SIWA OASIS

THE GENIALITY OF THE LOCATION ACROSS HISTORY , GEOGRAPHIC , GEOLOGIC AND ARCHEOLOGIC

Siwa is the most isolated oasis of Egypt , it is not an ordinary oasis , it owned across history the most significant credit since Alexander the Great arrived there to consult the Oracle of Amun, and there to be confirmed as God and King of Egypt,

In fact, the reason why this oracle was so important to him remains somewhat unclear, but go there he did. He continued to correspond with the Oracle of Amun until his death through messengers when he needed answers to important questions.

The Geology of the Siwa

The Siwa sits in a depression, as do most of the oases, which today is frequently referred to as the Siwa depression. The depression is 82 kilometers (52 miles) long and between 9 and 28 kilometers wide.

This is the most distant Egyptian oasis from the Nile Valley.

The Siwa Oasis

The Siwa Oasis is an urban oasis in Egypt, between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Western Desert, nearly 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 mi) from Cairo About 80 km (50 mi) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide, Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt’s most isolated settlements, with about 33,000 people,

The southern parts of the Oasis have succumbed to dunes from the Great Sand Sea, which extends over 500 kilometers north to south and 60 to 80 kilometers east to west. The Siwa sits at the northwest edge of this Great Sand Sea. There are portions of the Siwa Depression that lie as much as 60 meters (192 feet) below sea level, but its average depth is 18 meters below sea level

SIWA AND THE SALT

SALT was a problem

in the Oasis. A number of its fresh water springs run into salt water lakes, making the water mostly useless. To the west is Birket al-Maraqi, which takes up about nine square kilometers, and the largest of the Siwa lakes, Birket Siwa, which covers about 32 square kilometers. To the east, the only remaining lakes are Birket Azmuri, which itself is often dry, and Birket Zaytun, a lake covering some 16 square kilometers. These lakes are so salty that no marine life survives, and there is no tradition of fishing in the oasis. Both the British and, more recently, the Egyptian governments attempted to introduce fish into the lakes in order to create a fishing industry, but still no one fishes. Some of the lakes are so salty that crystals are visible in the water.

but since the locals recognized that there own oasis includes the White Gold which is the salt , huge investment movements started to develop a potential salt industry there

We also should note several other small oases nearby the Siwa. In the 1970s, Apollo-Soyuz discovered from space a small depression only sixteen kilometers east of Siwa that no one seemed to know anything about. It was investigated and found to be uninhabited, but in many ways resembling the Siwa Oasis. It contained weathered land forms, natural bridges and conical hills. Otherwise, to the east, the nearest small oases to Siwa is al-‘Areg, lying some 55 kilometers away, where there are several flowing springs. At one time clearly inhabited, as evidenced by rock cut tombs, today it is also uninhabited.

A Map of desert paths from and to the oasis

Siwa is one of 8 of the most remote and isolated areas in the world meaning that pollution of the salt is non existent and this aids the production of a very high quality salt indeed. The Salt extracted from our mining fields in Siwa is principally known and recognised for its low moisture content (ranging from 0.4% to 1.0%) and its exceptionally high purity of Sodium Chlride of 99.26% minimum.