22 - 28 March 2001
Issue No.526
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 22 - 28 March 2001 Issue No.526 |
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Siwa panorama
Winter is past but clouds hover over Siwa. Focusing his lens on a ghafir (guard) leaning against the wall of the temple of Amun, photographer Mohammed Mosaad captured this panorama of a date plantation below and, in the distance, the largest of Siwa's brackish lakes, Birket Siwa. The lake is fed from sweet water underground springs which mix with the salty flats of the Mediterranean.
Siwa, 300 kilometres southwest of Marsa Matrouh, Egypt's westernmost oasis and the least affected by tourist development, is famed as the site where Alexander the Great consulted the oracle of Amun. Egypt had surrendered easily when the 25-year-old Alexander entered in triumph in 332 BC. Having established his authority in Memphis, he sailed down the Nile to the coast to search for a site for his new coastal capital. Leaving his planners and architects in charge of laying out the plans for Alexandria, he hurried to Siwa, then known as the Oasis of Amun. Records say his caravan lost its way, ran out of water and was caught in an unusual rainstorm, but Alexander persevered. No one knows exactly what he was told by the oracle when he entered the Holy of Holies, or even (as has been suggested) whether he misunderstood its poor Greek, but we are told that he emerged in a state of enlightenment and with the certain knowledge that he was to become a great leader. He returned to the Nile valley to proclaim himself king of Egypt and lawful heir to the Pharaohs, and immediately afterwards set off on campaign in Asia Minor, never to see his completed capital or set foot in Egypt again.
Legends about the oasis abound. Two hundred years before Alexander's visit, the Persian king Cambyses sent an army of 50,000 men from Thebes to Siwa to destroy the sacred oracle, which had prophesied the end of his rule in Egypt. The high priests themselves consulted the oracle as to what they should do to protect themselves and their community. The oracle told them not to worry, because the gods would do all that was necessary. And, indeed, they did. The army never showed up in Siwa. They were all buried in a sand-storm in the Western Desert, and their remains have never been found.
Siwa has opened up to a steady trickle of modern tourists who have brought change to the Siwan way of life. Nevertheless, Siwans continue to live much as they did in the days of Alexander. For the time being it remains, for discerning tourists, both environmentally and socially simple, unspoiled and beautiful.
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