to what would otherwise have been an incredibly long busride.
I returned mosquito-bitten, sunburned, and really tired. But it was all really worth it, and I can't recommend making the trip out to Siwa enough. It's gorgeous and the type of place that you can't find anywhere else.
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