El Andalous - Trip to Siwa Oasis

Cafe at Cleopatra Bath

We finally arrived in Siwa from Marsa Matrouh; the original itinerary was from Cairo direct to Siwa with a stop-off at El Alamein and Marsa Matrouh, but we’d asked to break the journey at Marsa Matrouh and forgo one night in Siwa. Arriving in Siwa made us appreciate just how long the journey would have been had we not had an overnight in Marsa Matrouh.

Siwa is still like old Egypt; not so long ago, there used to be only donkeys and carts in the town, although cars do now drive through. The taxis are still donkey-driven, tuk-tuks, or carts pulled by a moped. The roads were uneven and narrow; the people were relaxed and just wandering around doing their own thing.

We arrived at our accommodation which was an EcoLodge; it had a swimming pool, which wasn’t filled with water, beautiful trees and plants everywhere and the buildings were made out of the traditional clay and salt which is supposed to be a natural insulant. Electricity was low-key but the shower was big enough for three or four people. It was very picturesque.

One of the first things that strikes you about Siwa is all the palm trees. Of course, it’s an oasis, so there’s water, but since the water was not directly where we were (Siwa has around 7000 inhabitants) and the water is in any case more like a huge lake than what you would imagine an oasis to be like, it’s the palm trees that first stick out, especially after a long car journey through desert landscape.

There are a surprising number of things to see at Siwa. We weren’t able to get into the local museum, which was closed each time we went, but we visited the Shali village. This was an old fortress at this location, made out of the traditional clay and salt, but had been washed away over the years . The fortress is being renovated and because we were such a small group. They allowed us to look around.

We were then taken to the Cleopatra Pool; this time, there is some evidence to lead people to believe that Cleopatra was actually there. Joke and I had a quick bathe in the water (with expectations of looking instantly younger, so we were led to believe). Afterwards, I drank a Siwa shake (cinnamon, dates, banana, milk, and ice – delicious!).

After this, we went to Fatanas Island to watch the sun set over the oasis. Once it was dark, we moved on to a local hot spring to relax in the waters – the water was hot enough to make you sweat, but we had the entire place to ourselves, so we were privileged.

The following day was also action-packed. We started off visiting the Temple of the Oracle where Alexander the Great received the oracle as to whether he really was the son of Amun (Zeus). Views from here were amazing – a sea of palm trees to the left, and the edge of the oasis to your right. Then we had a quick visit to the temple of Om Obaidah, although only a few remains were left.

After this, we proceeded to the Mountain of the Dead; it houses over 100 tombs from Pharaonic times and was discovered only during WW2 when the people of Siwa fled to the mountain to hide. We saw one of the tombs that had retained much of the original painting; it was amazing to see something like this outside of Luxor.

Our afternoon was taken up with a trip into the Sahara – the “sea of sand”. We had to be checked in by the police beforehand and the car had to be checked for safety (we had a special 4-wheel drive). Of course, the landscape was vast; there were fossils lying in the sand, and we flew over the sand dunes in our 4-wheel drive. Suddenly, before us, there was an oasis just as you imagine it to be, right in the middle of nowhere in the desert. It turned out to be a hot spring and there was a small cold water lake not far away; we bathed in both and had the hot spring to ourselves. We then watched the sun set and made our way back to Siwa for our last night before travelling back to Cairo the next day.

It was a memorable trip and great to see the less-visited (but equally remarkable) parts of Egypt.