History

The Siwa Oasis has been inhabited since the 10th millennium BC, its freshwater springs making it a perennial refuge in one of the most hostile desert environments on Earth. By the first millennium BC it had developed as a major cult centre: the Oracle of Amun at Aghurmi was famous enough that the Persian emperor Cambyses II reportedly dispatched an entire army to destroy it in 524 BC — an army the desert swallowed entirely. The oracle greatest moment came in spring 331 BC when Alexander the Great, fresh from his conquest of Egypt and the founding of Alexandria, undertook a gruelling eight-day journey across the Libyan Desert to consult it. Ancient sources record miraculous navigations — ravens guiding the army according to Ptolemy, two snakes according to Aristobulus — and describe Alexander receiving a private answer whose full content he never revealed. The oracle priest addressed him as son of Amun, which Alexander interpreted as confirmation of his divine origin. By receiving this recognition, Alexander legitimised his rule of Egypt in exactly the terms Egyptian tradition required.

The oasis prospered under Ptolemaic rule and later under Rome. After the Arab conquest in the 7th century, Siwa isolation kept it relatively insulated until the 13th century. Virtually unknown to European travellers until the late 18th century, it became a subject of serious archaeological study in the 20th century, with major work by Ahmed Fakhry documenting the ancient monuments and the living Berber-Amazigh culture.