394 



NOETÏÏ-EAST AFEICA. 



SiwAH — Gara. 



The oases farther removed from the Nile and forming a physical dependence 

 of Cyrenaica rather than of the fluvial region, constitute the Siwah group, famous 

 in ancient times for the oracle of Ammon, which, according to Herodotus, was of 

 equal antiquity with that of Dodona. Siwah and Agermi, the two chief towns in 

 the oasis, are built of nummulitic limestone and blocks of impure rock salt, each on 

 the slope of a rocky hill. Their outer walls and terraces are so disposed as to 

 form irregular fortresses of extremely picturesque appearance. That of Siwah, 

 approached by no less than fifteen gates, has a circumference of not more than 

 1,260 feet, and its ramparts are surmounted by high, square, and round towers, all 



Fig. 121.— The Siwah Oasis. 

 Scale 1 : 336,000. 







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of different form. These towers are in reality so many houses piled up close 

 together, and built over a labyrinth of subterranean galleries. The town thus 

 grows in height before its base is broadened out. 



The temple of Jupiter Ammon, whither the Macedonian conqueror went to 

 have himself oracularly proclaimed master of the world, is still standing near 

 Agermi, and within half a mile are visible the ruins of another sanctuary amid the 

 surrounding palm-trees. The hieroglyphics on this building have not yet been 

 deciphered. The Jebel-el-Mutah, one of the isolated crags in the Siwah depression, 

 is honeycombed in all directions by the galleries of a necropolis. 



Dates are the staple commodity of Siwah. M. Jourdan made an attempt to 

 calculate the produce of the date groves in this oasis, taking as a standard of 

 measurement the cube of the fruit accumulated for the expedition on the market- 



