City of Salt - Siwa

Al Ahram Weekly (Injy El-Kashef)

This oasis, about 80km long and 20km wide, located nearly 50km east of the Libyan border between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea, is in fact home to some 23,000 Amazigh Berbers, who form a separate ethnic group with a distinct language identified as taSiwit, a relative of what is heard in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Berber communities in parts of Niger and Mali. Interestingly, Amazigh means "free people", and the Siwans have remained just that.

Siwa, which in Berber signifies "prey bird", is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, its Ancient Egyptian name, Sekht-am, meaning "Palm Land". According to Penguin's Who's Who in the Ancient World, "the Egyptian god Amon [identified with Zeus by Pindar] appears in Greek form after his cult at the Siwa oasis became known to the Greeks in the 7th century BC. The oracle of Zeus Amon [at the oasis] was repeatedly consulted, notably by Alexander the Great whom the priests greeted as the son of Zeus." Hence, the oasis also became known as Ammonium.

ALIVE AND BRICKING: The revelations of the oracle fell into disrepute under the Roman occupation of Egypt, however, and the Romans eventually used the oasis as a place of banishment. This development seems perfectly logical, since Siwa's remoteness -- precisely the factor that helped its people maintain their identity -- is also the reason why visitors feel they have stepped out of a time capsule into a different era, which translates into complete abandon and relaxation.