5 Days Siwa and Bahariya Oasis Tour

Early morning: arrival in Cairo

Our team meets you in the arrival hall of Cairo International Airport, helps you with your luggage and the formalities, and walks you to your private air-conditioned vehicle. Your guide joins you, and after a short rest and breakfast near the airport you set off west towards the coast.

Late morning: El Alamein

The first long stop is El Alamein, about 3 hours 30 minutes from Cairo. In 1942 the battles fought here between Rommel's Axis forces and the British Eighth Army ended the Axis advance on Egypt. You walk through the Commonwealth War Cemetery, with more than 7,000 graves in quiet rows above the desert, and, if time allows, the war museum with its uniforms, weapons and maps.

Afternoon: Marsa Matruh

About 2 hours further west you reach Marsa Matruh, a town on a bay of clear Mediterranean water, and stop for a seafood lunch. From here the road turns south, away from the sea, across some 300 km of flat desert to Siwa, about 4 hours.

Evening: Siwa

You reach Siwa around sunset and check in to your hotel or eco-lodge, where a cold drink of local juice is waiting. Dinner is Siwan food at the lodge. It has been a long day; the next one is slower.

Morning: the Mountain of the Dead

After breakfast your guide takes you to Gebel al-Mawta, the Mountain of the Dead, a low hill north of the town honeycombed with rock-cut tombs from the 26th Dynasty to the Roman period. A few tombs keep their paintings, among them the tomb of Si-Amun, with scenes of the dead man and the gods in rich colours; which tombs are open varies. From the top you see the whole oasis: the palm groves, the old mud-brick fortress of Shali in the town centre and the salt lakes beyond.

The Temple of the Oracle

On the rock of Aghurmi, a few kilometres east, stand the ruins of the Temple of the Oracle of Amun, built in the 6th century BC. The oracle was famous across the Greek world, and in 331 BC Alexander the Great crossed the desert to consult it; ancient writers say the priests greeted him as the son of Amun. From the temple the view runs over the palms to the lakes.

Cleopatra Spring

Nearby is Cleopatra Spring, a round stone pool of clear, naturally warm water fed from below, one of many springs in the oasis. The link with Cleopatra is a local tradition; the swim is real. Cafés around the pool sell drinks, and swimming here is usual for visitors; women usually swim with a T-shirt over swimwear, as this is a public place.

Afternoon: Dakrour Mountain and the salt lakes

After lunch at a local restaurant you drive to Dakrour Mountain, at the edge of the dunes south of the town. In summer, Siwans and visitors come here for hot sand baths, a traditional treatment for joint pain. Then you continue to the salt lakes, where old salt quarries have filled with very salty, turquoise water; you float without effort, as in the Dead Sea. The day ends watching the sunset over the lakes or from Dakrour, and dinner is at the lodge.

Morning: leaving Siwa

After breakfast you leave Siwa and take the desert road east towards Bahariya Oasis, about 400 km and 6 to 7 hours. The road crosses empty country: gravel plains, dune lines and low escarpments, with only checkpoints and a few rest stops along the way. Your guide stops for photos wherever the light and the landscape are worth it, and lunch is a packed or roadside meal on the way.

Late afternoon: Bahariya Oasis

You reach Bahariya in the late afternoon. The oasis lies in a wide depression ringed by dark hills, with its main town, Bawiti, among palm groves and hot springs; it is known for the Valley of the Golden Mummies, a large Graeco-Roman cemetery found in 1996. You check in to a desert lodge.

Evening

Dinner is at the lodge, and after dinner the sky is dark enough for a first look at the stars.

Morning: the Black Desert

After breakfast you set off by 4x4 south of Bahariya into the Black Desert, where hundreds of small, cone-shaped hills of orange sand are capped with dark volcanic and iron-rich stones, so the whole landscape looks dusted with black. You climb one of the hills for the view.

El Haiz and the spring

You continue to El Haiz, a group of small farming villages and springs south of Bahariya, with Roman-period ruins nearby, for a stop at a cool spring among the palms.

Crystal Mountain and Agabat

Crystal Mountain is a low ridge on the road south made largely of quartz crystals that catch the sun; with its natural arch it is a classic photo stop. Further on, the valleys of Agabat drop between tall white and golden rock walls and dunes, one of the most dramatic views of the Western Desert. Lunch is a picnic at a green spring along the way.

Afternoon and evening: the White Desert

In the late afternoon you enter the White Desert National Park, where wind has carved the chalk into towers, mushrooms and shapes that local guides name after animals, the best known being the "chicken and mushroom". You watch the sunset as the rocks turn pink and gold, then your team sets up camp in a sheltered spot. Dinner is cooked over the fire, and you sleep in a tent or under the stars. Desert foxes sometimes come close to the camp at night.

Morning: sunrise in the White Desert

You wake up early for the sunrise over the chalk formations, the best light of the trip. Breakfast is at the camp, then the team packs up and you drive back to Bahariya, where you can shower and freshen up at the lodge.

Afternoon: the road to Cairo

The drive back to Cairo takes about 6 to 7 hours from the White Desert, through the open desert and then the outskirts of Giza. Your vehicle takes you to your hotel or to Cairo International Airport. If you fly out tonight, book a flight that leaves late in the evening, as the arrival time depends on the road. This is the end of the tour.