1- Shali: Shali in the siwan language means "town", sometimes also it is called the citadel. It was buit in 1203 to protect the siwans from attacks. It is built from "karsheif" which is mainly from the local salty soil in Siwa. It was partially destroyed in 3 days heavy rain in 1926 (see my article about siwa containing 3 photos for Shali 1923 and 2007 to compare). Shali used to have one main gate that closes by sunset, it was divided between eastern siwans and western siwans, each living in the east/west half of Shali. The houses sometimes reached 7 & 8 levels (floors) as there was no chance for horizontal extentions.

2- Gebel el-mawta (Mountain of the dead): Located in the northern part of the oasis, it is the first archeological site you meet on arriving to the oasis (it will be to the left). It contains many tombs from the pharonic time, four of them have drawings on their walls. It was used by siwans and english soldiers as a refugee in the world war II, and so, several drawings/paintings were destroyed or removed and taken by english soldiers. If you know any who got such paintings please contact. There are some ruins infront of the mountain, I placed here only one photo for the ruins and didn't take more for the mountain.

3- The oracle temple: Located on a huge rock known as "Aghourmy", about 3 kms to the east of the main square. Over years people started to build their houses around the temple. The rock of Aghourmy is suffering old age and some resotration work was done to save the temple from collapsing.

4- The temple of Amun (known as "um e'beida" temple): Close to the oracle temple (check the photos), this temple was completely destroyed in 1898 by the officer to build a house from rocks, that time there was no kind of awareness towards archeological sites. However, construction and Drawings of the temple was previously registered by some treveller/explorer.

5- Cleopatra spring: To the east of Siwa, it is believed that Cleopatra used this spring for bathing. In the 90s of the 20th century, the wall of the spring was covered by ceramic!! now it is removed to keep its original look. People swim in the pool, but ladies must show some respect to the local community traditions and ethics by not showing much of skin (bikini should not be wore). Check the photos to see how local kids look strangely (and may by it was disgusting for them) at some tourists not respecting their culture.

6- Gebel El-Dakroury (El-Dakroury mountain): The mountain is to the east os Siwa, famous for curing rheumatic disease by burying in the sand, usually in the summer (June, July & August). At this mountain the annual celebration takes place (I'll publish another article about the celebration soon), it lasts for three days usually the full moon (or around) in October after the dates and olives harvest season. There is more than one opinion about how the mountain gain its name, the one I remember is that the area were a slave trading point, where slaves used to came from Dakar. (sorry can't remember other opinions now).

7- Fatanas island: it is an island in the western salty lake, famous with the magnificent sunset view. The salty lake was created from agricultural sewage water. However, few years ago an agricultural sewage project took place to solve the problem of excessive waste water taking the borders of water away from the island but tourism to the island wasn't affected. The locals say that the project was just like a "pain killer" and not "curing" the problem. There is a fresh water spring where people can swim.

8- The house of Siwa: It is built recently to describe how the traditional houses of Siwa were built, it also shows how the daily life used to be, the traditional dresses and the jewelary. Times of visit: October-March 10a.m. - 1p.m. & 2-5p.m., April-September 10a.m. - 1p.m. & 4-7p.m.

9- Temples to th west of Siwa: in an area called "elmaraki" on the way there are several tombs in the mountains (no photos in this article for such temples, only photos for the tombs).

10- Abo Shrouf: There is a big salty lake, and fresh water spring where you can swim, it is about 30 kms to the east (there are no photos in this article for it).

Enjoy they photos, leave a comment if you like to and remember, I didn't write about the desert of Siwa yet as I didn't visit :)