A Long Description of A Long Weekend

Siwa, an oasis of archeological, ecological and historical significance, blooms in the Western Desert of Egypt. 180 km in diameter, the ecosystem supports palm groves, cold and hot springs, a salt lake, a salt flat, and great desert dunes with oceanic fossils (yes, from when the desert was the sea floor), ponds and pockets of vegetation. The area has been inhabited for centuries: there are tombs of ancient Egyptians, an oracle visited by the likes of Alexander the Great, and villages of people whose first language is of Berber origin, not Arabic. The original buildings in this area were constructed with mud from the salt flats that stayed strong until some odd and very infrequent rain storm melted them away. At some point, the original village reached four stories high. Now, the residential part of the village begins at the base of the old village and flows back away from the center of town. Locals still live in small square concrete buildings, wall to wall, sharing yards and dirt roads, probably much like they did when their homes were made from mud.

Shali, as this old town is called, is surrounded by more recent development, a paved road that runs a circle around the small center square with open air vegetable stands, a couple of restaurants, delis and other commerce. Traffic consists of livestock, donkeys pulling carts, children, bikes, jeeps and pickup trucks. In the center of town, one must mimic the urban street movement learned in Cairo: haphazard, criss-crossing, weaving. Though Siwa has been a destination for centuries, newer development occurred within the last 20 years, encouraged by the paved highway that connects the oasis to beach towns off the Mediterranean to the east. We switched busses in one of these towns and spent our three hour layover gawking at the marvelous blue water, stepping on the soft, finely ground sand. Unfortunately, like most of the public Mediterranean waters of Egypt, women must swim fully clothed, leaving little skin exposed. This, of course, inspired a philosophical conversation about whether, at the end of the day, it is easier to be a man or a woman, given the benefits of something as simple as being able to enjoy a dip in the Mediterranean in public, without a worry. We do not have an answer for you—our sincerest apologies—but we did agree that the answer is very complicated.

With all of that under our belts, here is a list of things we did in Siwa: spent a night in the desert under the stars, sand boarded down a dune, rode bikes through the groves to the cold springs, swam in the cold springs, picked dates directly from the tree and ate them nonstop, ate more dates, took a safari up and down the dunes in an 4x4, swam in a pond in the middle of the dunes, made friends with the Director of Tourism who gave us a box of dates because he is friends with someone I work with at the library (we made the connection accidentally—how nice to share a common friend with someone in the middle of the desert). I forgot to mention some time back, on one of my trips to Dahab, the beach town in Sinai, I ran into a Dutch woman I met while traveling in Turkey last year. She happened to be in Dahab on vacation and I happened to be in Dahab on my way to Mt. Sinai. Unbelievable! We were very happy to see each other, as our time spent together in a nice, quiet part of Turkey was great—we took hikes together and had dinner every night for a week. I used to run into people all the time in New York City from all parts of my life, but how great and small the world that this happens to me in Egypt as well.

[Note: Some photos of the oasis are posted on the previous post.]