Siwa Oasis

Siwa, the northernmost oasis in the Western Desert, and the smallest after Farafra, is leagues away from the loop road. Near the Libyan border, it has some of the most beautiful scenery you'll see in the Western Desert. Because of its location, Siwa's influences have come from North Africa rather than central Africa or the Nile Valley; it wasn't until the end of Ottoman rule in Egypt in 1820 that Siwa lost its status as an independent city-state (although locals say the oasis was independent until the 1980s, when the road connecting it to Marsa Matruh was built). The people here speak a Berber (an Afro-Asiatic language group) dialect, and some older people still wear exotic clothing and adornments; the Traditional Siwan House in the eponymous main town of the oasis is a good place to see how they live. Siwa was the home of the ancient Oracle that reportedly confirmed to Alexander the Great that he was the offspring of the gods.