Siwa is an oasis of 80km by 20km in Egypt's Western Desert, close to the Libyan border and reached only after a long drive through stony desert country, the villages set amongst groves of date palms. The Siwan people are North African Berber rather than Arab and retain a language and traditions of their own. The history of the oasis goes back at least to the days of Alexander the Great, who made the journey here especially to consult a famous oracle. Behind Siwa rises a crumbling ruin, the ancient fortified mudbrick town of Shali perched on a rocky crag, destroyed by unprecedented rains in 1926.

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