When she first visited Siwa, an oasis more than 450 miles from Cairo in Egypt’s Western Desert, Nathalie Mohadjer was struck by its isolation. A strip of spring-fed palm groves, Siwa made her feel “disconnected from the rest of the world, in the middle of a sand ocean.”
Mohadjer, a German Iranian photographer based in Paris, is drawn to peripheries and places hidden away from much of the faster-paced planet. She has spent time in Burundi’s outlying plains and in refugee camps concealed in Bosnia’s forests. When a friend suggested that Mohadjer join him on a trip to Siwa in 2023, she jumped at the opportunity. “I like getting close to people,” Mohadjer says, “digging into how they live.” As she wandered the crumbling maze of Siwa’s medieval fort one afternoon, a young woman called out from her window with a wave, inviting the photographer inside. Moments later, Mohadjer joined Fatma and her mother, nephew, and niece for tea in their home; she quickly transformed from tourist to guest to friend, getting a glimpse into daily life in the desert town.
At Shali Bazaar, visitors can buy everything from olives to rugs; Siwan tea is usually brewed over a fire.
Photos by Natalie Mohadjer
For its small size and far-flung location, Siwa carries remarkable historical heft, famed in the days of the pharaohs for its sanctuary of the Oracle of Amun—divining the will of the gods for perhaps a thousand years, beginning in the 6th century B.C.E. Before marching eastward to conquer the known world, Alexander the Great struck out on a westward journey to the oasis in 332 B.C.E., following in the footsteps of the mythical Greek demigods Perseus and Heracles, in hopes of confirming his own divine lineage.
Siwa remained a place of pilgrimage during Roman times but grew more secluded in subsequent centuries, becoming a refuge of Siwi-speaking Amazigh (Berber) people. It wasn’t until the early 19th century that Siwa was annexed by Egypt. Today, it has around 30,000 inhabitants, mostly Amazigh, but also populations of Bedouins and Egyptians.
Mohadjer was captivated by the remains of the oasis’s rich history: a Greco-Roman necropolis here, some painted hieroglyphs there, their colors having weathered millennia. The clay-plastered minaret of Siwa’s oldest mosque, built in 1203, towers amid the spectacular ruins of the Shali Fortress, near where Mohadjer first met Fatma. Elsewhere, travelers can admire the scant but striking remains of the Temple of Umm Ubayda and climb the nearby hill to explore the site that once housed the eminent oracle.
Women in Siwa craft baskets from palm fronds and other local materials; young girls from Siwa welome an arriving busload of Egyptian high school students.
Photos by Nathalie Mohadjer
A sense of the distant past also permeates many of Siwa’s natural wonders, from the endless bluffs of the desert, glinting with fossils from the primal Tethys Sea, to the salt lakes and spring-fed pools framed by date palms and reached via lanes where donkey carts rumble by. The most famous spring is named for another visitor of legend, Cleopatra. Today it’s typically lively, ringed with cafés.
A recent increase in tourism has, in a way, made the oasis a pilgrimage destination again. For Mohadjer, as for many weekend arrivals from Alexandria and Cairo, Siwa’s very remoteness renders it a refuge from the clamor of daily life, a place of rare calm. “Even time—of course, it doesn’t stand still,” Mohadjer says. “But it kind of does there.”
The area has numerous salt lakes, where people float and relax.
Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer
A Bedouin guide takes a break during a tour northwest of town; rugs and cushions are common in Siwan homes.
Photos by Nathalie Mohadjer
Many homes in Siwa have their own spring-fed pools; at Gebel al-Mawta (Mountain of the Dead), visitors can see painted tombs dating to the 26th dynasty of Egypt (664–525 B.C.E.).
Photos by Nathalie Mohadjer
A visitor rests outside a cluster of Roman-era tombs near Siwa’s westernmost edge.
Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer
Abu mardam is a traditional Siwan dish of meat, rice, and vegetables slowly baked for hours under the sand; wholesalers come to sell goods at Shali Bazaar every Friday.
Photos by Nathalie Mohadjer
How to Visit Siwa
Malaka Hilton, founder and CEO of Admiral Travel International, a Virtuoso agency, can arrange a 45-minute charter flight from Cairo. (Otherwise, it’s a 10-hour drive or bus ride.) Siwa, she says, “remains a very off-the-beaten-path experience, appealing primarily to those who have already explored the highlights of Egypt and want something deeply authentic and remote.” Hilton can organize guided tours of the Oracle of Amun temple, 4x4 excursions for sandboarding and salt-lake swims, and opportunities to meet with locals.
The Best Time to Visit
With summer temperatures routinely above 104 degrees, the most pleasant time to visit is from October to April. Temperatures remain warm in December and January, but a jacket is needed for chilly nights. Increasingly, though, people are traveling to Siwa in summer to experience sand bathing, the ancient therapeutic ritual of being buried to the neck in hot sand.
Where to Stay
Set on a peninsula in Siwa Lake, Adrère Amellal is the area’s most exclusive lodge, lit only by candles and beautifully reflecting the austerity of its desert surroundings. It was conceived and designed by Dr. Mounir Neamatalla with support from the architect India Mahdavi and once graced by King Charles III and Queen Camilla. “It’s the only hotel I book,” Hilton says.
