Siwa Oasis, Egypt

The Siwa Oasis must seem very mysterious to us, even though today it is slowly becoming more of a tourist destination. It has its own airport now, and is sometimes visited more for a few health resorts located there than for its antiquities. Nevertheless, it is certainly off the beaten path, or at least the antiquity path forged by the Nile River, and so it may never become a mainstream tourist destination. It remains one of Egypt's most isolated desert oases, and therefore it has today, as it always has had, a unique and interesting culture, as well as a fascinating history.

Even though the Siwa Oasis may ever receive the millions of tourists that visit Giza or Luxor, it is nevertheless famous for one specific reason, at least to those interested in history. It was here that Alexander the Great traveled to consult the Oracle of Amun, and there to be confirmed as God and King of Egypt.

In fact, the reason why this oracle was so important to him remains somewhat unclear, but go there he did. He continued to correspond with the Oracle of Amun until his death through messengers when he needed answers to important questions.

Most of the antiquities of the Siwa are now gone, many victims to illegal treasure hunters, though others succumbed to the harshness of time combined with the desert. Still, tourism is growing here, and if one is going to take the trouble of going out of their way to see this very different part of Egypt, some background information on the geography, geology, people and customs may be very useful.

The Geology of the Siwa

The Siwa sits in a depression, as do most of the oases, which today is frequently referred to as the Siwa depression. The depression is 82 kilometers (52 miles) long and between 9 and 28 kilometers wide.

This is the most distant Egyptian oasis from the Nile Valley.

The southern parts of the Oasis have succumbed to dunes from the Great Sand Sea, which extends over 500 kilometers north to south and 60 to 80 kilometers east to west. The Siwa sits at the northwest edge of this Great Sand Sea. There are portions of the Siwa Depression that lie as much as 60 meters (192 feet) below sea level, but its average depth is 18 meters below sea level.

Salt is a problem in the Oasis. A number of its fresh water springs run into salt water lakes, making the water mostly useless. To the west is Birket al-Maraqi, which takes up about nine square kilometers, and the largest of the Siwa lakes, Birket Siwa, which covers about 32 square kilometers. To the east, the only remaining lakes are Birket Azmuri, which itself is often dry, and Birket Zaytun, a lake covering some 16 square kilometers. These lakes are so salty that no marine life survives, and there is no tradition of fishing in the oasis. Both the British and, more recently, the Egyptian governments attempted to introduce fish into the lakes in order to create a fishing industry, but still no one fishes. Some of the lakes are so salty that crystals are visible in the water.

Interestingly, one of the lakes, though not necessarily one of the modern ones, for there are others that are now completely dry, is legendary, though the stories varies. Depending on who tells the tale, on an island in this magic lake is buried either the saber and seal of the Prophet Mohammed, or the ring, sword and crown of King Solomon. Another fable records an apparent treasure on an island in Lake Arachie. The French secret agent, Boutin, transported his own collapsible canvas boat through the desert in an attempt to discover it, but the Siwans would not let him search. Later, in the 1920s, Byron Khun de Prorok did make it to the island, but discovered only evidence of human habitation,and no treasure.

These lakes are mostly fed by springs. There is plenty of water in the Oasis, with some 1,000 springs currently in use, but even the spring water has an elevated level of salt and is not good for watering many types of crops. Therefore, the Siwans are limited mostly to growing dates, olives and a few vegetables. The salty soil of the Oasis is called karshif in Arabic, and ererig by the Siwans. It is used by the locals to build their traditional mudbrick houses, which creates another problem. While the salt helps strengthen the walls of the houses, it also is unhealthy, and melts in the rain, making the houses potential death traps. While Siwa does not receive much rain, it doesn't take much to destroy these homes. In 1928, a major storm resulted in the local inhabitants abandoning their ancient town. These days, there are more and more prefab houses in the area. There are also some three thousand mountains and hills in the oasis. Many of them may have no names, but the four most important mountains are Gebel al-Mawta, Gebel al-Dakrur (Daran Breek, Bayle St. John's Edrar Abou Bryk), Gebel Hamra and Gebel Baylin (Adrar al-Milal, Edrar Amelal in Siwan, Mount Khamisa, Gebel Ghaffir). These mountains are riddled with caves, which were sometimes used as tombs, and at times inhabited both in antiquity and during more modern times. Though there is no evidence of it today, Arab historians also tell of great mines in Siwa where iron, lapis lazuli and emeralds were excavated.

Source: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/siwa1.htm