Introduction
Siwa, or Siwa Oasis, is an oasis and town in the central western deserts of Egypt. The modern town has about 23,000 inhabitants. The Siwa Oasis is a major oasis 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of the Libyan border and 560 kilometres (348 miles) from Cairo This stunning oasis has been a hot spot of human activity since the 10th millennium BC. Today it is a center for a Berber population of 20,000 people. With their natural diet and clean living, Siwans have the best lifespan of all Egyptians, with many Siwans living upwards of 95 years. There is also no crime in this area; the last one was over ten years ago, both committed by and against outsiders. Be aware that the area is far more conservative than Cairo. It is impossible to obtain alchohol, and visitors, especially women, will want to cover up as much as possible. The towns are built in amazing ways and this hard to get place is worth the trek.
Getting There
By Car
By car it takes 6 hours from Alexandria.
By Bus
The only option is taking a bus from Cairo which takes around 12 hours or taking a bus from Alexandria taking around 8 hours.
In summer you can take a flight from Cairo to Marsa Matruh and take a bus from there which is about 4 hours.
Keep Connected
Phone
See also International Telephone Calls
Post
Egypt Post is the national postal service in Egypt. Services are generally reliable, affordable though pretty slow, even if you send post domestically. International letters and postcards take days, if not weeks if send to the US or Australia. They do have express mail services though, but these are relatively expensive. Opening hours of post officies are mostly from 8:30am to 2:00pm or 3:00pm daily except Friday, when all of them are closed. The central ones might keep longer hours, generally until 8:00pm. You can buy stamps here, or at certain newspaper kiosks. In touristic areas, these are available at many shops as well. For parcels, it's much better to use international courier services such as DHL, TNT or UPS.
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This is version 7. Last edited at 1:53 on May 14, 13 by Peter. 1 article links to this page.
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