A bike tour

Well, the internet is still too slow to upload any pictures, but we can put a few of our oasis adventures in writing.

After rising from our nap, we rented bikes and embarked on a tour of the oasis and its surroundings. First stop was a series of old tombs cut into a hill, about a mile outside the town. A few of the tombs had paintings on the walls, but we didn't want to pay the entrance fees so we contented ourselves with the tombs just downhill. They looked rather like craters on the moon. We read that during World War II the Italians had bombed Siwa (for some inexplicable reason), and people took shelter into the tombs! The bombings raids actually opened up many more tombs that they didn't know existed.

We took a short-cut back to town through a village on the outskirts. It was really fun to briefly see scenes of village life as we rode past. Donkeys sleeping and kids running and old men smoking and boys standing around.

Our next stop was the Temple of Amun, which once harbored one of the most influential oracles in the Greek world. Alexander the Great came here to legitimize his claim on Egypt. And kings sometimes sent armies to destory it (which always disappeared in the desert), so great was the oracle's professed power. The temple was in ruins, but still pretty cool.

A few minutes down the road was another temple. Was. Not even the ruins are left. An Ottoman ruler blew it up in the nineteenth century because he needed more stone for his house. Only part of one wall is left.

At one point my bike chain came off the gear. A couple little boys came out of nowhere and helped me get it back on.

Our last stop was at Cleopatra's Spring. It is rumored that the lady herself bathed here, but that is almost certainly made up. Good advertising though. The spring was about 20 feet in diameter, stoned-walled and rather green. And for a hot spring, it was disappointingly cold. Two Egyptian boys were the only ones swimming in it. We thought about getting a drink at the nice tourist cafe that recently sprung up next to the spring, but didn't.

Back at our hotel, we lounged around for a little bit, had some juice, played Uno. (Milli won all five times.) Then back on the bikes we set out for Fatnas Island, where supposedly one could watch the sunset. We left about 5:30 and tried to follow our hand-drawn, very-much-not-to-scale map of Siwa. Not at all convinced we were going to right way, we stopped to ask people like four times. Turns out we were. The island was just much, much farther than we thought. Meanwhile, the sun was sinking...

We got there just in time to watch the last five minutes. Watching the sun dip over the horizon, spreading an orange glow across the lake, I forgot this was the middle of the desert. It was beautiful. And over all to quickly.

Then we biked back again, racing again against the sun, whose embers of light were dying rapidly. We were about halfway back by the time it was dark. The moonlight shone enough for us to see the outline of the road, and luckly there were very few cars. One guy followed us on his bike for a few minutes, but then ditched off when we ignored him. It could have been much worse and we got back fine.

It was nice to get the exercise. The only exercise we get here in Cairo is walking, which doesn't really cut it.