Siwa Oasis
depression in the Western Desert of Egypt
The Siwa Oasis (Arabic: واحة سيوة Wāḥat Sīwah [ˈwæːħet ˈsiːwæ]) is an urban oasis in Egypt. It is situated between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of the Egypt–Libya border and 560 kilometres (350 mi) from the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. It is famed for its role in ancient Egypt as the home to an oracle of Amun, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction, giving it the ancient name Oasis of Amun-Ra, after the major Egyptian deity.
Geography
The oasis is in a deep depression that reaches −19 metres (−62 ft) below sea level. To the west, the al Jaghbub Oasis rests in a similar depression and to the east, the large Qattara Depression is also below sea level. The depression is fertile due to both natural flowing artesian wells and irrigation. It is the site of about 200 natural springs. Siwa is directly adjacent to the Libyan Desert plateau. The geology is characterised by horizontal layers of porous limestones alternated with marls and clays dating back to the Miocene. The limestone plateau and inselbergs resulting from the oasis' erosion along the dunes create reliefs that the Isiwan describe as mountains (adrar in Tamazight).
“Siwa Oasis” enters the record as depression in the Western Desert of Egypt. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Siwa, Oasis and depression can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2008735. Authority coordinates are 29.205, 25.519. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Siwa Oasis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.