Duration: 3 days · 2 nights
Starts from: Cairo
Group size: Up to 12 guests
Difficulty: Easy

Overview

From Cairo via the El Alamein memorials to Siwa: the Oracle Temple, salt lakes, Cleopatra's Spring, sandboarding in the Great Sand Sea and the tombs of the Mountain of the Dead.

Siwa sits far out in the Western Desert, close to the Libyan border, and it feels like it. Palm groves, salt lakes and the crumbling mud-brick town of Shali make it quite unlike the Nile Valley. Getting there is a long drive, so we break it at El Alamein, where the museum and the war cemeteries tell the story of the 1942 battles on this coast.

Your full day in Siwa starts at the Temple of the Oracle, where Alexander the Great came to consult the god Amun. Then you float in the dense water of a salt lake, swim in the spring known as Cleopatra's Bath and head into the Great Sand Sea by 4x4 for sandboarding on the dunes, ending at the hot and cold springs of Bir Wahed with Bedouin tea as the sun goes down.

On the last morning you climb through the ruins of Shali and visit the Mountain of the Dead, a hill riddled with rock-cut tombs, including the painted tomb of Si-Amun. The drive back to Cairo follows the Mediterranean coast, with lunch in Marsa Matrouh.

Highlights

The WWII museum and cemeteries at El Alamein
Sunset at Fatnas island on Lake Siwa
The Temple of the Oracle of Amun
Floating in a salt lake and swimming in Cleopatra's Bath
Sandboarding in the Great Sand Sea
Bedouin tea at the springs of Bir Wahed
Shali fortress and the Mountain of the Dead

Itinerary

1
Day 1
Cairo → El Alamein → Siwa
An early start west to El Alamein to visit the war museum, the Commonwealth war cemetery and the German and Italian memorials. A light lunch on the road, then the long drive to Siwa in time for sunset at Fatnas island. Dinner and the night at your hotel in Siwa.
2
Day 2
Oracle Temple, salt lakes & the Great Sand Sea
After breakfast, visit the Temple of the Oracle, float in a salt lake and swim in Cleopatra's Bath. Lunch at a Siwan restaurant, then out into the Great Sand Sea by 4x4 for sandboarding, the hot and cold springs of Bir Wahed and Bedouin tea at sunset. Dinner and a second night in Siwa.
3
Day 3
Shali & Mountain of the Dead → Marsa Matrouh → Cairo
Breakfast, then a walk through the mud-brick fortress of Shali and a visit to the rock-cut tombs of the Mountain of the Dead, including the tomb of Si-Amun. Drive north to the coast for lunch in Marsa Matrouh and on to Cairo, arriving late in the day.