Strangers in a Timeless Paradise?
Environment, History and Cultural Preservation in an Egyptian Oasis
In 1998 Eighteen anthropology students and staff from the Glamorgan visited Egypt for a field school in anthropology at Siwa Oasis, probably best known as the home of one of the great oracles of the ancient world. Glamorgan staff ran the anthropology field teaching programme in the isolated Berber speaking community, which is located in Egypt’s Western Desert over 300 miles southwest of Alexandria.
Getting to Siwa once involved a fourteen day trek by camel caravan from the Nile valley, and even a few years ago using cars it could take six days on rough, unpaved roads. Nowadays it is possible to make the journey from Alexandria in under 10 hours on an air-conditioned coach or even to fly directly to Siwa. Despite the isolation, Siwa, as the students found, turned out to be a vibrant and beautiful community, once a vital location on the network of caravan routes which cross the desert, and still a hive of activity, famous for its archaeological features, spectacular setting and local craft traditions to name just a few of the attractions which are bringing independent travelers to the area these days…
The two-week field programme was directed by Dr. Teri Brewer, assisted by Pauline Young, and post-graduate students Penny Byrne (Glamorgan), Josey Petford (Roehampton Institute), and Viv Loveday (Glamorgan).
The students divided into three teams to examine the recent developments of cultural and environmental tourism in Siwa, to document aspects of the traditional architecture and crafts and to learn something about the social structure and customs of the community. Students had an opportunity to learn directly from members of the community including Mahdi Hweity, tourist officer for Siwa, Abdallah Baghi, inspector of English language instruction in the province, and Abu Bakr Ismail, local historian and curator of the House of Siwa museum. In looking at the development of environmental tourism in the Oasis we were fortunate to be able to visit the “eco- lodge” adjacent to the lake of Birket Siwa, which was just being completed.
By the time we left we understood that Siwa, while beautiful and unique as it always has been, is a thoroughly connected place whose people are thoughtful and canny about the problems and possibilities of modernization, and who guard their traditional values and customs carefully. We were very pleased to have an opportunity to learn something of their perspectives on the changing Egypt which they are part of.