Siwa Oasis

Siwa Oasis lies some 20m below sea level on the edge of the Great Sand Sea on Egypt's Western border with Libya. This remote desert outpost has a remarkably rich history including a visit from Alexander the Great to consult the Oracle of Amun in 331 BC.

Some claim the great military leader was burried here, but no real evidence exists to support this. Legend has it that the King of Persia lead an army of 50,000 men to destroy the Oracle, but the entire army was lost in a desert sandstorm.

To the west of the town of is a large, saltwater lake and the area is famous for its dates and olives as well as its natural hot water springs of which there are over 1,000.

Until recently, Siwa Oasis was hardly governed by Egypt at all and remained mostly a Berber (Zenatiya) community with its own distinct culture, customs and Berber language (rather than Arabic). Siwa is very traditional and conservative: girls here are often married by the age of 14, at which point they are always covered from head to toe and allowed little communication with the world beyond their immediate family.