Siwa Oasis Attractions 
The Oasis of Siwa, lying in latitude 29° 12' north and longitude 25° 20' east in a wide depression in the Western Desert, 65ft/20m below sea level, is the most westerly of the Egyptian oases. Thanks to its remote and isolated situation it has preserved many old customs and characteristics.
Siwa is an attractive island of green under a sky that is always cloudless. The inhabitants are Berbers, with a mingling of bedouin and Sudanese slaves acquired in the course of the centuries. They speak their own Berber dialect, and usually Arabic as well. The oasis owes its fertility to its 200 or so springs, 80 of which are used for irrigation; in ancient times there were said to be a thousand springs. The main crops grown in the oasis are dates (200,000 palms), olives (50,000 trees) and citrus fruits.
In 331 B.C. Alexander the Great traveled to Siwa the first King of Egypt to do so and was received as the son of Zeus-Amun and crowned with the ram's horn crown.
Siwa is an attractive island of green under a sky that is always cloudless. The inhabitants are Berbers, with a mingling of bedouin and Sudanese slaves acquired in the course of the centuries. They speak their own Berber dialect, and usually Arabic as well. The oasis owes its fertility to its 200 or so springs, 80 of which are used for irrigation; in ancient times there were said to be a thousand springs. The main crops grown in the oasis are dates (200,000 palms), olives (50,000 trees) and citrus fruits.
In 331 B.C. Alexander the Great traveled to Siwa the first King of Egypt to do so and was received as the son of Zeus-Amun and crowned with the ram's horn crown.
Siwa, Egypt
The chief place in the Siwa Oasis is the little town of Siwa (pop. 5,000), perched on a rocky hill. The ancient town was 2mi/3km west, at the village of Aghurmi (pop. 350); only a few remains survive, apart from the conspicuous and well preserved Temple of Amasis (26th Dynasty), the presumed site of the oracle consulted by Alexander the Great. Nearby, at Ummel-Ebeida, are the remains of a Temple of Nectanebo II. At Qaret el-Musabberin (Gebel el-Mota) are rock tombs of the 26th-30th Dynasties, with interesting reliefs.
