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Siwa and Surroundings

Winter in Egypt

Siwa is an oasis in the Sahara Desert in northwestern Egypt close to the border of Libya. Nowadays it consists of several villages and two lakes connected by fields of mainly date palms and olive trees. The place has plenty of both nature and history lumped together in a relatively small area, so I spend a lot of time biking around between the palm trees finding my way around the oasis. These photos are from the first day that I spent there.

January 24th, 2013


The view from the top of the fortress out over the old mud-village of Shali, now mostly in ruins (after that same rain-shower that brought the fortress down)
The ruins of the glorious mud-fortress of Shali can be seen from the main market square of Siwa. The fortress fell to an occasional rain-shower, which to a Dane like me seems like the most meager of reasons to fall.
Details from a mud-mosque
A rustic door handle
Walking in the plantations.
Green wavy grass in between date palms
The desert meets the oasis at the mountain of the dead.
I'm not making it up. I was indeed standing on the mountain of the dead in the photo before.
Writing on a wall
Two new friends from a back alley wanted a photo
Mud-houses
Old wooden door
Coming back through the same back-alley, my new friends wanted another photo
I took this photo because of the wonderful colors of the triangles by the roof.
More posers are posing
I'm not sure if the chair was free to take, or somebody regularly sat there enjoying the view.
The temple where Alexander the Great went to see an oracle many many years ago
Some pipes on a dam sticking their heads up
The desert is filled with old petrified sea shells
Downtown Siwa at night

Design, code and photos by Jonas Arnfred