John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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5.5 Case Study Pt. II: Siwa : 421-441 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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5.5 Case Study Pt. II: Siwa : 421-441 |
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| .421. Shali was built of blocks of salt incorporating rock fragments and plastered with clay. Its buildings were four or five storeys high and housed hundreds of people at one time. |
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| .422. However, though the average rainfall here is low, it is both variable and destructive (in common with most deserts). It rained heavily for three days in 1926 and many of the buildings collapsed. |
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| .423. The mosque, with a minaret shaped like a chimney, is used still (as evidenced by its loud speaker), as are a few buildings on the edge of the former “city”. |
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| .424. Such homes disintegrate further whenever it rains, but they provide short-term accommodation for those who cannot afford anything better. |
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| .425. The new houses below the fort were built of limestone blocks and/or concrete. They should weather most storms easily but do not provide the same degree of protection against heat or cold. (New homes below the old fort) |
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| .426. Siwa today is a bustling regional centre, with a variety of functions still... though no longer a place of pilgrimage. Ammon is no longer worshipped here. |
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| .427. Its men-only markets provide fresh foodstuffs for the local population. (Local market) |
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| .428. It also has supermarkets (or corner stores?) that sell processed items... |
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| .429. And there is a corresponding need to dispose of the packaging involved. |
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| .430. But Siwa also “exports” items of its own, supplying markets in Cairo and Alexandria with large quantities of dates and olives. (Olives) |
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| .431. With encouragement from the wife of Egypt’s former president (Mubarak) Siwa also offers significant educational opportunities to young and old. |
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| .432. Teenage girls attending school are not required to wear veils (at least, they weren’t in 2003) but they do cover their hair. |
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| .433. And if they get a lift to school they do not ride there with boys of their own age! |
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| .434. Donkeys are used here in preference to camels because insects like mosquitoes thrive around lakes that are too salty to allow for the fish that would normally eat them. Camels, being creatures of arid lands, have no resistance to mosquitoes. However, in deference to the modesty of Siwa’s women, female donkeys are relegated by custom to an island in a lake nearby; where a meeting with male donkeys is arranged for mating once a year. |
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| .435. In recent times Siwa has also been developed as a tourist destination ... as a doorway to the Libyan Sand Sea, and because of its cultural distinctiveness and its rich history. Tours can be booked here, also hotel accommodation. And there are, the inevitable range of handicrafts for sale. |
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| .436. Tourists can also rent bicycles, to help them move around the oasis and explore historic sites outside the town. |
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| .437. Siwa was once ringed by smaller oases on its eastern side. These were a source of additional food: but they were also important for safety, serving as outposts to protect Siwa from a surprise attack. (The view from Aghurmi) |
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| .438. However, these smaller oases lay in depressions well below sea level and were eventually destroyed by salt. All that remains of them today are a few old palms encircling ponds of salt water. (Salt lakes east of town) |
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| .439. Fresh water from Siwa’s springs is channeled to the foot of each palm tree in an age-old strictly regulated system of irrigation. In ancient days SIwa’s dates were known as “Fruits of the Oracle of Ammon” and their reputed quality was amplified by Siwa’s prestige as a place of pilgrimage. (Irrigated palms) |
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| .440. Though growers must wait 40 years or more for their palms to reach maturity, they will bear fruit for between 150 and 200 years. Unfortunately today the cultivation of dates, fruit trees, and other crops is a struggle between rising salinity and sources of enough fresh water to flush it away. (Young date palm) |
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| .441. Now for every set of channels that delivers water to a date garden there needs to be one that drains it away. Many growers are fighting a losing battle against a rising tide of salinity … which, of course, is a problem common to many oases. (Irrigation water channeled over drainage ditch) |
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