Bilad er-Rum

A village 25 km west of Siwa with Graeco-Roman graves. They are undecorated.

A secondary oasis dotted with rock tombs and scraps of temple ruins, and there is a prehistoric human footprint. The area is fertile, though the lake it surrounds is very salty. Here you are close to the border, so the military may curb your explorations. The aquifer continues northwest under the border to re-emerge at El Jaghbub oasis in Libya.

This has become joined to shore as Lake Siwa silted up. Bathe in the hot smelly spring, have tea at the café, relax amidst the greenery and watch the sun set over the lake. It is usually idyllic but the bugs can be pesky.

Siwa's original town, founded early 13th century and remaining the chief settlement until the 1920s. Parts of the old town walls and gates survive, along with houses and a mosque from 19th C. Wander the tiny alleys, then you can climb the hill just west which has Graeco-Roman rock tombs.

Limestone hillock with many rock-cut tombs, mostly from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. The highlight is the group of four tombs on the northeast slope (no photography within). These are the Tomb of Si-Amun with beautifully colored reliefs; the Tomb of Mesu-Isis is little decorated but contains a mummified skull; the Tomb of Per-nj-pa-thot has inscriptions and drawings; and the Tomb of the Crocodile where the wall paintings are deteriorating, but the yellow crocodile is probably the deity Sobek.