Egypt: The Oasis of Amun Siwa

The Oasis of Amun Siwa, surrounded by a vast area of sand, is located west of the Qattarah Depression in the Libian Desert in Egypt. This is some 300 km Southwest of the Mediterranean port city of Marsa Matruh where Cleopatra and Mark Anthony once had a palace.

Flint implements found in Siwa show that the oasis was probably inhabited in Paleolithic and Neolithic times. The first historial records date back to Pharaonic times, particularly to the Middle and New Kingdoms (2050 - 1800 BC and 1570 - 1090 BC).

Around 700 BC, Siwa was one of the centres of Egypcian culture. A temple was built there to honour the ram-headed sun god Amun-Ra. It housed a divine Oracle, famous in Mediterranean area.

In 524 BC King Cambyses of Persia, son of Cyrus the Great and conqueror of Egypt, sent an army of 50'000 men from Luxor to destroy the Siwan Oracle. The entire army vanished, buried in the sand. No trace of it has been found to this day. This tragic event undoubtedly increased the prestige of the Oracle throughout the area.

Penthor, the famous Greek poet, dispatched to Siwa a Hymm of praise in honour of the Oracle engraved on a stone pillar. In an attempt to be crowned King of Sparta, General Lysander tried to bribe the Siwan Oracle. In the 5th century BC, Herodutus stated, "this oasis has one of the most renowed Oracles of the ancient world".

The most famous visitor in Siwa of ancient times, Alexander the Great, consulted the Oracle supposedly to learn wheter he was the son of the God Zeus, and therfore divine. Some historians have written that the Oracle may have been a woman. In 331 BC Alexander the Great was acclaimed Pharao of Egypt. After the battle of Issus, where he defeated the Persian Darius, Alexander than conquered Egypt without a battle and laid the foundations of the city of Alexandria.

All the Pharaohs of Egypt's 28th Dynasty journeyed to Siwa, where they were acknowledged by the Oracle as the sons of the supreme god Amun-Ra. After their visit to the Siwan temple, they are shown wearing the ram´s horns of Amun on their heads.

Alexander longed to have the same divine power as the Pharaohs and to legitimise his conquest of Egypt. In 331 BC, he began his long and hazardous jouney to Siwa by marching to Paraetonium (Marsa Matruh). The march towards Siwa took almost two weeks along the same desert route as today. According to Alexander's biographer Callisthenes, his journey to Siwa was very dangerous. They were near death having exhausted their water supplies when, the legend goes, the Oracle produced a sudden rain shower. Later they lose their way because of a sand storm. The Oracle is then said to have sent two ravens to guide them to the mystical oasis of Siwa.

Priests, dancers, musicians and worshipers welcomed Alexander to the oasis in a ceremony which took place in the forecourt of the temple. According to a letter that was sent to his mother, we know that he was very pleased with the private audience he had with the Oracle.

The Oasis became very special to Alexander and he gave orders that his tomb should be located in Siwa.

Taken from a manuscript published by Swiss Social-Ethnologist Bettina Leopoldo.