Siwa Oasis. Our Bedouin camp.
Basically, Siwa was once Libya until it was lost to Egypt diring the Battle of
El Alamein, World War II.
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Siwa taxi through town.
Taxi smelled like donkey poop.
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The Temple of Amun-Ra. Siwa Oasis.
An extremely important site in Egypt. Alexander the Great visited here.
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Amun-Ra Temple.
Again, a "most beautiful" place on Earth.
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The Oracle Temple at Siwa.
Visited by Alexander the Great and Ptolemy in the 4th century BC. Here, Alexander traveled from MAcedon to learn his future. He wept when he left... his mother was to betray him.
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The actual room where
Alexander and the Oracle met
I am not kidding.
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View from the Oracle Temple, across Siwa and the Palm Tree oasis.
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View from the Oracle Temple
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The Mountain of the Dead,
seen over the ruins of Old Siwa
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Entering the Mountain of the Dead.
One of the mostly profoundly interesting sites I have ever seen. 100,000 Egyptians were laid to rest here. Following the gruesome battle of El Alamein, multitures of Italian soldiers (dead and dying) came here and used to tombs as hospotal rooms.
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Ancient Egyptian tomb inside the Mountain of the Dead
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We found two mummies, still upon their burial slabs!
Mountain of the Dead
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Mummified remains. 3,600 years old.
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A head in a bowl. But he's still laughing.
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Two mummies
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Inspecting the remains of a tomb at the Mountain of the Dead. Sadly these all had been looted over the millennia. Notice the bones and mummy wrappings strewn everywhere.
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Mountain of the Dead tomb.
I found remains here of an Italian soldier killed at El Alamein. His name was Serg. Rosati. I wait, hoping his family will contact me.
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The Mountain of the Dead is literally covered with hundreds of tombs.
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Mountain of the Dead: The tombs at sunset
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Mountain of the Dead
One of the most beautiful places in B.F.E.
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Our driver, Abdul, with his favorite hookah. Sitting around a bedouin campfire where we stayed in Siwa.
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Our camp in Siwa
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Abdul and the camp kitty
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The battlefield of El Alamein
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El Alamein tank. Left over from the battle. The majority of the battlefield is off-limits, as mine fields around here still kill dozens a year.
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