SIWA  , an

oasis in the Libyan Desert, politically part of Egypt . It is also known as the oasis of Ammon or Jupiter Ammon; its ancient Egyptian name was Sekhet-am, " Palm-land." The oasis lies about 350 M . W.S.W. of Cairo, its chief town, also called Siwa, being situated in 29° 12' N., 25° 30' E . The oasis is some 6 m. long by 4 to 5 wide . Ten miles north-east is the small oasis of Zetun, and westward of Siwa extends for some 50 M. a chain of little oases . The population of Siwa proper (1907 census) was 3884 . The)inhabitants are of Libyan (Berber) stock and have a language of their own, but also speak Arabic . The oasis is extremely fertile and contains many thousands of date palms . The town of Siwa is built on two rocks and resembles a fortress . The houses are frequently built on arches spanning the streets, which are narrow and irregular . The oasis is famous as containing the oracle temple of Ammon, which was already famous in the time of Herodotus, and was consulted by Alexander the Great . The remains of the temple are in the walled village of Aghormi, 2 m .

E. of the town of Siwa . It is a small

building, with inscriptions dating from the 4th century B.C . The oracle fell into disrepute during the Roman occupation of Egypt, and was reported dumb by Pausanias, c . A.D . 16o . Siwa was afterwards used as a place of banishment for criminals and political offenders . After the Mahommedan conquest of Egypt Siwa became independent and so remained until conquered by Mehemet Ali in 182o . It is now governed by its own sheikhs under the supervision of an Egyptian mamur responsible to the mudir of Behera . Siwa contains many relics of antiquity besides the ruins of the temple of Ammon . Near that temple are the scanty remains of another temple of the same century, Umm Beda, with reliefs depicting the prince of the oasis making offerings to Ammon, " lord of oracles." At Jebel Muta, 1 m . N.E. of Siwa, are tombs of Ptolemaic and Roman date; 10 m . E. of Aghormi is a well-preserved chapel, with Roman graves; at Kasr Rumi is a Doric temple of the Roman period .

The oasis lies

close to the Tripolitan frontier and is largely dominated by the sect of the Senussi (q.v.), whose headquarters were formerly at Jarabub, 8o m. to the north-west . The Senussi successfully prevented various explorers penetrating westward beyond Siwa . The first European to reach Siwa since Roman time was W . G . Browne, who visited the oasis in 1792 . He was followed in 1798 by F . Hornemann . Both these travellers started from Cairo; in 1820 General H . Minutoli gained the oasis from the Gulf of Solum . In 1869 Gerhard Rohlfs reached Siwa via Tripoli, and subsequently the ruins were examined by Professor G . Steindorff . After the occupation of Egypt by the British steps were taken to enforce the authority of the government in Siwa, where order proved difficult to maintain .

There were serious disturbances in 1909, and as a result in 1910 a

telegraph line was built across the desert from Alexandria to the oasis . See G . Steindorff, Durch die Libysche Wiiste zur Amonsoase (Bielefeld and Leipzig, 19o4); A . Silva White, From Sphinx to Oracle (London n.d., 1898) ; Murray's Handbook for Egypt (11th ed., London, 19o7); T . B . Hohler, Report on the Oasis of Siva (Cairo 1900); also the works of the earlier travellers named . (F . R .