Siwa
Dahab
7 Days Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh Budget Tour Package.
Siwa ecolodge Adrere AmellalSurrounded by lakes that are too saline to support fishing Siwa has been famous for its olive groves and palm gardens since ancient times. Today Siwan olives and Siwan bottled water are considered the finest and purest in Egypt. It is an easily supported claim as there is nothing produced here that might be a pollutant. Siwa has two populations, originally. The Siwans, who are berber in origin, and the Bedouin, who inhabit villages around the edge of the Oasis and whose gaily dressed women are not as reclusive as the native Siwans.
One is struck in Siwa by the ruined mud town of Old Shali that was abandoned, finally, in the 1980s after severe rain damage. It is next to the new town of Shali and looks like a ruined castle made of mud pies. You can visit it by picking your way through the darkened passageways but mind where you step. Siwa is most famous as being the site of the Oracle visited by Alexander the Great in 331BC.
He arrived and demanded that the Oracle answer his question (reputed to be ‘Will I rule the world?’ the answer being ‘Yes, but not for very long’). As well as being able to visit the reputed site of the Oracle there is Cleopatra’s pool and the ruined town to visit, to name but a few of the sights.
Siwa has the best craft tradition of any of the oases. You can get unique ceramic tajin, Saharan cooking pots, handmade and fired in bread ovens rather than kilns.
Wedding dresses of stunning design are made by women, who dress plainly the rest of the year.
SiwaYou will notice that Siwans are uninhibited and talented musicians.
Siwans tend to keep in musical practice for the four big festivals they hold each year, as well as their highly musical weddings. The biggest
festival, Siayha, which anyone can attend, draws over 10,000 Siwans to nearby Jebel Dakhour for three days of feasting, dancing and singing.
