Midnight at the Oasis

Police Checkpoint
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By Christina

Grayson recently remarked that the world was much larger than he realized and that traveling for many days resulted in very little movement on our world map. His comments came on the heels of three long days driving through the Sahara Desert with little to do but watch the sand blow, so I am not sure he meant them to be positive. Nevertheless, I was happy to hear him say this, since one of our goals for this trip was to help the kids realize the scope of the world and appreciate the breadth of its cultures.

Tomb Hieroglyphics
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Our trusty guide Yahya arrived at Siwa Shali bright and early on the 22^nd of November to take us on our desert safari. (I know, I know, safari generally conjures up visions of lions, giraffes and the like, but in Siwa any desert adventure is called a safari. Perhaps that is because they use the term literally since “safari” means “journey” in Swahili.) Yahya had his brother Lofti with him (I later learned there are 19 siblings in all, as his father has two wives (Islam allows four)), who would act as our cook during the trip. These two guys were exceptional and did a great job taking care of us over the course of the three-day trip. The fact that they spoke very little English really didn’t hamper us too much.

Black Desert
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The day began at police headquarters in Siwa, where we confirmed our permit and met up with the other cars driving to Bahariyya Oasis (basically, the next patch of green) some nine hours drive away. A permit and convoy are needed so that people (especially tourists) don’t get lost in the wide expanse of desert from Siwa to Bahariyya. The Egyptian police work hard to keep track of cars driving this route, so we passed through seven police checkpoints along the way. Each time, we had to wait until all of the cars in our convoy were present and accounted for, before advancing to the next checkpoint. The four of us were amazed by these checkpoints because there was absolutely nothing for miles around them. These fellas must get seriously stir crazy and having the “Siwa convoy” pull in must be the highlight of their day. That appeared to be the case, as each time we’d arrive, they would huddle around the car, check all of us out, write into an official notepad (although we did notice that one guy’s notepad had a big red heart on it and said “love you”), and ask Yahya a lot of questions. And even though most were armed, without fail, they were warm and welcoming to us.

White Desert
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To be abundantly clear, we were driving on sand a good part of the time during this journey, as the road is non-existent in many places, or in such bad shape that it is easier on the car to drive directly on the sand. Yahya knew what he was doing and dutifully removed some of the air from his tires before venturing off-road. The one time we got stuck, he used a carpet for traction and he and his brother pushed us out. Eventually, we saw green in the distance and pulled into Bawiti, the main town of the Oasis.

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After an uneventful night’s sleep, we went in search of the Golden Mummies. In 1996, a donkey* stumbled in a hole outside of the town and uncovered a golden mask of a mummy. (*You would be surprised how often it is a donkey or a horse “discovers” buried antiquities.) Since then, radar has revealed more than 10,000 mummies buried in a cemetery stretching more than 3 kilometers long. Archeologists are still working the site and you can check out the mummies they have uncovered in a small museum set up for this purpose. We were not disappointed. The mummies were beautiful with colorful hieroglyphics of Egyptian Gods painted on them. To Abby’s delight, one of the mummies had hair sticking out of its wrappings.

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After viewing the mummies, we checked out the tomb of Zed-Amun-ef-ankh, a rich Bahariyyan, dug deep into the bedrock smack in the middle of the town. Although the tomb has long since been raided of its goodies, the hieroglyphics and other wall paintings were fantastic and we spent close to an hour underground checking them out.

Then it was back in the car (actually, a Toyota Four Runner) for some more driving. This time we headed into the Black Desert (so named because of the black iron deposits covering the sand dunes) and then to our ultimate destination: the White Desert. Reminiscent of our recent time in Cappodocia Turkey, the White Desert is a moonscape of oddly shaped rocks molded by years of sand storms. The ground is solid white rock in many places and, when combined with the cool shapes everywhere, makes for a very beautiful landscape. While Yahya and Lofti set up camp and made dinner, we explored the area and checked out rock formations. That night, hanging out by the fire, was one of our best nights so far, especially when the brothers sang an Egyptian love song while beating out the melody on an empty jerry can. We felt lucky to be camping in the desert on a night when there was a full moon, since the moonbeams reflected off the white rocks all around us. (I will confess that sleeping with all this light was a bit difficult, but it did make it real easy to spot the desert fox that raided our camp in the middle of the night).

Grayson with Badr
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A visit to Badr’s Museum in Farfara Oasis was the first order of business the next morning. We met Badr and learned that the “museum” is not really a museum at all, but rather a collection of his artwork (which he calls “dreams”) celebrating the traditional oasis way of life and protesting development that destroys the beauty of the old ways. Badr is talented in many art styles, as we saw sand pictures, sculptures and watercolor prints scattered about. In typical Egyptian fashion, he generously spent some time talking to the kids about having confidence in their artwork and showing them how to carve figures out of sandstone. His message to Grayson of “love what you do” seemed particularly appropriate. It was a nice way to spend the morning.

Al-Qasr
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Our lunch stop was highlighted by a visit to Al-Qasr, an amazing medieval/Ottoman town that remains largely intact. We visited the 12^th Century mosque and Madrassa (school where Islamic law was taught) and checked out the winding alleyways. The kids loved the bat-infested buildings, but I thought they were nasty. A surprisingly informative Ethnographic Museum capped off the visit. There, we met a very sweet girl visiting the village after finishing her mathematic studies at university. She (along with her mother) fell in love with Abby and I literally had to pry the girl’s fingers off of Abby when it was time to leave. They were lovely people and we were glad to have made the stop.

Friends at the Ethnographic Museum
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Our third night in the Sahara was spent in the Dakhla Oasis, the prettiest oasis yet. Dan and Grayson made the mistake of not providing adequate “white noise” in their room (something that is a must in this country at night) and were awakened by the nearby minaret at 4:45 a.m. To their despair, the monologue went on sporadically for the next three hours (we later learned that someone had died and the funeral was being announced) and they never fell back to sleep. Because of the turbo fan blowing at full speed in the room next door, Abby and I were blissfully unaware of the commotion outside, and slept peacefully the whole night long. After a final day of driving through the desert we arrived in Luxor, glad to have made the journey, but pleased to be back in the land of clean bathrooms, greenery, and familiar foods.

Yahya and Lofti
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Be sure to check the extra photos attached to this entry.