Siwa, Marsa Matrouh and Alamein

As I mentioned in my previous post, last weekend was a big holiday for Egypt and as such we got the week off school. In order to take advantage of this vacation, the program organized a weeklong trip across the north coast and western desert from which I have just returned. In keeping with my short and undetailed posts (because I have a week’s worth of homework to do in the next twenty-four hours) I’m only going to summarize our stops with a few cultural observations, but I’ve included links if any of you would like more detailed information about the sights we saw.

We left Alexandria bright and early Monday morning for the eight hour bus ride to Siwa, the largest and most famous desert oasis located in the middle of the Egyptian Sahara near the Libyan border. We spent the first night exploring Shali, a tiny village situated around the ruins of a not-so-ancient fortress that was destroyed by rain in the last hundred years or so. Our nearby hotel was lovely. Though sleeping three to a room meant that there was literally no floor space once we’d rolled out the cot, the beds were comfortable enough and the establishment itself was much cleaner than I would have expected. Both mornings at the hotel we had a delicious breakfast of cucumbers, tomatoes, bread, cheese, jam and ful (fava beans) on the roof overlooking the village.

The second day was allotted for tours of the nearby ruins. We were allowed to choose between two tour groups, one riding bikes and the other donkey drawn carts called karettas, or exploring on our own. I chose the bike and it was one of the better decisions I’ve ever made. Apart from its beauty, Siwa is best known for its dates and olives, and biking through the palm groves was a spectacular experience. Our guide was also amazing. He’s the son of the education minister in Siwa and knows every last detail about the oasis, many of which he communicated to us.

We saw two temples built by the ancient Egyptians in honor of Amun Ra, the sun god, the first of which once contained an oracle that Alexander the Great made pilgrimage to confirm his status as the son of Zeus since the occupying Greeks had adopted Zeus Amun Ra as a manifestation of the head of their pantheon. We also visited Cleopatra’s spring which has nothing to do with Cleopatra except that she might have visited it once and her name draws tourists – as evidenced by the excessively fancy and expensive cabanas set up nearby. Male tourists are welcome to swim in the spring and many of them did.

After the temples and the spring we went to Dakrour Mountain, an old alabaster quarry that is now used only once a year as a gathering place for Eid al-Siyaha – a specifically Siwan holiday commemorating the end of the civil war between the Eastern and Western tribes of the oasis and oddly reminiscent of American Thanksgiving. Tourists come from all over to participate in the celebration in October, but the gathering was cancelled by the Egyptian government this year for security reasons associated with the revolution. Though Siwan children attend with their fathers, the local women gather in their homes rather than on the mountain with the others.

The last stop of the day was the Mountain of the Dead, a giant mountain of catacombs. We entered the tomb of a rich family of Greek descent and though it was gorgeous, photography was forbidden, so unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the inside.

Once we’d finished the tour, we loaded onto the bus to drive out to Western Siwa and have dinner on the salt flats. I honestly can’t imagine a more beautiful scene, though I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The third day was dedicated to the desert, and here even the photos don’t do it justice. The sand stretches on forever, and despite it being essentially dirt it all feels clean. We loaded into a fleet of nine land cruisers and drove across the dunes to various springs for swimming and various mountain size dunes for sand boarding.

The sand boarding was fun, but not quite worth having to climb back up the dune afterwards. That night, we slept in the desert with the Siwans. While everyone was complaining the next morning that they’d hardly slept at all between the intense cold and the hard ground, I found the experience rather comfortable. They’d warned us we’d be sleeping in the desert and I’d come prepared with multiple socks, sweats, and thermal shirts. I’d say I got a solid eight hours.

Our night in the desert was an eye opening experience. While the Siwans appear more conservative than most Egyptians, especially when it comes to women, they’re also more liberal in many ways. Though nominally Muslim, many of them drink and I heard from more than one Siwan that there’s a sizeable contingent of people that practice magic. I don’t want to get too deep into the details, but suffice it to say that Siwan culture has informed me a great deal about the variances in Egyptian culture as a whole.

When we woke the next morning, we had a simple breakfast of bread and ful and headed back to the village to stock up on dates (which we had been eating and would continue to eat at an almost constant pace throughout the trip) before hitting the road headed for Marsa Matrouh.

Marsa Matrouh is a port city with a strong military presence, known for having some of the most beautiful beaches in Egypt. While I would have liked to explore the city more, we spent most of our time there in the five star hotel. Since it’s the off season, I’m pretty sure we were the only guests in the hotel. We had the beach, the pool and the spa all to ourselves, and that night the program hired an eastern dance team to put on a beautiful show for us in the patio café. Ironically, I didn’t sleep very well that night and I suspect it’s because the beds were too comfortable.

Our final day we woke to the kind of breakfast you would expect from a five star hotel and hit the road for our last bout of sightseeing in Alamein. For those history buffs among you, you may recognize Alamein as the sight of one of the most decisive battles of the second World War,

conveniently located on the highway between Marsa Matrouh and Alexandria. We visited the Italian Memorial, the German Memorial, the Alamein Military Museum, and the Allied Graveyard in that order. Though they were all spectacular historical sights, I have to say the graveyard was my favorite. Many of the gravestones had personal inscriptions from the families of the soldiers, and while reading them was heartbreaking it created a real connection between the past and the present.

That’s the trip in short. A few additional details:

1. My friend Laura who’s studying and Cairo and her boyfriend came with us, but I got the feeling they weren’t used to or comfortable with the real Egyptian experience that our program promotes – possibly because their Arabic isn’t quite on the necessary level to interact with Egyptians on a daily basis. Regardless, I think they enjoyed themselves over all.

2. I definitely prefer the simplicity and authenticity of Siwa to the five stars of Marsa Matrouh, even if it means having to squat in the desert to pee.

3. I love dates. Speaking of which, I think I’m going to go open the two kilos I bought in Siwa. Questions and comments are welcome!