Siwa Oasis

The Siwa oasis is in a deep depression that reaches below sea level, to about −19 metres (−62 ft).[5] To the west, the al Jaghbub Oasis rests in a similar depression and to the east, the large Qattara Depression is also below sea level.

sḫt jꜣmw[6] [7] in hieroglyphs

The Ancient Egyptian name of the oasis was sḫt jꜣmw, meaning "Field of Trees". The native Libyan toponym may be preserved in the Egyptian t̠ꜣ(j) n d̠rw "tꜣj on the fringe" where t̠ꜣ transcribed the local Palaeo-Berber name *Se or *Sa.[8] This name survived in the works of Muslim geographers as سنترية Santariyyah.

The etymology of the word سيوة Siwah is unclear. Champollion derives it from ⲥⲟⲟⲩϩ – a corruption of Egyptian word for "oasis", ⲟⲩⲁϩ.[9] The additional evidence of the Egyptian source of Siwa's name is another place name in Kharga Oasis that may share the same etymology – S.t-wȝḥ, modern Deir el-Hagar).[10] Basset links it to a Berber tribal name swh attested further west in the early Islamic period,[11] while Ilahiane,[12] following Chafik, links it to the Shilha Berber word asiwan, a type of bird of prey, and hence to Amun-Ra, one of whose symbols was the falcon.[13] Some classical authors referred to the site as "Ammonium".[14]

The Siwa Oasis is vast, extending beyond the horizon

Site of the Siwa Oasis in Egypt (top left)

Last standing wall at the Temple of Amun at Umm 'Ubeida

Siwa Oasis from space. January 23, 2023

Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of any connection with Ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. Ancient Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BC), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek: Zeus Ammon), who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. Herodotus knew of a "fountain of the Sun" that ran coldest in the noontime heat.[15] During his campaign to conquer the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The oracle, Alexander's court historians alleged, confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt, though Alexander's motives in making the excursion, following his founding of Alexandria, remain to some extent inscrutable and contested.[16] During the Ptolemaic Kingdom, its Ancient Egyptian name was sḫ.t-ỉm3w, meaning "Field of Trees".[17]

Evidence of Christianity at Siwa is uncertain, but in 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army, and probably did not convert until the 12th century. A local manuscript mentions only seven families totaling 40 men living at the oasis in 1203.

In the 12th century, Al-Idrisi mentions it as being inhabited mainly by Berbers, with an Arab minority; a century before Al-Bakri stated that only Berbers lived there. The Egyptian historian Al-Maqrizi traveled to Siwa in the 15th century and described how the language spoken there 'is similar to the language of the Zenata'.[18]

The first European to visit since Roman times was the English traveler William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the ancient temple of the Oracle of Amun.[1] Bompiani, in her description of the 19th-century explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, called this site the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon.[19]

Siwa was annexed by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1820, but the Egyptian representative in Siwa was assassinated in 1838.[20] At some point, Muhammad al-Sanusi stayed at Siwa for a few months and gathered some followers here.[20] Later, Siwa was a base of the Sanusiyya in their fight against the British from 1915 to 1917.[20] Meanwhile, in the spring of 1893, German explorer and photographer Hermann Burchardt took photographs of the architecture of the town of Siwa, now stored at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.[21]

Egyptian rule from distant Cairo was at first tenuous and marked by several revolts. Egypt began to assert firmer control after a 1928 visit to the Oasis by King Fuad I, who berated the locals for homosexual practices and specified punishments to bring Siwan behaviour in line with Egyptian morals.

Siwa was also the site of some fighting during World War I and World War II. The British Army's Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was based here, but Rommel's Afrika Korps also took possession three times. German soldiers went skinny dipping in the lake of the oracle, contrary to local customs which prohibit public nudity.[22] In 1942 while the Italian 136th Infantry Division Giovani Fascisti occupied the oasis, a tiny Egyptian puppet government-in-exile was set up at Siwa. The oasis makes a brief appearance as a base of the LRDG in the 1958 war film Ice Cold in Alex.

The ancient fortress of Siwa, known as the Shali Ghadi (Shali being the name of the town, and Ghadi meaning "remote"), was built on natural rock (an inselberg) and made of kershif (salt and mud-brick)[1] and palm logs. After it was damaged by three days of heavy rains in 1926[23] it was abandoned for similar unreinforced construction housing on the plain surrounding it, and in some cases those, in turn, have been replaced by more modern cinder block and sheet metal roof buildings. Only one building in the Shali complex has been repaired and is in use, a mosque. Gradually eroded by infrequent rains and slowly collapsing, the Shali remains a prominent feature, towering five stories above the modern town and lit at night by floodlights. It is most easily approached from its southwest side, south of the end of the paved road which curves around from the north side of the Shali. Several uneven pedestrian streets lead from the southwest end of the Shali into it, and the ground is rent in places by deep cracks. Many of the unreinforced kershif buildings bordering the streets of the Shali are also split by large cracks, or they are partially collapsed.

Other local historic sites of interest include the remains of the oracle temple; the Gebel al Mawta (the Mountain of the Dead), a Roman-era necropolis featuring dozens of rock-cut tombs;[1] and "Cleopatra's Bath", an antique natural spring. The fragmentary remains of the oracle temple, with some inscriptions dating from the 4th century BC, lie within the ruins of Aghurmi. The revelations of the oracle fell into disrepute under the Roman occupation of Egypt.[1]

Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh),[24] as the rest of Egypt.

Girl wearing the traditional dress of Siwa grinding salt

The traditional culture of Siwa shows many unique elements, some reflecting its longstanding links with the isolated Oasis life and the fact that the inhabitants are Siwi Berbers. Until a tarmac road was built to the Mediterranean coast in the 1980s Siwa's only links with the outside world were by arduous camel tracks through the desert. These were used to export dates and olives, bring trade goods, or carry pilgrims on the route which linked the Maghreb to Cairo and hence to Mecca.[26]

Local vegetables store

As a result of this isolation, Siwis developed a unique natural culture manifested in its crafts of basketry, pottery, silverwork and embroidery and in its style of dress. The most visible and celebrated examples of this were the bridal silver and the ensemble of silver ornaments and beads that women wore in abundance to weddings and other ceremonies.[27] These pieces were decorated with symbols which related to Siwa's history and beliefs and attitudes.[28]

The best known of these pieces is a huge silver disc called 'adrim' and a round necklace, called 'aghraw', from which it hung over the breast. A girl would give up the disc at a special ceremony in the spring the day she was married. The jewelry, which was made by local silversmiths, consisted of silver necklaces, earrings, bangles, hair ornaments, pendants, and many rings.[29] For a wealthy woman, the full ensemble could weigh as much as five or six kilos. These pieces are decorated with symbols common to Berber people across North Africa designed to promote good health, fertility and to protect the wearer from misfortune. Some of the same signs and patterns are found on the embroidery which embellishes women's dresses, trousers, and shawls.[30]

• Siwi Berber jewelry
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  Silver pendant with engraved Quran-box
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  Silver ring
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  Silver ear ornament
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  Silver disk and round necklace (torc)

The arrival of the road and of television exposed the oasis to the styles and fashions of the outside world and the traditional silver ornaments were gradually replaced by jewelry made of gold. Evidence of the old styles and traditions are however still in evidence in the women's embroidery and costume.[31] The material for the "tarfutet", the distinctive all-enveloping shawl worn by women, are brought from outside the oasis, specifically from the town of Kirdasa, in the Giza Governorate.[32]

About 80 km (50 mi) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide,[1] Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's most isolated settlements with about 25,000 people,[53][54] mostly Siwi Berbers.[1] The oasis is also inhabited by an Arab Bedouin community, comprising tribes such as Awlad Ali and Shahibaat, as well as a growing number of Egyptian settlers.[55] Its inhabitants developed a very isolated desert culture. The entire population speaks Arabic, particularly Egyptian Arabic, as either a first language or second language,[55] The Siwi Berber population speak a language called Siwi; they are also fluent in the Egyptian dialect of Arabic, which is called "Masry" meaning Egyptian.[56]

Off-roading in the dunes of Siwa

Siwa has been noted for its dates since ancient times, and today date palm cultivation is by far the largest component of its economy.[20] In a distant second place, with about one-fifth of the scale as dates, is olive cultivation.[20] Handicrafts like basketry are also of regional importance.[1]

Tourism has in recent decades become a vital source of income. Much attention has been given to creating hotels that use local materials and display local styles.[57]

In the mid-20th century, Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry worked at Siwa (and elsewhere in the Western Desert).

In 1995, Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzi announced that she had identified the tomb of Alexander the Great in the oasis of Siwa. Mrs Liana Souvaltzi made the following statement to the Greek media: “but I am speaking to every Greek all over the world. I want every one of you to feel proud because Greek hands have found this very important monument”. This statement was an answer to the, at the time, Greek prime minister Costas Simitis who urged the archaeologists to stop their research in Egypt and sent a Greek Embassy advisor to ask the Egyptian government to withdraw Mrs Souvaltzi’s permission to excavate in the area. This was the first time in human history that one country's government intervened in another country's internal affairs to stop an archaeological excavation. The case is still active in the Greek courts of law.[58]

An extremely old hominid footprint was discovered in 2007 at Siwa Oasis. Egyptian scientists claimed it could be 2–3 million years old, which would make it the oldest fossilized hominid footprint ever found. However, no proof of this conjecture was ever presented.[59][60][61]

In late 2013, an announcement was made regarding the apparent Archaeoastronomy discovery of precise spring and fall Equinox sunrise alignments over the Aghurmi mound/Amun Oracle when viewed from Timasirayn temple in the Western Desert, 12 km away across Lake Siwa. The first known recent public viewing of this event occurred on 21 March 2014 during the spring Equinox.[62]

Siwa Oasis is an official map for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory which belongs to North Africa Campaign.[63] The fifth mission from the game Sniper Elite III takes place on the Siwa Oasis.[64] Siwa is prominently featured in Assassin's Creed: Origins and is the birthplace and home of protagonist Bayek.[65] In British author Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, the ninth and eleventh instalments Scorpia Rising and Never Say Die feature Siwa. In Australian author Matthew Reilly's Jack West series of seven novels starting with Seven Ancient Wonders feature prominently the Oracle of Siwa.

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  Panoramic view of Siwa Oasis
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  Mud-brick houses in the old town of Shali
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  Clay houses of old Shali town
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  Old walls near the temple
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  Siwa salt lake
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  Cleopatra's bath (Cleopatra's pool)
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  Mosque at Aghurmi
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  Desert rock formations on the outskirts
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  View through the Temple of the Oracle of Amun to Gebel el-Dakrour
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  Sand dunes in the desert near Siwa Oasis

• List of cities and towns in Egypt

• Battesti, Vincent (2006). Benfoughal, T.; Boulay, S. (eds.). "De l'habitation aux pieds d'argile, Les vicissitudes des matériaux (et des techniques) de construction à Siwa (Égypte)". Journal des Africanistes (in French). Paris: Sociétés des Africanistes. 76 (1): 165–85. doi:10.4000/africanistes.197.
• Bliss, Frank (1998). Siwa – Die Oase des Sonnengottes. Leben in einer ägyptischen Oase vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart (in German). Bonn.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Bliss, Frank (1998). Artisanat et artisanat d'art dans les oasis du désert occidental égyptien (in French). Köln: Veröffentlichungen des Frobenius-Instituts.
• Battesti, Vincent. Battesti, V.; Puig, N. (eds.). ""Pourquoi j'irais voir d'en haut ce que je connais déjà d'en bas?" Centralités et circulations : comprendre l'usage des espaces dans l'oasis de Siwa". Égypte/Monde Arabe, Terrains d'Égypte, anthropologies contemporaines. 3e série (in French). Le Caire: Cedej. pp. 139–79.
• Blottière, Alain (1992). L'Oasis (in French). Paris: éditions Quai Voltaire. Pocket edition : éditions Payot, "Petite Bibliothèque Voyageurs", Paris, 1994. (see link below).
• Cana, Frank Richardson (1911). "Siwa" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). p. 163.
• Vale, Margaret Mary (2011). Sand and Silver: Jewellery, Costume and Life in the Oasis of Siwa. London.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• "Western Desert Maps".

• Ministry of Environment Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency – Natural Protectorates Description Archived 29 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• The Locally Run Website of Siwa Oasis.
• Siwawi.com The guide for visiting Siwa Oasis.
• Siwa Oasis – Extraordinary. Archived on Archive.is
• Alain Blottière's Travel book on Siwa Archived 14 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
• Siwa Oasis Photo Gallery.
• Olive and Palm Groves in Siwa Oasis

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Siwa.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Siwa.