Motorbikes Now Run Rings Around Donkeys in Siwa

Bloomberg (Daniel Williams)

As the putt-putt of motorbikes eclipses the clip-clop of donkey hooves, tourist guide Sayid Abu-Seif has decided that development in Siwa, his oasis home in western Egypt, is moving too far, too fast.

``It used to be quiet here,'' says Abu-Seif, 27. ``You could hear the birds. Now it begins to sound like a city.''

His unease is shared by other Siwans and outsiders concerned about the preservation of a fragile place out of time. A conundrum familiar to Shangri-Las the world over has arisen in this ancient island in the sand: What price change? In the case of Siwa, where Cleopatra came to bathe, what danger does development hold for its clean air, abundant springs and languorous pace of life among the date groves?

The question is doubly vexing in a country where every livable space is exploited. From the once-empty shores of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, Egypt is awash in development and urbanization. Sharm El-Sheikh, the ``Red Sea Riviera,'' sprawls for miles. Other resorts have popped up from the Suez Canal down the coast toward Sudan.

Villas, apartment blocks and malls in Cairo, population 17 million, have breached the desert that frames the Nile River Valley. The port city of Alexandria marches inexorably westward, gobbling up beachfront and villages.

Egypt attracts 8 million tourists a year, according to the Tourism Ministry, and expects to double that by 2014. Tourist revenue makes up about 12 percent of the economy.

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