Siwa Oasis in Western Egypt
Salt lakes, sand sea, and the adobe town of Shali
Salt lakes, sand sea, and the adobe town of Shali
About 308 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast at Marsa Matruh, in the far west of the country, lies the Siwa Oasis – one of Egypt's oases, and the road from here to Al Bawiti is officially closed. It is about 730 kilometers to Cairo by land, and there is no civil airport. If you want to come here, you have to drive.
The weather station of the oasis is 15 meters below sea level, and Siwa gets its water from the Nubian sandstone aquifer. A desert road leads from Siwa to Al Bawiti, the main village of the Bahariya oasis in Egypt – it is closed and occupied by military checkpoints. This is not a narrative but the wording from a national travel advisory body.
This page lists the travel times from Marsa Matruh, the permitting situation of the airfield, and the sites of the oasis: the old town of Shali, the oracle temple, the salt lakes, and the dunes of the Great Sand Sea. Specifically mentioned are the two existing houses, Adrere Amellal and Taziry Ecolodge, each with what their operators certify themselves. Where the sources provide no information, this is clearly stated here.
Best travel time
Getting to Siwa Oasis
A national travel advisory body issues a warning level for the area west of the Nile Valley and Delta and specifically names nine entries – including the Marsa Matruh–Siwa road and the oasis town of Siwa itself, as of August 4, 2026. The information in this box concerns long-distance connections from Cairo and from the coast, not the routes within the oasis.
1# Road from Marsa Matruh
307.9 kilometers, taking four to five hours by car. A microbus runs hourly on the same route, taking about four hours. The travel time cannot be written down to the quarter hour — three sources provide three different values.
2# Road from Cairo
729.9 kilometers, taking about eight and a half hours by car, and 7 hours 30 minutes by coach.
3# Siwa airfield
There is an airfield, but no civil airport or scheduled flights. The airfield is military-managed, and each movement requires a separate permit with a lead time of up to two weeks. According to the charter provider, there is no overnight parking for visiting aircraft, so the plane usually sets down and flies back.
4# Charter from Cairo
Sector length 311 nautical miles from Sphinx International, flight time around 50 minutes with a light jet and about 1 hour 10 with the turboprop King Air 350, which accommodates eight passengers. For groups, the same provider operates a Dash 8 with up to 43 passengers. The Egyptian flight permit requires an extra four business days of lead time.
Siwa Oasis – Place and Old Town Shali
Siwa is located in the Matruh Governorate, and both houses in the inventory explain their names in the language of the oasis. Adrere Amellal means White Mountain in the Berber language, Taziry means Full Moon in the language of the Siwi. More than these two glosses, the verified sources provide no further information on the language situation, and none mentions a speaker count for Siwi.
Jabal el-Mawta translates to Mountain of the Dead, and the source dates the graves there to the Greco-Roman period. According to the same source, more than 700 Roman graves and four graves from the 26th Dynasty have been cut into the limestone hills. The four are publicly accessible and feature preserved wall paintings. The source does not say what happened to the others, and this page does not add to the statement with a reversal.
Jabal Dakrour stands for the traditional Siwan sand bath treatments: The treatment buries the body up to the neck in desert sand, a small tent shades the face during this, then follows a slow cooling with herbal tea. The house names this application against rheumatism and arthritis, but does not provide evidence of effect. This is a statement from the house, not a medical claim.
The adobe fortress of Shali
In the center of the town stands Shali, a fortress made of adobe bricks. According to a tradition on which the house relies, 40 Siwaners built it in the year 1203 as protection against Bedouin raids, and the same source today lists it as a protected historical site in the town center. There is no construction year without this attribution because the source places its own number under reservation.
Oracle Temple of Amun in Aghurmi
The Oracle Temple of Amun is located in Aghurmi and is the reason this oasis even appears in ancient tradition. Alexander the Great came here in 331 BC to consult the oracle – he wanted to confirm himself as the son of the god and thus as the rightful Pharaoh of Egypt. No source provides a construction year for the temple.
The information about this site does not come from an authority but from the operator of a house in the oasis, who lists it on his excursion page. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities does not list a single entry for Siwa: We have checked nine address variants, all nine respond with HTTP 404. Therefore, this page states with each number where it comes from.
Temple of Um Ubeydah
The remains of the Temple of Um Ubeydah are located 1 kilometer south of Aghurmi – the building dates back to Nectanebo II from the 30th Dynasty. A processional road connected it to the oracle temple, which is about 400 meters away, but only part of the west wall of the pronaos is preserved. What statement the oracle gave is not documented in any of the verified sources.
Salt lakes and springs in Siwa
The annual rainfall of the oasis is 9 millimeters, and in six months of the year, the monthly average is zero. However, only June and July had no recorded rain during the reference period. The water does not come from above but from the Nubian sandstone aquifer – the house mentions about 230 natural freshwater springs, and this is an approximation from the source, not a counted and not an official number.
In June and July, the average daily maximum is 37.5 degrees, and against this heat, the water of the oasis works. The pool of Adrere Amellal is fed by a natural spring and is located in the shade of a palm grove. None of the verified sources provides a water temperature, nor do they mention the salt lakes, and thus there is no bathing time stated here.
The salt lakes of the oasis have their own names: On Birket Siwa lies Fatnas Island, according to the house, a bathing place for locals and travelers. The Cleopatra Spring is a stone basin on the way to the Amun Temple – one of many springs of the oasis, not the only one. Whether one is allowed to swim in the lakes is not stated by any source.
Cleopatra Spring and Fatnas Island
Fatnas Island is located 6 kilometers from Siwa City, on the salt lake Birket Siwa, which bears the name of the oasis. The house lists the site as a place for the sunset. No travel time to get there is mentioned here – the distance is documented, but not the travel duration or the route.
The Cleopatra Spring is a stone basin with natural spring water, the basin is located on the way to the Amun Temple and is regarded by the house as probably the best-known bath in the area. It is one of many springs of the oasis, not the only one. Entrance fees, opening hours, and a travel time from Siwa are not mentioned by the source.
Great Sand Sea near Siwa
The excursion page of Adrere Amellal lists eight destinations, from Shali to Bir Wahed. The Great Sand Sea is not included in this list but appears as its own banner line above a ride through the dunes in all-terrain vehicles. This is the desert that actually lies near Siwa.
Bir Wahed is located 12 kilometers southwest of the town, in the outer dunes of the Great Sand Sea, and is a hot spring the size of a large whirlpool. The overflow of the spring irrigates a garden around the basin, and the house drives there with all-terrain vehicles. The reference point for this distance is the town, not one of the houses.
The White Desert is not mentioned on this excursion page, nor are Farafra or Bahariya. It is a different landscape, and this page keeps both apart – the Great Sand Sea lies near Siwa, the White Desert near Farafra, beyond Bahariya. A distance between the two is not stated here because no source mentions one.
Egypt's oases at a glance
The same travel advisory body lists four other oasis sites: Bahariya, Farafra, Dachla, and Charga. It names the roads between them and to the Nile Valley, and for these places, it does not issue any warnings. For Siwa, it names a different road: The connection between Al Bawiti and Siwa is closed and occupied by military checkpoints. Al Bawiti is the main town of Bahariya, and the same text excludes the oasis town Siwa from its warnings.
White Desert in Egypt
The White Desert is located 38 kilometers northwest of the center of Farafra and covers around 3,000 square kilometers. A decision by the Prime Minister declares it a nature reserve in 2002 under number 1220, classified as a national park according to IUCN. The Black Desert in Egypt is listed beside it by the same travel advisory body, in the exception list and the permit statement. There is no road from Siwa through the desert to there. Anyone who wants to see both must travel via Cairo.
Round trip through Egypt's oases
Five verified German-speaking provider pages for oases and the White Desert do not include Siwa in their routes – this is not a statement about these providers, but about our own survey. One published trip in our inventory lists Siwa as its own stage: Egypt's lonely oasis at the edge of the Sahara . Those looking for a round trip through Egypt's oases mainly find routes without Siwa in the German field. The linked trip includes Siwa as the only oasis in its route.
Houses in Siwa Oasis
Both houses in the inventory are built with the material from the oasis. On the pages of Adrere Amellal, it is called Kershef, dried salt rock, mud, and straw. The Taziry Ecolodge refers to it as Karshif: adobe bricks, salt, and other natural elements; straw is not mentioned there. The Taziry states that this building method makes air conditioning unnecessary. Doors and windows are positioned to catch the desert wind.
There is no electricity at Adrere Amellal. The house states in its own voice: "With no electricity, the rooms are softly lit with a dozen beeswax candles and the starry desert sky." In January, the average daily minimum in the oasis drops to 5.6 degrees, measured in the normal range of the weather station. A house without electricity is thus not a matter of style but a condition of operation.
The house lists eight quote blocks on its homepage, six of which include a person and medium. One of them reads: "At night it is so quiet that you begin to hear the stars." – Melissa North, Harpers & Queen. The source does not name a publication year, and this page does not supplement it. In German: Nachts ist es so still, dass man die Sterne zu hören beginnt.
Adrere Amellal at the salt lake
The house offers 40 handcrafted rooms, each different, in four categories: Single Desert Rooms, Double Desert Rooms, Special Desert Rooms, and Salt Suites. None of the four checked pages of the appearance provides a single area specification, and for none of the four categories does the operator state a room size. For this house, this is not a deficiency but a feature of its design.
A dozen beeswax candles light each room. The hundreds of candles that the house mentions are for dinners, not for the rooms. The house serves dinner each night at a different location, and fruits and vegetables come from the house's own gardens. Adrere Amellal is located at Gaafar Mountain in Matruh Governorate, and the name means White Mountain in Berber.
Taziry Ecolodge at the rocky hill
The name of the house means Full Moon in the Siwi language, candles burn in the room, and outside there are oil lamps and torches. The house is located at the foot of the Red Mountain, opposite the White Mountain, with views of Lake Gary and the dunes of the Great Sand Sea. The furniture comes from the in-house carpentry, and the ceilings are made from palm.
To Taziry Ecolodge belongs a marketplace with 50 artisan workshops, along with a library, a museum, and a planetarium. We do not mention a room count: The house's own presence lists two different room counts, a third only emerges from summing its own list, and one of the pages is still in dummy text. An estimated value would not be a statement but an assertion.
Verified and open information
What we can verify — and what we cannot
The information about access and travel advice comes from four national travel advisory bodies and two Egyptian government agencies that we have accessed, and the agency that names Siwa specifically reports as of August 4, 2026. The Swiss version comes from an archive extract. The information about the house comes from an archive extract dated May 22, 2025, because its presence blocks automated requests. The monthly values for travel time are provided by the oasis's weather station for the reference period 1961–1990 – an older normal period is systematically cooler, and the classification is therefore likely to be more lenient than strict.
None of the six sources mentions a closure of the White Desert, and one of them explicitly excludes it from its travel warning. The only closure claim in the entire measured field appears in a forum post, without authority, without decree date, and without file number. We therefore do not write that the White Desert is closed. A road is documented as closed, which is the connection Al Bawiti–Siwa.
Two obligations are documented: a permit in advance and an official guide. Which body issues the permit is not stated by any of the six sources, and no one says so in the entire surveyed field. A German-speaking body adds that even an already granted permit can be revoked at short notice. For the sites in Siwa, our check at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities found no entry – the location data for this page comes from the operator of a house in the oasis.
Information researched in September 2026.
Siwa Oasis – Travel and Vacation
A trip in the inventory lists Siwa as its own stage for 3 nights, the chosen house is Adrere Amellal. The live page mentions a recommended travel duration of 8 days and presents it as a combination trip without domestic flights and without a Nile cruise. It is requested, and the offer does not provide a fixed departure date. More trips including Siwa are not listed in the inventory.
Hotels in the Siwa Oasis
Two houses are available for selection in the Siwa Oasis, and their order here follows the inventory. Adrere Amellal is firmly established in the itinerary of the only Siwa trip, while Taziry Ecolodge is not currently included in any itinerary of the inventory. Categories and conditions are one click deeper, at the respective house.
Frequently asked questions about Siwa Oasis
Where is Siwa Oasis located?
In western Egypt, in Matruh Governorate. From Marsa Matruh on the Mediterranean coast, it is about 308 kilometers by road, and about 730 from Cairo. According to official information, the road from Siwa to Al Bawiti in the Bahariya oasis is closed, and this situation is the reason for nearly everything that follows on this page.
How does the journey to Siwa Oasis proceed?
Over land. The journey from Marsa Matruh takes four to five hours, from Cairo about eight and a half, the coach takes 7 hours 30 minutes, and a microbus runs hourly from Marsa Matruh. The Marsa Matruh–Siwa road and the oasis town itself are explicitly excluded from the travel warning of a national body – this is an exception to an existing warning, not its absence.
Is the White Desert in Egypt closed?
None of the six open official sources mentions a closure, and one of them explicitly excludes the White Desert from its travel warning. The only closure claim in the field appears in a forum post without authority, without decree date, and without file number. Documented are a permit requirement in advance and an official guide, but which body issues the permit is not specified by any of the sources. As of August 2026.
Can Siwa and the White Desert be connected?
Not through the desert. The road between Al Bawiti and Siwa is officially closed and occupied by military checkpoints; those who want to see both must travel via Cairo. No source names a distance between Siwa and the White Desert, and this page does not derive a third number from two correct individual values, nor a rounded one.
Is there a package tour to Siwa Oasis?
A published trip in our inventory includes Siwa as its own stage, beginning at 8 days and lasting three nights in the oasis, with a chosen house in the oasis. It is requested, and the inventory does not specify a fixed departure date. Thus, it is not a package deal in the usual sense.
Are there flights to Siwa Oasis?
There is an airfield, yes, but no civil airport or scheduled traffic. The military manages the field; each movement requires a separate permit with a lead time of up to two weeks, and it does not have overnight parking for visiting planes. A charter from Cairo flies for about 50 minutes with a light jet; thus, the permit is the real bottleneck, not the flight time.
