Siwa Oasis Site Features

Situated in a depression made fertile by the gush of several hundred artesian springs and continuous human work, Siwa is on the direct edge of the Libyan desert plateau. In fact, the limestone plateau (often shell) and the inselbergs resulting from its erosion along the sand dunes create reliefs that the Isiwan (inhabitants of Siwa in Berber) call mountains (adrar in Berber, and jebel in Arabic).

Two large salt lakes are fed by agricultural drainage water. Two old earthen fortresses built on inselbergs: shali Siwa and shali Aghurmi are now in ruins.

Agriculture is the main activity in Siwa. It is essentially an irrigated oasis agriculture of gardening in palm groves: market gardening and arboriculture mainly focused on the cultivation of dates and olives, which are partly valorized into oil.