Siwa Oasis
The Siwa Oasis (Arabic: واحة سيوة, Wāḥat Sīwah, IPA: [ˈwæːħet ˈsiːwæ]) is an urban oasis in Egypt; between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 mi) from the capital.[1][2][3] Its fame primarily from its ancient role as the home to an oracle of Ammon, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction which gave the oasis its ancient name Oasis of Amun Ra, a major Egyptian deity.[4]
The Siwa oasis is in a deep depression that reaches below sea level, to about −19 metres (−62 ft).[5] To the west the Jaghbub oasis rests in a similar depression and to the east , the large Qattara Depression is also below sea level.
The Ancient Egyptian name of the oasis was sḫt jꜣmw, meaning "Field of Trees". The native Libyan toponym may be preserved in the Egyptian t̠ꜣ(j) n d̠rw “tꜣj on the fringe” where t̠ꜣ transcribed the local Palaeo-Berber name *Se or *Sa.[8] This name survived in the works of Muslim geographers as سنترية Santariyyah.
The etymology of the word سيوة Siwah is unclear. Champollion derives it from ⲥⲟⲟⲩϩ – a corruption of Egyptian word for "oasis", ⲟⲩⲁϩ.[9] The additional evidence of the Egyptian source of Siwa's name is another place name in Kharga Oasis that may share the same etymology – S.t-wȝḥ, modern Deir el-Hagar).[10] Basset links it to a Berber tribal name swh attested further west in the early Islamic period,[11] while Ilahiane,[12] following Chafik, links it to the Shilha Berber word asiwan, a type of bird of prey, and hence to Amun-Ra, one of whose symbols was the falcon.[13] Some classical authors referred to the site as "Ammonium".[14]
Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of any connection with Ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. Ancient Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BC), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek: Zeus Ammon), who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. Herodotus knew of a "fountain of the Sun" that ran coldest in the noontime heat.[15] During his campaign to conquer the Persian Empire, Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The oracle, Alexander's court historians alleged, confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt, though Alexander's motives in making the excursion, following his founding of Alexandria, remain to some extent inscrutable and contested.[16] During the Ptolemaic Kingdom, its Ancient Egyptian name was sḫ.t-ỉm3w, meaning "Field of Trees".[17]
Evidence of Christianity at Siwa is uncertain, but in 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army, and probably did not convert until the 12th century. A local manuscript mentions only seven families totaling 40 men living at the oasis in 1203.
