External Reviews
The New York Times:RIDING a sandboard down a 70-foot dune in Egypt’s Great Sand Sea takes a bit of bravado. But the golden sand is soft, and falling is unlikely to result in more than a face full of powder.
Deciding whether to push off the edge is what passes for stress in Siwa, a verdant Egyptian oasis with mud-brick fortresses in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Despite being connected by paved road to the rest of Egypt since the mid-1980s, Siwa is still remote — about 350 miles west of Cairo across mostly featureless desert. It remains among the most chilled-out spots in the country, which may explain why this tiny oasis now has about 15 hotels.
A typical day in Siwa consists of renting a rickety bicycle from a handicraft shop in the dusty main square (10 Egyptian pounds per day, or $1.75 at 5.7 pounds to the dollar) and pedaling through palm groves toward one of dozens of natural springs. Cleopatra’s Bath, a marvel since antiquity, feels hot in the early morning and cool at midday. Like all of Siwa’s springs, it is open to visitors and is free.
Perched on a nearby hillside is another must-see attraction: the ruins of the Temple of Ammon. The limestone structure, which Alexander the Great visited in 331 B.C., was once home to one of the ancient world’s most renowned oracles.