September 6-9, 1999 - Siwa Oasis, Egypt
Siwa was simply magical. The little oasis town
on the western edge of Egypt had been virtually untouched since 1984, when they got their
first paved road. Electricity followed in 1988, and unfortunately television as well. Even
so, we felt we stumbled upon a special, sacred place where life was going on as it had for
centuries. It was in a time warp and we hope it can keep its customs alive in the wake of
modern life.
Part of the reason its well-preserved is its
darned difficult to get to. We had to catch a train from Cairo to Alexandria, spend the
night, and then board a 9-hour bus to Marsa Matrouh that continued on to Siwa.
The history of the oasis dates back to the 5th
century B.C. so we certainly weren't the first to discover its charm. Alexander the Great
went to Siwa in 331 BC to consult with the Oracle of Amoun, to ask if he was the son of
Zeus. (He never revealed the answer.) By the 12th century A.D. the fortress-town of Siwa
was known as Shali, and built of salt-infused mud. The community developed serenely among
palm groves, olive orchards, freshwater springs, and salt lakes. It expanded upwards
rather than outwards and until 1905 the doors of the city used to be locked at sundown.
Massive rains destroyed much of the
mud-fortress village and now Siwans use concrete to build their houses. The ruins of old
Shali still dominate the skyline of the oasis, though. Nothing goes to waste here; many
residents still use the abandoned areas for livestock, tool storage, and some families
still lived within the crumbling walls. We were able to climb through the maze of ruins to
the top of the fortress for great views of the whole oasis.
Although part of Egypt, Siwans have their own
language, a spoken- only Berber dialect. They have their own customs, their own
celebrations. They are very conservative: women are covered head-to-toe here, no risqué
little slit for their eyes, they keep a black scarf completely over their face (it is
somewhat sheer so they can see to walk). Visitors to Siwa are requested to respect their
customs: women must cover their arms and legs, no display of affection is allowed, and no
alcohol may be consumed in public. But this was perfect too. We felt like we were in a
separate little world in a pleasant time warp.
We got a lot of information from Mr. Mahdi
Hweiti, probably the most educated man in Siwa and the author of a popular book. We've
added him and more tidbits about Siwa, our new favorite place, to our People Pages.
There was plenty to do around Siwa besides soak
up the atmosphere. Our first night we walked a few kilometers west to catch the sunset on
Fatnis Island, on the salt lake of Birket Siwa. We watched it sink while sitting under
date trees. On our walk back, a caretta (donkey cart) driver pulling leaves stopped and
offered us a ride along the dark road back to our place.
We rented bicycles one day and biked through
the neighboring village of Agormi, which made Siwa look like a booming metropolis. We got
lost trying to find the remains of the Oracle of Amoun on the way to the Mountain of the
Dead. As one might surmise from the name, the Mountain of the Dead was filled with holes
(tombs) and several well-preserved hieroglyphic frescoes from the 26th Dynasty. A little
baksheesh opened up the locked doors to some tombs with beautiful paintings. Walking
around we stumbled upon strips of burlap, several human sculls, and various tibula/fibula
bones as well. Sloppy excavators. We couldn't take a lot of photos as there's a military
base behind the mountain, and a soldier followed us and our guide the whole time we were
on the mountain.
We kept running into Richard, a Brit who was on
our bus the first day. We would show up somewhere, think we were the only ones around, and
then we'd see him up ahead of us. Especially funny the night we cycled way out of town to
the Sea of Sand (desert). We hadn't seen a soul for several kilometers, not even a donkey,
when we looked to the left and saw an orange shirt; no, it couldn't be, way out here? Yes,
it was and we had lots of fun climbing up and down the sand dunes and watching the sunset
with him. This was one of the most exhilarating experiences of our trip. All around
us were huge sand dunes and as we looked back, the only tracks in the sand were ours. We
had even more fun trying to find our way back to town on a "road" that was
covered with so much sand we ended up walking our bikes more than riding them.
Siwa was such a change from Cairo: no beeping
and the people didn't want anything from us, except to say hello. Westerners were still an
odd-enough occurrence that we would get stared at and yelled hello to. But we weren't
hounded to buy anything. Siwans live off of the olives and dates they grow, so tourism is
almost an "extra" for them. The stores are supported by the locals, as are all
the restaurants. There were a few hotel touts as we disembarked from the daily bus, but
they were quite polite.
The people in the restaurants and stores spoke
some English, and were generally talkative and very friendly. Our first night at dinner a
guy with big bandages all over his head started talking to us. Everyone told us he was
crazy and tried to get him to stop pestering us. So of course he latched right onto us. He
seemed to think Kelly was the Virgin Mary, and brought a picture of the Virgin out to the
restaurant to compare the two, and subsequently called her Mary the whole time we were
there. He followed us to several spots, but was relatively harmless.
It took us awhile to figure out how to take the
heat, especially Kelly who had to wear long sleeves and pants the entire time. We
determined if we got up early to do stuff, then took a siesta until around 4 (when it
finally dropped below 110 degrees) and stayed up late we could see things and talk to
people without getting heat exhaustion. Air-conditioning was not a part of Siwan life, and
only existed in one place we could find: the Tourist Info office, and only for a couple of
hours a day.
We truly hated to leave this beautiful little
haven, and really hope that it stays intact for future visits.
