Showing 1-12 of 12 results
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19 – Travelling in Egypt – Alexandria, Marsa Matrouh and Siwa – Podcast
Blog: Heather on her travels - 7 December 2011
In Travel Podcast Episode 19 I visit Egypt where I spent a week travelling with a friend who lives in Alexandria. I took a walking tour of the city where many of the houses are crumbling away and where we bumped into a wedding procession hooting horns and letting off fireworks. We drove west to [...]
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Walking on the Mountain of the Dead in Siwa – video
Blog: Heather on her travels - 6 November 2011
To add to the sci fi landscape of the Shali in Siwa Oasis, I must mention Gebel Al-Mawa or The Mountain of the Dead which I visited while I was in Egypt spring. This ancient Greek and Roman graveyard of Siwa is a hill where the soft sandstone rock is pockmarked with hundreds of holes [...]
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The Siwa sunset at Fatnas Island – in Egypt
Blog: Heather on her travels - 30 September 2011
Dusk was falling as we drove across the causeway onto Fatnas island, surrounded by reeds and the shallow water of the salt lake. This was reputed to be one of the best places in Siwa to watch the sun go down, in the middle of this oasis in the Egyptian desert. From the shadows a [...]
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Date palms and donkey carts – 8 things to see in Siwa Oasis in Egypt
Blog: Heather on her travels - 24 September 2011
When I heard about the oasis at Siwa in the Egyptian desert, I visualised of a small patch of palm trees waving in the breeze, a few mud brick houses in the background and pools of water bubbling up gently from the earth. It was that image from old movies of the oasis in the [...]
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The Siwan Oracle and Cleopatra's Bath
Blog: Knocking About Egypt - 27 February 2010
The next morning, I wanted to take in some of the sites outside of town, most of which were clustered around the village of Aghurmi, five kilometers to the east of Siwa. For someone more used to the bitter cold of Brooklyn, it was way too hot to walk; and unlike the previous day, I didn't have the luxury of waiting until the late afternoon, as I had to catch the 8:00 bus back to Cairo. I would have to find some other means of transportation.
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Walking to Fantasy Island
Blog: Knocking About Egypt - 25 February 2010
I woke up late in the afternoon with a plan to walk to Fatnis Gezeera, which translates as "Fantasy Island." This was an ambitious name for what in reality is a short peninsula poking into a shrinking brine lake. The walk isn't any more than 6km and is well marked - at least if you can read Arabic. Learning the Arabic alphabet before traveling to Egypt isn't a bad idea, actually. It's not so difficult and is very handy in situations just like this.
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Arrival in Siwa
Blog: Knocking About Egypt - 23 February 2010
On the way down from the acropolis, I met a Siwan woman wearing her traditional costume. Before I could practice my Siwan "Hello! Good Morning!" with her, she lowered her head, ducked against a wall and didn't move again until I had moved further down the path. I guess I was terrifying. I'd have loved to take a picture, but besides whatever psychological damage I surely would have caused, I understand that it's taboo to photograph the Siwans. The men might grant a request, but you shouldn't even ask the women.
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Bussing it from Cairo to Siwa
Blog: Knocking About Egypt - 21 February 2010
The next northbound train with available seats didn't leave until 8:00 p.m. This meant that I would miss the last bus to Siwa and would have to spend the night in Alexandria. I hadn't arranged a place to stay, so I'd wind up knocking on pension doors that had already been bolted shut for the night. I also knew that I'd feel guilty enough about waking someone that I'd probably take the first place with a bed, no matter how nasty.
Showing 1-12 of 12 results
