Siwa Oasis

We drove on through the nothingness, stopping for about 20 minutes for lunch. I alternated between daydreaming and dozing. We arrive at 1 pm, and checked in to the cheaper of the 2 hotels that I had looked at. It’s very basic, but at $.63 per bed, I can’t complain. We had an omelette and chips for our second lunch right across from the hotel.

We took a donkey cart driven by a very young boy to visit the ruins. The first ruins we reached was the Temple of Alexander. It was in reasonable condition--a fort built into the hill with impressive views of the entire oasis. I took several pix up there. The Temple of Amun is just a few remnants of a building--not very exciting. Cleopatra’s Spring is a large round cement wall about 50’ in diameter and 20’ deep. There were people swimming there, but we didn’t go in.

We took the cart back to the hotel and then went for a walk around another part of town. We figured that we’ve done this place, and have decided to leave early tomorrow morning. We ordered dinner at another small restaurant that was swarming with flies. Only the soup and chicken were hot; the rice, pita, and vegetables were cold, so we left them in disgust. Yes, we are ready to leave.