Things To Do in Siwa

The landscape around Siwa is some of the most spectacular on Earth: The oasis sits on the very edge of the Great Sand Sea, and the area is literally littered with fossilized remnants of prehistoric life. There are several ruins to visit, and a number of hot springs and mini oases where you can soak yourself under the stars.

Bir Wahed -- If you've got time for nothing else in Siwa, visit Bir Wahed, located in a tiny oasis on the edge of the Great Sand Sea, around sunset. The quickest way here may be straight across the desert from Gebel Dakrour (where the Shali Resort is), but if you have a couple of hours, I recommend taking a longer route past Adrere Milal and through Bahai el Din. Stop along the way to take in the view across the lake and examine the fossilized remnants of the sea creatures deposited by the prehistoric sea that once covered this desert. Much depends on what the shifting sands choose to expose, but on a recent trip I saw an 8-inch section of sea snake and a perfectly formed and preserved mollusk sitting on a rock. It may be a dozen kilometers (7 1/2 miles) away, but it's worth taking a couple of hours to get out there and back.

Any of the hotels can arrange this trip, as can the safari companies dotted around the main square in town. Though it's close to town, the trip to Bir Wahed (particularly if you go out through Behai el Din) involves getting through some sand dunes, and you'll be uncomfortable, and possibly unsafe unless you have an experienced guide behind the wheel. There are rudimentary changing facilities at the spring.

Cleopatra's Bath -- Whether or not it was ever visited by the eponymous queen, the spring will be something of a disappointment to a modern visitor hoping for romance. Enclosed in a circular wall, the pool is bound on both sides by a road. There's a nearby restaurant with good pizza and excellent fruit juice, however, and the location deep in the palms makes this a pleasant stop on a trip around the oasis.

Fatnas Island -- This is a palm-treed island in Siwa Lake with a spring for bathing amongst the trees. My preference, however, is to come here in the late afternoon, drink tea, and watch the spectacular colors of the sunset.

Gebel Mawta -- You'll see this easily accessible low mountain if you look to the left (east) of the road as you come into town. It's about 1.5km (a little less than a mile) from the market square. The name literally means "Mountain of the Dead," and this refers to the various tombs cut into the side of the rock. Over the centuries, the tombs have been used for living and as a refuge during invasions or storms, and the contents have been removed and most of the decorations stripped away. There is still enough wall painting (not to mention outright atmosphere) to make the trudge up here worthwhile, however.

Sandboarding -- To get the most of this activity, you really should have some snowboarding experience, but even if you don't, there are few things more exhilarating than strapping a truncated surfboard to your feet and skidding off the top of a 30m (98-ft.) dune. There was only one place to get a board at the time of writing (below), but I expect more to pop up fairly soon. You can arrange a half-day excursion, board included, for around LE400 ($73/£37) per person, but I recommend renting the boards separately and taking them with you when you head to one of the desert sites with your guide.

Note: The sand, which seems soft when you're struggling up the dune, is as hard as cement when you wipe out on the way back down. It's a 7-hour drive from Siwa to the nearest real medical facility.

Guide Abdullah Baghri has two purpose-made sandboards that are the best in the oasis, and will work out a sandboarding-and-sightseeing package. Sahara Adventure Shop, just around the corner from the Banque du Caire (tel. 010/2030215 or 012/4515394), has wooden boards with rudimentary foot straps for LE30 ($5.45/£2.75) per day and fiberglass snowboards for LE50 ($9.10/£4.60).

Shali -- Thanks to the written records kept in Siwa since the 7th century A.D., we know that the old fortress town was founded in about 1203 by the residents of the nearby town of Aghurmi (near to the Temple of Amun). Built on a hill, the town originally had only a single gate -- the Bab Inshal (for which the hotel is named) -- with a second gate added about a century later. In the evening, many of the town's sheep and farm animals were brought in through the gates before they were locked for the night. As the town developed within the confines of its walls, the limited amount of space meant that buildings grew upward and the streets became narrow and dark. By the 19th century, there were more than a dozen entrances to Shali, and its residents had seen off a number of determined attempts to invade the town. It was subjugated to central rule in 1820/1821 by Mohamed Ali, whose forces were able to take the town despite the residents flooding its approaches by diverting irrigation water.

Shali was finally abandoned not because of military conquest, however, but because of rain. The whole town was built of kersheef, a mixture of salt and mud, as well as blocks of rock salt. In 1926, a particularly severe storm occurred, and the destruction was such that most residents opted to abandon their homes and start fresh nearby.

These days, having suffered through a few more rains and decades of neglect, the town is in ruins but well worth a few hours of exploration. You can wander about freely on your own, but it's not a bad idea to have a guide -- even just one of the donkey-taxi kids who hang around the market square -- as some of the paths are treacherous. The view from the top at sunset is spectacular.

Oracle of Amun -- Whether this temple was founded by two doves from the Temple of Amun in Thebes (now Luxor) or whether it was Dionysus, led out of the desert to safety by a ram, who built it out of gratitude, one thing is clear: This was one of the most important religious sites to the Greeks. When the Persian Emperor Cambyses conquered Egypt in 525 B.C., he sent an army across the desert to destroy it. Two centuries later, Alexander the Great wasted no time in paying a visit after conquering the country, arriving to ask the oracle whether he was, in fact, the son of Amun. The temple didn't fare so well under the Romans, who ignored it, thus undercutting its prestige and influence. By the time it was officially closed by Justinian in the 6th century A.D., it was already a shadow of the oracle it had once been.

Temple of Amun (Temple of Umm Ubayda) -- A pleasant 5-minute bike ride past the Temple of the Oracle up a quiet, palm-lined road (if you're coming by bike), the 30th-dynasty Temple of Amun is nothing more than a pile of rocks now. It stood fully intact until the beginning of the 19th century. The final blow was struck in 1897, apparently, by the local governor who used explosives to remove some rocks he wanted to incorporate into a stairway in his house. Walls and columns lie on their side in a clearing by the road. With no apparent guard or office nearby, visitors are free to clamber about and examine the hieroglyphs at their leisure.

Siwa has long been Egypt's best source for traditional jewelry. Worn by local women on festive occasions, the simple silver designs have been attracting increasingly international attention. The oasis is also the source of beautiful, simple clay pots and tableware in unusual shapes, locally woven rugs, and embroidery. Unfortunately, much of the original household production has been bought up by unscrupulous collectors, and though an effort is now being made to keep these precious cultural artifacts in Siwa for the museum, you may still find them for sale. You can play a direct part in preserving a unique and special culture by leaving these in Siwa and taking away only newly produced pieces, which are just as genuine and just as beautiful.

Midan el Souk, the main and only square in Siwa, is the place to go for shopping. The square is rung with small stores offering local weaving and embroidery and simple jewelry. Browse and haggle are the rules.

Next to the Al Bab Inshal, which you can see at one end of the square, is the Bab Inshal Concept Store, open daily 8am to 5pm, offering a range of unexpected-but-delicious local food products. A jar of caramelized Siwa walnuts or a bottle of local orange salad dressing makes a good local gift.

Siwa Jewelry

The styles and patterns of Siwan jewelry owe more to the Berber heritage of the Siwan people than anything that you'll find in the far-off Nile Valley. Though beautiful and decorative, jewelry also served a number of social roles. Jewelry, in the days of bartering and in the absence of any kind of savings banks, served as a family's capital investment scheme, and a large proportion of savings could be literally hung around the necks of daughters and wives. Original work is scarce these days, but modern, locally made jewelry is just as nice, and buying it instead of the antiques ensures the dwindling heritage of Siwa stays where it belongs -- in the hands of Siwans.

Visiting the stores and stalls of Siwa, you're sure to find a large selection of aswira, or bracelets. The narrow bands have a bird motif, the design that's most closely associated with the area and are usually worn in pairs by the women of the oasis. The elaborate headdresses of Siwa are also highly characteristic of the area. If you're lucky, you may spot a woman with an ornate headband across her forehead. This is a lugaya and is originally a Libyan style of ornament. The large, and quite heavy, crescent-shaped earrings that are hung with chains and bells are called tilakin, and if they look a bit much for your earlobes, don't worry: They are, in fact, hung from a strap that fits across the head.

The most interesting piece of jewelry in Siwa is a pair of pieces that are usually worn together as a necklace by single women of marriageable age. The first piece is a hoop of silver, called aghrou, worn around the neck like the chain of a necklace. Tapered, it has a loop at the thicker end that's secured by nine windings of wire. The thinner end of the hoop has a hook, which fits into the loop and secures it around the woman's neck. It's said that the hook and loop represent the male and female reproductive organs, and the nine windings of the wire refer to the 9 months of pregnancy. A medallion, decorated with a variety of motifs, is hung from the aghrou. When the woman wearing the aghrou gets engaged, part of her marriage ceremony involves handing this piece of jewelry to the next woman in her family to be married.