The Magical Salt Lakes of Siwa
by Shahinda Abdalla
Lying in a depression on the edge of the Western Desert in Egypt near the Libyan border is the Siwa Oasis. When Siwa opened up for tourism in the 1980s, it was primarily famous for its ancient oracle Temple of Amun, a Roman-era necropolis featuring dozens of rock-cut tombs called the Mountain of the Dead (Gebel al Mawta), and a natural spring called Cleopatra’s bath. In recent years, only after the mining of salt did Siwa become much more known for its extra salty bodies of water. Because Siwa is considered to be far and relatively inaccessible as it lies 560km away from the capital, it remains relatively untouched. What makes the Siwan lakes particularly special is their hyper-salinity. Siwa has low annual rainfall but very high evaporation rates making its lakes exceptional with hyper-salinity, almost containing 95 percent salt. Salt lakes generally are known to have incredible therapeutic benefits, and Siwa’s lakes offer just that. Siwa has become an extremely popular destination for medical tourism, both locally and internationally. In 2017, Siwa was recognized as a global medical and environmental tourism destination. Known to be particularly beneficial for those suffering from skin diseases, ailments of the eyes and sinuses, as well as rheumatism.
Siwa Fatnas Lake
There are four main major salt lakes in Siwa. Zeitoun, which is the largest of them all spans across an area of 5760 acres. The scene of Zeitoun is mesmerizing as the body of water lines the eastern edge of the Siwan landscape. Aghormy Lake in the north-east spanning an area of 960 acres located between Zeitoun and Maraqi lakes is often used by local companies for health tourism as it is considered to be very healing and revitalizes the body. Maraqi Lake located in the western part of Siwa is also one of the larger lakes with an area of 700 acres. It is known also as Fatnas Lake and has the highest salt concentration of all the lakes. There are many other smaller lakes scattered all across Siwa.
In the popular culture, Siwa has this reputation of having a “special energy”. Many attribute that to the salt that covers the landscape as many believe it to expel negative energy which recuperates not only our physical bodies but our energetic bodies as well. The Siwan lakes are extremely safe to swim in, the salt content is so high that you automatically float making drowning impossible. The only thing to take care of is not to get water directly into your eyes as it is extremely salty and might cause stinging and irritation. There are no fish or marine life to be found in these lakes due to their hyper-salinity.
After swimming in a salt lake, people will usually head to any one of the natural hot springs scattered across the Siwan landscape to wash off the salt. These springs are high in nitrogen, also making them very therapeutic for the body. Other healing practices in Siwa include sand baths. Because Siwa is relatively far and still not as accessible as other tourist destinations in Egypt, it makes Siwa particularly unique, unspoiled and looking very much the same way it has for millennia. So if you’re looking to infuse not only your life with some magic but your body too, head to Siwa and soak your body in its turquoise blue salty lakes that are just hugged by so much salt that it can almost feel you are surrounded by snow.