Siwa

Oasis Extraordinary

Written and photographed by Torben B. Larsen

The Siwa Oasis lies in a broad low area in the desert of western Egypt,
300 kilometers (185 miles) southwest of the Mediterranean port city of
Mersa Matruh. From the moment you leave the impoverished vegetation
of the coastal strip until you reach Siwa, you see hardly a sprig of green
in the stony or gravelly desert. The road is so straight and so devoid of
traffic that the slightest curve is signposted as if it were a dangerous
turn on a mountain road. Most of the time a few wandering camels
constitute the only sign of life.

Then, abruptly, you reach the edge of the scarp; at your feet lies the
depression that is Siwa, averaging some 20 meters (65 feet) below sea
level: a sea of green palms, a mosaic of lakes, an expanse of irrigated
fields. After 300 kilometers of desert it seems a mirage.

Siwa owes its existence to an abundance of permanent fresh-water

springs that permit intensive cultivation. Yet the very abundance of the
water is also a serious impediment to agriculture, for without proper
drainage salt would accumulate in the soil as it has in the many lakes.
Siwa would still be green without human intervention, but not with crops.
The land would be covered with coarse grasses and various salt-
resistant desert plants, with palm groves only in favored places.

There are just under 10,000 people in the oasis today, mostly in the
township of Siwa. Flint implements show that Siwa was already
inhabited in paleolithic and neolithic times, but the first historical records
date from the Middle and New Kingdoms of pharaonic Egypt (2050-
1800 BC and 1570-1090 BC). Nonethless, it is unlikely that the
pharaohs and their governors ever exercised any real control over Siwa,
since there are no signs of any buildings dating from this period.

Yet Siwa was, in its way, a center of Egyptian culture, for a temple
there, built to honor the ram-headed sun god Amon-Ra, housed a
divine oracle whose fame, by about 700 BC, was widespread in the
eastern Mediterranean. King Cambyses of Persia, son of Cyrus the
Great and conqueror of Egypt, held a grudge against the oracle,
probably because it had predicted that his conquests in Africa would
soon falter - as indeed they did. In 524 BC Cambyses dispatched from
Luxor an army of 50,000 men to destroy the Siwan oracle - a
dispersion of forces that he could ill afford on his way to capture
Ethiopia. The entire army vanished without a trace, buried in the seas of
sand between Siwa and the inner-Egyptian oases, and no sign of it has
been found even to this day.

Such an apparently supernatural victory must have enormously

increased the prestige of the oracle throughout the region, though it is
from the Greeks that we have most of our information. The famous
Greek poet Pindar sent to Siwa a hymn of praise carved on a stone
stele that has unfortunately since been lost. Lysander, the great general,
tried to bribe the oracle to assist his attempt to be crowned king of
Sparta. At the behest of a Siwan delegation of priests, dispatched to
Greece, he was prosecuted for his impiety, but he managed to talk his
way out of a conviction - probably because still more money changed
hands.

The most illustrious visitor to Siwa was undoubtedly Alexander the

Great. He was acclaimed pharaoh of Egypt after defeating the Persian
Darius in the battle of Issus in 333 BC. In 331 he set sail from his
newly-founded city of Alexandria, reached Mersa Matruh, and marched
toward Siwa along the desert route that is still used today.

Though we do not know for certain, Alexander's purpose in making the

journey may have been a piece of political image-making. Each of the
pharaohs of Egypt's 28th Dynasty had traveled to Siwa to be
acknowledged at the temple there as the son of Amon-Ra, the supreme
god; each, thereafter, was depicted as wearing the ram's horns of Amon
on his head. Alexander wanted the same declaration of divine power to
legitimize his conquest of Egypt and put himself on the same footing as
the pharaohs.

The overland journey was, according to the historian Callisthenes, a

dangerous one. Alexander's party exhausted its water supply, but divine
intervention produced a sudden downpour. A sandstorm caused them to
lose their way, but divine intervention, Callisthenes says, sent two crows
to lead them safely to Siwa. It was necessary for historians to show that
kings had divine protection, so we cannot be sure that these episodes
actually took place, but they were widely reported and believed at the
time, and their value was all the greater because of the contrast with the
fate of Cambyses' 50,000 men.

As might be expected, conquering Alexander was received with

enthusiasm at Siwa, and with pomp and ceremony to match. Dancers,
musicians, priests and worshipers circled in procession in the forecourt
of the temple, and thereafter Alexander requested a private session with
the oracle. He was greatly pleased with the results, according to a letter
to his mother, though we know neither his questions nor the oracle's
answers - yet Alexander, too, was thereafter depicted on coins wearing
ram's horns, and referred to with reverence as "Alexander of the Two
Horns." His visit was the high point of Siwa's history.
The temple of the oracle where Alexander was received can still be
seen on the hill of Aghurmi, the old capital of Siwa. It is not a great
temple by the standards of the Nile Valley and it is not in good repair,
but for an oasis which probably never had more than 10,000 inhabitants
it is a landmark, and a symbol of fame, power and wealth quite
disproportionate to such a remote spot.

Indeed, there was also a second Temple of Amon in Siwa that almost
survived into the 20th century. It was blown up with gunpowder in 1897
so that its stone could be reused for the construction of a police station
and a private manor.

With the coming of Roman times, oracles went out of fashion, and so
did the Egyptian gods, whom the Greeks had more or less integrated
into their own mythology. Auguries and the reading of animal entrails
were more the Roman style. When the traveler and historian Strabo
visited Egypt in 23 BC he could note that the oracle of Amon had lost
almost all importance, though doubtless the god was still worshiped
locally till the advent of Islam.

The next thousand years in Siwa's history were difficult ones. Social and
economic unrest followed the dissolution of Roman political power.
Bedouin tribes raided the scattered settlements of the oasis and
disrupted what little commerce the Siwans had. Around the year 1200
the population was reduced to 40 able-bodied men, perhaps 200
people in all. Then the whole population moved from the low ground
near the temple of the oracle to a nearby hill that could be fortified.
There the Siwans remained secure as the population grew steadily, as
more land was cultivated, and as surplus crops were "exported" from the
oasis.
By the 19th century the first European visitors, never welcomed by the
population, described the whole hill as a vast beehive of buildings. In
1820, Siwa came under outside rule for the first time when it was
conquered by the troops of Muhammed Ali, the Ottoman pasha of
Egypt. With central rule, the defensive needs of the town were reduced
and for the first time since 1200 it was permitted to build houses outside
the fortifications of the town - though most people were reluctant to do
so. A fierce rainstorm in 1926 demolished many houses, however, and
made others unsafe, forcing people to leave. The ancient town is now
almost in ruins, though its honeycomb nature is still clearly discernible.

Today, the Siwans still retain their own language, which is related to
Berber as spoken in the Sahara, and on traditional feast days and at
weddings the women still bring out their vast hoards of silver ornaments.
But Arabic is increasingly used and Arabic expressions find their way
into Siwan; traditional dress and customs are giving way as more and
more of Siwa's people are educated in Mersa Matruh and Alexandria.
Recently a daily bus service began on the new road between Siwa and
Mersa Matruh, and oil exploration and army encampments have led to
the infusion of many outsiders. The old Siwan way of life will never be
the same again.

One aspect of that way of life, though, has not changed much: Date
palms and olive trees are still the twin pillars on which agriculture rests.
There are at least 250,000 palm trees and at least 30,000 olive trees in
the oasis; with some justification, local farmers consider their dates and
olives to be among the best in the world, and indeed, records dating
back to pharaonic times wax lyrical about them. Most other
Mediterranean fruits and vegetables are also grown, as well as large
quantities of alfalfa for the livestock and for export. The livestock
consists mainly of donkeys; the camels seen in the oasis all belong to
semi-settled Bedouins.

As in all oases, the care people lavish on the land and its crops is
prodigious; watching a Siwan farmer lovingly hand-pollinate his date
palms is a delight.

All of Siwa's agricultural land consists of carefully tended gardens with

elaborate watering and drainage systems connected to one or another of
the natural springs. Only judicious use of irrigation and management of
drainage can prevent salination and permit the gradual development of
good topsoil, and each little garden represents a cumulative investment
of time and effort that has grown from generation to generation. Perhaps
the most impressive is a circular garden with a diameter of 100 meters
(325 feet), lying in the middle of one of the salt lakes and accessible
only by a narrow footpath 300 meters (975 feet) long. Modern-day
Siwans freely admit their admiration for the efforts that went into its
construction - efforts that would not be economically viable today.

Most of the information on Siwa available to us today stems from the

"Siwan Manuscript," begun more than 100 years ago by one Abu
Musallim, a qadi, or judge, who had been educated at the al-Azhar
University in Cairo. It includes a summary of information from medieval
Arab chroniclers, as well as the oral traditions of Siwa itself. And in the
last 10 years, Swiss social anthropologist Bettina Leopoldo has spent
much time in Siwa; she hopes to publish an important monograph soon
on the oasis and its people. It should be a fascinating document and, in
a sense, constitute a continuation of the Siwan Manuscript into modern
times.
With the changes that those modern times have brought - for better and
for worse - the isolation and cultural uniqueness of Siwa have been
breached, but no doubt some continuity will remain with the
extraordinary past.

The History of the Siwa Oasis

by Jimmy Dunn
Siwa, like the other Western Oasis, has had a number of different names over the
millenniums. It was called Santariya by the ancient Arabs, as well as the Oasis of
Jupiter-Amun, Marmaricus Hammon, the Field of Palm Trees and Santar by the
ancient Egyptians..
We believe it was occupied as early as Paleolithic and Neolithic times, and some
believe it was the capital of an ancient kingdom that may have included Qara,
Arashieh and Bahrein. During Egypt's Old Kingdom, it was a part of Tehenu, the
Olive Land that may have extended as for east as Mareotis.
In many respects, the Siwa Oasis has little in common with the other Western Oasis.
The Siwan people are mostly Berbers, the true Western Desert indigenous people,
who once roamed the North African coast between Tunisia and Morocco. They
inhabited the area as early as 10,000 BC, first moving towards the coast, but later
inland as other conquering invaders arrived. Hence, Siwa is more North African
sometimes then Egyptian and their language, traditions, rites, dress, decorations and
tools differ from those of the other Western Oasis.

In fact, there is almost nothing known of the Siwa Oasis during Egypt's ancient
history. There have been no monuments discovered dating from the
Old, Middle or New Kingdoms. It may have been colonized during the reign
of Ramesses III, but evidence only exists beginning with the 26th Dynasty that it was
part of the Egyptian empire. It was then that the Gebel el-Mawta Necropolis was
established, which was in use through the Roman Period. In fact, some sources
maintain that it remained an independed Sheikhdom ruled by a Libyan tribal chief
until Roman times. The two temples that we know of, both dedicated to Amun, were
established by Ahmose II and Nectanebo II.
Yet just exactly how integrated it was in the Egyptian realm is questionable. One of
the most notable and interesting stories in Egyptian history involves Cambyses II,
who apparently had problems with the Oasis. He sent an army to the Oasis in order to
seize control, but the entire caravan was lost to the desert, never arriving at Siwa. To
this day, the event remains a mystery, though tantalizing clues seem to be popping up.

It was the Greeks who made the Siwa Oasis notable. After having established
themselves in Cyrene (in modern Libya) they discovered and popularized
the Oracle of Amun located in the Siwa Oasis, and at least one of the greatest stories
told of the Oasis concerns the visit by Alexander the Great to the Oracle.
Almost immediately after taking Egypt from the Persians and establishing Alexandria,
Alexander the Great headed for the Siwa Oasis to consult the now famous Oracle of
Amun. This trip, made with a few comrades, is well documented. He was not the first
to experience problems in the desert, as whole armies before him had been lost in the
sand. The caravan got lost, ran out of water and was even caught up in an unusual
rainstorm. However, upon arrival at the Oasis and the Oracle of Amun, Alexander
was pronounced a god, an endorsement required for legitimate rule of the country.

Cleopatra VII may have also visited this Oasis to consult with the Oracle, as well as
perhaps bath in the spring that now bears her name. However, by the Roman
period, Augustus sent political prisoners to the Siwa so it too, like the other desert
oasis, became a place of banishment.
Christianity would have had a difficult time establishing itself in this Oasis, and most
sources agree that it did not. However, Bayle St. John says that in fact the Temple of
the Oracle was actually turned into the Church of the Virgin Mary. This is
understandable given that along with political prisoners, the Romans banished church
leaders to the Western Oasis, including, Athanasius tells us, to Siwa. In fact, we find
that during the Byzantine era it probably belonged to the dioceses of the Libyan
eparchy. However, no real record, or for that matter, archaeological evidence exists to
support Christianity in the Oasis. By 708 AD, Islam came to the Oasis. Though earlier
than some of the other Western Oasis, it had little success at first. The Siwans may
have been Christian at this point, but regardless, they withdrew to their fortress and
fought valiantly against the invading forces of Musa Ibn Nusayr, finally repelling his
army. Next came Tariq Ibn Ziyad of Spain, but his army was also defeated. Though
some sources disagree, it was probably not until 1150 AD that Islam finally took hold
in the Siwa Oasis.

However, by 1203 we are told that the population of the Siwa Oasis had declined to as
low as 40 men from seven families due to constant attacks and particularly after a
rather viscous Bedouin assault. In order to found a more secure settlement, they
moved from the ancient town of Aghurmi and established the present city
called Shali, which simply means town. This new fortified town was built with only
three gates. An Islamic historian, Maqrizi, explains that soon after there were 600
people living in the Oasis. At this point the Siwa may have been an independent
republic. He goes on to say that it was populated by strange and fearsome animals and
that the people were plagued by unusual diseases. However, he also says of the Siwa
that its fertility was legendary, citing an "orange-tree as large as an Egyptian
sycamore, producing fourteen thousand oranges every year". The Siwa exported crops
to Egypt and Cyrene.
One of the main historical references we have on the Siwa Oasis is called the "Siwan
Manuscript" which was written during the middle ages and serves as a local history
book. It tells us of a benevolent man who arrived in the Oasis and planted an orchard.
Afterward, he went to Mecca and brought back thirsty Arabs and Berbers to live in
the Oasis, where he established himself, along with his followers in the western part
of Shali.
Unfortunately, there seems to have almost immediately been problems between the
original inhabitants, who were later known as the Easterners, and the new families
western families who to this day are proud to be described as "The Thirty". The
conflicts between the two sides became legendary, and sometimes rose into short, but
intense violence. An example comes to us from C. Dalrymple Belgrave, who
describes an incident caused by an Easterner who wished to enlarge his house. This
addition would have encroached upon the already narrow street, so "The Thirty"
objected. He goes on to tell us of a typical outburst:
"A Sheikh sounded a drum as a declaration of hostilities. The combatants then
assembled to fight the battle with their advisories. The women stood behind their
husbands to excite their courage; each of whom had a sack of stones in her hand, to
cast at the enemy, and even at those of their own party who should be tempted to fly
before the close of the combat. At the beat of the drum, small platoons advanced
successively from both sides, rushing furiously toward each other. they never placed
their guns to the shoulder, but fired carelessly with their arms extended, and then
retired. No person was allowed to fire his gun more than once; and when all had thus
performed their part, whatever might be the number of dead or wounded, the Sheikh
beat his drum, and the combat ceased."
Obviously, if the Siwans could not get along with each other, they must surely have
had trouble accepting outsiders. The first European we know of to visit the Siwa
Oasis was W. G. Browne, who accompanied a date caravan and disguised himself as
an Arab. He hoped to find the famous site of the Oracle of Amun. However, he was
found out and had to remain indoors to avoid problems. On the fourth day of his visit
he was finally allowed to venture out, only to be disappointed when he actually found
the temple, thinking it too small to to be of much importance.
Then came Frederick Hornemann, a German with the African Association. Also
accompanying a date caravan in disguise, he managed to fool the locals for eight days.
However, he was found out and chased through the desert. Though he managed to
escape, his interpreter ran off with Hornemann's plundered artifacts, mineral
specimens and expedition notes, supposedly burying them in the desert where they
remain today.
When, in 1819, Muhammad Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, began his conquest of
the Western Oasis, he sent between 1,300 and 2,000 troops to the Siwa Oasis under
the the commander, Hassan Bey Shamashurghi. The ensuing battle lasted for three
hours, but the Siwans this time were no match for modern artillery. They had to yield
to this superior force, and were forced to pay a tribute of some 2,000 pounds, a
significant amount in those days and particularly to the Siwans who had little hard
currency.
Along with Shamashurghi came the French Consul Bernardino Drovetti, along with
the artist and engineer, Louis Linant de Bellefonds, a pharmacist named Enegildo
Frediani and others. They tell us of more antiquities located in the Oasis than we see
today, and in 1834, information regarding the Siwan language was found among
Drovetti's notes and published by Jomard. Also, Frediani published his own letters,
and in some instances, these records are our only source of information for this
period.
That same year, Frederic Caillaud, a mineralogist and also an envoy of the Pasha,
along with Pierre Letorzec, a French sailor, visited the Oasis. They investigated the
tombs at Gebel Mawta and other antiquities west of the Oasis, and after bribing the
locals, were also allowed a visit to the temple of the Oracle. The results of this visit
was the first scientific report on the Siwa Oasis, including the fact that it was below
sea level. Cailliaud also published a book and a 470 word lexicon on the Siwan
language.
What we know of the Umm Ubayd Temple, which was later destroyed, comes from a
visit by the Prussian Heinrich Von Minutoli when he visited the Oasis in September
of 1820. He made detailed illustrations and accounts of the antiquities all about the
Siwa.
However, matters were not settled in the Oasis as for the distant rule of Muhammad
Ali. It seems there was a repetition of him sending troops, the people of the Siwa
resisting, then giving in and agreeing to pay tribute, but once the troops were gone,
reneging and refusing to allow strangers into their community, so Muhammad Ali
would once again send troops. Finally, in 1829, the Pasha sent 600 to 800 soldiers
who conquered the Siwa, along with a ruthless governor by the name of Hasan Bey.
He had eighteen Sheikhs executed and twenty others banished. He increased the
tribute, and confiscated money, slaves, dates and silver as payment for the back debt.
He was also responsible for building the first markaz, a government office, behind
Qasr Hassuna.
By about 1834, The Siwa Oasis was considered to be safe for travel, and perhaps for a
time it was, because a number of people did visit including Bayle St. John, and
English adventurer who stayed for some time. He published a book in 1849, called
"Adventures in the Libyan Desert", that provides fine information on the Oasis during
that period. He was allowed to visit the gardens and the Temple of the Oracle, but
interestingly, was not allowed inside Shali proper.
However, when James Hamilton visited the Oasis in 1852, his camp was invaded and
he was taken as a virtual prisoner by Yusif Ali, a zaggala. However, Hamilton
managed to smuggle out several letters, and on March 14th 1852, 150 Calvary with
fourteen officers went to the Oasis, and within a week, Hamilton was escorted out of
the Oasis by Yusif Ali. Now this was an interesting situation, because when Siwan
dignitaries failed to appear in Cairo as promised to explain their conduct regarding
Hamilton, the viceroy sent 200 men to the oasis who made life very difficult. They
committed robbery, stole women and shot anyone who spoke out. Yet, Yousef Ali
was himself finally made governor of the Oasis, apparently by turning against the
locals. Then, in 1854 under a new ruler of Egypt, those imprisoned by Ali were set
free, and returned to the Oasis. They immediately went after Ali, who escaped, was
caught again and finally killed.
In 1869 and again in 1874, Gerhard Rohlfs visited the oasis and discovered the reason
why the Siwans continued to have troubles with Cairo. It turns out that the Sanusi, a
power force within the Libyan desert made up of a religious order established by Al-
Sayyid Muhammad bin Ali al-Sanusi Khatibi al-Idrisi al-Hasani, had told the Siwans
not to pay their taxes. The Sanuis opposed contact with the west, and were viewed as
a threat by Europeans. They had also established themselves early on in this oasis.
Hence, the locals were placed in a difficult situation, between the ruling powers of
Egypt and the Sanuis who represented a real power within the desert. This matter
seems not to have been resolved, perhaps, until at least the First World War.
In 1898, we find a new tale that seems almost to come from the hand of Shakespeare
out of the pages of Romeo and Juliet. It was called the Widow's War, for following
the death of the local mayor (umda) of Siwa, his young wife wished to marry again.
An Easterner, she wanted to marry one of "The Thirty", a Westerner. However, her
stepson decided she should marry another, so she fled to Uthman Haban, a Sanusi
(and Westerner), apparently for protection. This started the war drums, so she then
returned to her stepson only to disappear again the next day. She had gone to her
Westerner lover, but her stepson apparently seized her and forced her to marry the
man of his choosing. The whole village seemed to have been in an uproar over the
whole matter, and two men were killed. The war drums started once more, but a small
boy was shot by mistake and a truce was called. However, this did not last long, and
after the Easterners attacked a spring, Belgrave tells us that:
"Then the entire Western force, led by their chief, Uthman Habun, on his great white
war-horse, the only one in Siwa, surged out of the town, through the narrow gates,
firing and shrieking, waving swards and spears, followed by their women throwing
stones. Every able bodied man and woman joined in the battle beneath the walls...'The
Habun' found himself in danger of being captured...Habun's mother, seeing her son in
danger, collected a dozen women of his house and managed to get near him. He left
his horse and slipped into the gardens where he joined the women. They dressed him
as a girl, and with them he escaped to the tomb of Sidi Suliman. Habun sent to the
Sanusi at Jugbub and they created the peace. This pattern of sporadic, but regular
violence continued until the Sanusi created order."
The Sanusi continued to dominate the Oasis for many years, and it was a popular
crossing for their caravans, particularly those transporting slaves from Kufra. The
locals helped in this endeavor, and many of the slaves remained in the Siwa, where
many of their descendents remain today.
Within the 20th Century, the first Egyptian ruler to visit the Siwa Oasis was Abbas II,
but even he had to disguise his Austrian wife as an Egyptian army officer. He went
there in style, with a vanguard consisting of 62 camels and a main entourage of 228
camels and 22 horses. Water was carried from Cairo in 120 iron chests, as Abbas rode
along in his fine carriage. He received a warm welcome from the residence, who meet
him waving palm branches while musicians played and banners fluttered. To honor
his visit, the local Khedive even laid the foundation for a new mosque. It would seem
that the Siwa was finally becoming a part of modern Egypt.
Afterwards, the Oasis saw considerable activity with a number of visitors including
the renowned Oasis Egyptologist,Ahmed Fakhry. Yet, the two world wars would
cause considerable problems for the Oasis.
The Siwa was really caught up between opposing forces during World War I. Now,
the Siwans found themselves in the middle of the Italians who had colonized Libya
and the Sanusi, who they were most sympathetic to and who had sided with the Turks
on the one hand, and the British who had colonized Egypt on the other.
After several failed attempts, the Sanusi, who had already entered Farafra and
Bahariya in February of 1916, finally also occupied the Siwa on April 1st. While the
other Oasis rapidly fell to the British, they did not take the Siwa until February 5th of
1917. During all this time, the Siwans managed to survive by moving into the tombs
of Gebel al-Mawta and simply welcoming whichever invader was in town at the time.
Massy, in "The Desert Campaigns" tells us of the battle. It was February 1st, 1917
that the British took to the desert from Mersa Matruh. According to Massy, the force
consisted of:
"Rolls Royce armoured cars, Talbot wagons, Ford Light patrol and supply cars, a
Daimler lorry carrying a Krupp gun made in 1871, and captured from the enemy in
19165, and over a score of motor lorries."
Then, about 90 miles from the escarpment, General Hodgson sent out a
reconnaissance to find Qirba, some low hills were it was believed the enemy was
hiding. They were found, and at noon the Sanusi attempted a charge. However, the
British machine guns and heavy motorized vehicles were too much for the Sanusi's
two ten pound cannons, two machine guns and 800 small arms. All the following
night there was sniper fire, and then in the morning the Sanusi fired two last cannon
shells and after throwing their ammunition on a fire, retreated. When the British
entered the Siwa, they were warmly received and by February 8th, the whole matter
was finished.
During the remainder of the war, the Siwa became a tourist attraction with tours et up
by Captain Hillier, a former member of the Frontier District Administration who set
up trips through the Libyan Oasis Association of Alexandria. This was the beginning
of real tourism to the Oasis, and visitors had their choice between a nine day tour by
rail and coach from Mersa Matruh or a month long camel safari that connected with
the Wadi Natrun and the Qattara Depression. Hillier had set up a small, two story
hotel on the spur of the Gebel al-Mawta called the Prince Farouk Hotel. Though the
whitewashed mudbrick structure could only hold about twelve guests, they had access
to a dining room, lounge and verandah.
In 1926, when, after three days and nights, the rain bead down on the salt caked mud
houses of Shali, the old town was made mostly uninhabitable and residence were
eventually forced to move into new housing outside the old city.
During World War II, Siwa again played an important role. Most of that war saw the
Siwa occupied with Allied troops consisting mainly of British, Australians and New
Zealanders. It was closed to none military visitors. However, it was bombed by the
Italians who had occupied Libya, killing 100 people (and a donkey, we are told), and
later, the Germans had their turn in the Oasis. Even Field Marshal Rommel visited,
but it was later retaken by the Allies. Afterwards, visitation to the Siwa was restricted
for a number of years.

Today, the Siwa, while not a heavily trafficked tourist destination, welcomes those
that it receives. It offers restaurants, craft shops as well as some nice hotels and great
desert tours. Furthermore, in the fall of 1997, an ecolodge was built by the
Environmental Sustainable Tourism Program as a joint effort of USAID and the Ford
Foundation and we now find a number of interesting resorts within this once forsaken
land. The town now even supports a renovated airport.