Category: Travel Writing
Siwa — Whereabouts — The ex-Khedive and Germans — The ancient Libyans — The coastal belt — The Mariut Railway — Mersa Matruh — The Bay — Antony and Cleopatra — Greek Traders — Motor Maniacs — Sponge fishers — From Matruh to Sollum — Barrani and Bagbag — Sollum Bay — Western De...
Siwa — Whereabouts — The ex-Khedive and Germans — The ancient Libyans — The coastal belt — The Mariut Railway — Mersa Matruh — The Bay — Antony and Cleopatra — Greek Traders — M...
2. CHAPTER IIThe Frontier Districts Administration — The Camel Corps — Harimat — Story of a stove — The Booza Camp — The men — Diary of trek from Sollum to Siwa — Departure — Augerin, a Roma...
3. CHAPTER IIIThe Siwan Deity — A local religion — Legendary origin of the God — Herodotus — The Kingdom of the Ammonians — Lysander’s visit — Cambyses — A lost army — Cimon’s death foretold...
4. CHAPTER IVThe town — Architecture — Wells — Custom of whitewash — Date Markets — Mosques — School — Shops — Interior of houses — The Roofs — “Dululas” — The Siwan race — Men — Women — App...
5. CHAPTER VZeitoun and Kareished — The oasis of Gara — The village — The curse of Sheikh Abdel Sayed — A legend of Gara — The Mejberry pass — El Areg and Bahrein — The Arabs of Maragi — Th...
6. CHAPTER VIBelief in Superstitions — Divine and Satanic magic — Demons — A birthday — Naming the child — Women — Marriage and divorce — A wedding, the bride’s bath, fetching the bride, pre...
7. CHAPTER VIISocial life in Siwa — Games — “Lubki” drinkers — Giving alms to the poor — Sheikhs in fiction and in fact — “Beit el Mal” — Ramadan, the Mohammedan Lent — The Mulid of Sidi Suli...
8. CHAPTER ISIWA—pronounced “Seewah”—is a little-known oasis in the Libyan Desert on the borders of Egypt and Tripoli. It lies 200 miles south of Sollum, the Egypt-Tripoli frontier port on...
9. CHAPTER IITHE Western Desert of Egypt is regulated by the Frontier Districts Administration, a comparatively new department of the Egyptian Government which was formed during the war and...
10. CHAPTER IIISIWA lies thickly covered with “the Dust of History,” and its story is difficult to trace. For certain periods one is able to collect information on the subject, but during many...
11. CHAPTER IVSIWA town is like no other place that I have seen either in Egypt, Palestine or the Sudan. It is built on a great rock in the centre of the oasis, and from a distance it resembl...
12. CHAPTER VSIWA itself is the largest, richest and most important oasis in a little group of oases which are mostly uninhabited. Similar oases, such as the Kufra group and the Augila group...
13. CHAPTER VIAFTER being some time at Siwa one cannot help noticing how very much the life of the people is influenced by their belief in superstitions and magic arts. To every ordinary acci...
14. CHAPTER VIISIWANS, on the whole, do not take life very seriously, and when they have an excuse for an entertainment they thoroughly let themselves go and are glad of an occasion, if they c...