For the recent Eid holiday (it was only 2 weekends ago, still recent, kind of) some friends and I made a visit to a place called Siwa Oasis in Egypt's western desert. (The following picture doesn't show the full oasis, a lot is missing because the other pics for the panorama had issues.)
Siwa is a very large oasis located smack in the middle of what is otherwise very inhospitable terrain. The copious amount of water that Siwa provides means the area is fertile ground...for mosquitoes. So, so many mosquitoes. I ended this particular trip with upwards of 60 mosquito bites. There is no exaggeration in that number. I counted.
Besides the horrible bloodsucking cloud that followed my white, pasty, and apparently quite tasty ass everywhere I went, the trip was very worthwhile and Siwa and the desert were beautiful.
The travelling to and from was the second longest time I have ever spent in a car non-stop. The only time that was longer was the trip I took to California at 15 or some such age to visit relatives. The trip from Cairo to Siwa took 9 hours. I think we had two stops the entire way. To give you an idea of how out the the way this place is, here is a picture of stop number two, where we had lunch before the last leg of our journey.
The next day we made some trips to important sites in the area. Probably the coolest was the Mountain of the Dead. This is a mountain that was used as a giant burial mound and there may be upwards of a hundred graves cut into it.
After the Mountain of the Dead we moved on to another area. In the second picture you should be able to see the temple that is on the top left. Unfortunately not too much is left of the original decoration in the temple, so there wasn't much to take a picture of. However, the location provided a great spot to get some shots of the surroundings.
After this is was on to lunch. Mmm, food.
The proprietor of the shop we ate at used Egyptian Sign Language while I was there too, because one of his employees was deaf. It was pretty cool to watch. Completely indecipherable for me, but cool to see.
After that we headed out to some oases out in the desert a ways from Siwa. This one was a natural hot-spring, smelled like sulfur, and was surrounded by palm trees and reeds. The dragonfly you see in the second picture was massive, I wish I could have gotten a picture that shows scale better.
We then went to a place where there are lots of exposed fossils, mostly shells like this one.
And of course some amazing sand dunes and vistas. And, of course, handsome bearded Washingtonians.
Then it was on to setting up camp and watching the sun set.
After this is was way too dark to take pictures of anything, but the nighttime desert was beautiful. The funny thing about the desert under a full moon is it all tends to become kind of grey and featureless. You can make out the sand at your feet extremely well, but the further away from you you look the less distinct, the less detailed your surroundings get, and there is no telling where the line between detail and blank grey expanse is. It is all a smear, a blur into a gray nothingness on the horizon that loses all sense of height and depth of topography. I nearly fell once when I suddenly and inexplicably started moving downhill.
It was one of the oddest sensory experiences I've had, and one of the most beautiful.
Anyway, unfortunately cameras don't take picture well in that low of light, so you're out of luck. That's it for now folks. I will try and post more soon.
All the best,
Tim
Siwa is a very large oasis located smack in the middle of what is otherwise very inhospitable terrain. The copious amount of water that Siwa provides means the area is fertile ground...for mosquitoes. So, so many mosquitoes. I ended this particular trip with upwards of 60 mosquito bites. There is no exaggeration in that number. I counted.
Besides the horrible bloodsucking cloud that followed my white, pasty, and apparently quite tasty ass everywhere I went, the trip was very worthwhile and Siwa and the desert were beautiful.
The travelling to and from was the second longest time I have ever spent in a car non-stop. The only time that was longer was the trip I took to California at 15 or some such age to visit relatives. The trip from Cairo to Siwa took 9 hours. I think we had two stops the entire way. To give you an idea of how out the the way this place is, here is a picture of stop number two, where we had lunch before the last leg of our journey.
That's some sky right there. And not a whole lot of anything else.
When we got to Siwa we stayed here, I think the name was the Siwa Oasis Hotel. Pretty simple name. It was one of the cleanest, best maintained hotels I have stayed in on trips like this. The western chains are usually better, but that's because they charge ludicrous amounts of money for people who need European standards to feel comfortable. Frankly, this is okay with me.
We got in fairly late in the afternoon (despite leaving at six in the morning) so we didn't have much time to do sightseeing during the day. We did get to climb up on top of the ruins of Old Siwa in the middle of the night however, and while most of my pictures of that turned out really bad because of the lack of light, I was able to get one that is decent. This shows some of the ruins further down the hill next to the modern buildings that have sprung up around the old settlement.
After the Mountain of the Dead we moved on to another area. In the second picture you should be able to see the temple that is on the top left. Unfortunately not too much is left of the original decoration in the temple, so there wasn't much to take a picture of. However, the location provided a great spot to get some shots of the surroundings.
After this is was on to lunch. Mmm, food.
The proprietor of the shop we ate at used Egyptian Sign Language while I was there too, because one of his employees was deaf. It was pretty cool to watch. Completely indecipherable for me, but cool to see.
After that we headed out to some oases out in the desert a ways from Siwa. This one was a natural hot-spring, smelled like sulfur, and was surrounded by palm trees and reeds. The dragonfly you see in the second picture was massive, I wish I could have gotten a picture that shows scale better.
After this oasis it was a short drive to get to "the lake". By which the guide naturally meant the lake that has formed in the middle of a desert. A perfectly reasonable spot for a lake, the middle of a desert. Even more reasonable in the middle of a desert apparently? Fish.
Oh, and scantily clad Europeans. Couldn't throw a rock without hitting a scantily clad European.
This is a pretty popular swimming spot on the "show the white people Siwa" tour guide circuit, as well.
We then went to a place where there are lots of exposed fossils, mostly shells like this one.
And of course some amazing sand dunes and vistas. And, of course, handsome bearded Washingtonians.
Then it was on to setting up camp and watching the sun set.
After this is was way too dark to take pictures of anything, but the nighttime desert was beautiful. The funny thing about the desert under a full moon is it all tends to become kind of grey and featureless. You can make out the sand at your feet extremely well, but the further away from you you look the less distinct, the less detailed your surroundings get, and there is no telling where the line between detail and blank grey expanse is. It is all a smear, a blur into a gray nothingness on the horizon that loses all sense of height and depth of topography. I nearly fell once when I suddenly and inexplicably started moving downhill.
It was one of the oddest sensory experiences I've had, and one of the most beautiful.
Anyway, unfortunately cameras don't take picture well in that low of light, so you're out of luck. That's it for now folks. I will try and post more soon.
All the best,
Tim
