we spent a weekend in siwa, which is an oasis out in the middle of the egyptian desert near the libyan border. we left cairo after class and it was a twelve hour bus ride. we stayed at a hotel in the desert that had no electricity, just candles! it was wonderful. the first day we rented bikes in the town and rode around the oasis. the oasis is an area of lush green vegetation about five kilometers in diameter, surrounded by barren desert for hundreds of kilometers in all directions. the siwan people are all related to each other and until relatively recently had essentially no contact with the outside world.
alexander the great travelled to siwa to visit an oracle that lived there, but he died before anyone found out what the message was. we went to the castle where this oracle lived, on the top of a mountain in the middle of the oasis. then we went swimming at cleopatra’s bath, which is a cold spring that was very refreshing, and in which cleopatra reportedly swam. our security guard (who comes with us on every trip and carries a machine gun) cooked us some beans for dinner, and then a local band came and played some rockin’ traditional siwan desert music. apparently the siwan music is very famous.
then we went to a camp in the desert and they cooked us dinner. they bury some chicken underground, cover it with sand, and then build a fire on top of it to cook it. we saw some jackals in the desert and conspired to go surround them. so we did, and we made friends with one of them and it wouldn’t stop following us around! we all slept in one big tent-like structure and didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. the next day i woke up with hundreds of bug bites all over, but very worth it.
