Advertisement
Published: March 26th 2006
shali siwa
shali old townAlexandria wasn't everything we thought it would be, but it was enough to keep us occupied for a few hours.
Early in the morning we headed out to Fort Qaitbey via an excellent orange juice stand. The fort was built some time in the 15th century, I think, they made it out of an ancient light house. If you look carefully you can see parts of the old stone work. After about 45 minutes of exloring the fort, about 300 bus loads of kids showed up and ruined the tranquil morning atmosphere, so we took off for the creepy catacombs of Kom Ahs-Shuqqafa.
The catacombs were creepy but very interesting, unfortunatly cameras were forbidden. we descended a circular staircase, which led to the first floor of about 150 tombs and the sitting and dinning room for the alive guests. The tombs were dark and scary, complete with cobwebs and dust. They have long been empty but never the less it looks like an Indiana Jones set. The next floor had very elaborate tombs, with greek, roman and egyptian death scenes/art. This floor only had about 100 tombs, the bottom floor, which has been flooded for a long time holds fewer
desert
Paul and the canadian family tombs.
In the evenings we wander, window shop, go to cafe's and just generally enjoy being outside at night. For most of our trip it has been impossoble to go out at night and not get robbed. Paul has accquired a taste for a drink called Sahlab, sort of a warm milkshake complete with cocnut, peanut chocolate and rasins.
The next day we took the bus to Siwa a desert oasis about 70 kms from the libyan border. The road to siwa is only 20 years old, they still drive donkey carts everywhere and the women (after they get married) wear complete coverage. Not just a head scarf but a veil and a scarf, everyone is very traditional. We chose to go to this oasis because we thoguht it would be far enough removed that we wouldn't have much in the way of tourists. The biggest tourists of all were showing up around the same time as us. Prince Charles and Camilla and the solar eclipse and the hordes of tourists who have come to watch it.
My budget hotel even told us that we could only stay a maximum of 3 nights as they were completely booked
after that.
The highlights of siwa are the old town (shali) a mud town built ona hill in the centre of the exisiting town. People had lived there up until the 1800s. The whole old mud town melted over the years of freak rainstorms. (the last time it rained in siwa was in 1996).
We also visited the Temple of the Oracle, believed to be so powerful that the romans and greeks tryed to oust him in the process lossing 50,000 troops in the western desert. We rode our delapiated rental bike to cleopatra's spring but didn't feel comfortable swimming in front of the men hanging about.
Last but definatly not least we headed off to a place I'll call mummy hill.
We didn't even know that the place was thre, but I saw a post card of the most beautiful tomb painting I have seen yet, and asked where I could find it. Someone pointed up a road to a big hill that we found out was covered in tombs. After exploring the tombs fora bit we got down to business and joined a not so brief tour of the painting and the MUMMIES!!!!!!!!!!
The painting was spectacular,
sunset
siwa desert imagine painted in 500 BC or so, and still so colourful and well preserved, even after the bloody germans (sorry) bombed the heck out of the village and pilaged the tombs and robbed the graves.
The mummies were amazing, completly unprotected and excacty like you see them on tv. Wrapped in what looked like shredded TP and some of them were even unwrapped. I saw one poor fellow who had been decapitated. The hair was still there. Again, no cameras, but I accpeted the fact that they recieve quite a few visitors so taking pictures would probably break down their 2000+ year old bodies.
I didn't think they were gross, but they were certainly a bit disturbing, I could touch them if I wanted to (except for the tour guide watching over my shoulder, in case I tried something like that).
The next day we hooked up with a canadian family and went for a desert safari, this included dune boarding (I had the most specatular wipe out) dune exploring, fossil hunting and bathing in hot and cold springs and watching the sunset inthe desert.
Within 5 minutes of leaving siwa we were completly surrounded by dunes, I've never
sand boarding
siwa desert from the bottom of a dune been to a desert like that before and was a little intimidated, but I could still see Siwas big rock formations over the dunes. The fossils were of seashells, it is really ard to imagine when the last time the ocean was anywhere near this part of the desert and our guide didn't know in english how old the fossils were. If anyone has any ideas.....
Then we bathed in the hot springs, which smelled exactly the same as the tap water from Saltspring island.... a little sulfery. After changing back into regular clothes we headed out to the big dunes for some sand boarding. It was honestly more like sand tobogganing, but never the less was a long of fun.Paul gave it a go first, showing us that we wouldn't die immedaitaly. He wanted to try standing up, but never got the chance. My first few attempts we sucessful but my second to last go, I was sliding sideways and put my foot out to slwo down and consequently cartwheeled in the same manner as I do when I crash on the snow.
After shaking the sand out of my pockets and ears we headed off to the
us looking fat
paul with his sheesha cold spring. The water at this spring was so incredibly cold I didn't even want to stick my toes in.
The sunset over the desert was amazing. The colours faded alot faster than at the coast, but the colour of the sand changed when the light was fading. Suddenly, looking around yoiu lost all the depth perception and really couldn't tell a dune from a rock or flat or tire tracks or anything. It was an erie feeling to know how quickly you can be lost in the desert. We shared some Siwan tea with our guides and headed back to town.
Siwan tea is not something to be reckoned with. Tons of black tea boiled for about 20 minutes in a tiny pot then half a pound of sugar is added and served in shot glasses (THANK GOD).
We are back in Alexandria today (its a whole day bus ride to the oasis) and tomorrow we are heading back to Cairo and hopefully catching a night train to Aswan.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.216s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0659s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
cindy
non-member comment
sand dune boarding
The sand dunes look pretty adventuresome. Are you on a board like in watersport. The sandunes on the Oregeon coast are pretty fun as you run and do flips down the hills. Much different these sand dunes seem to go on for miles in the desert. This part of your trip must be somewhat as a let down from all your safari trips and sights? Oui/Non?