Shali Fortress
Siwa's medieval fortified town of salt and mud, built in the thirteenth century — a labyrinth of lanes above the main square.
A town of salt and mud
Shali is the old fortified town of Siwa, rising on a hill in the centre of the modern town above the main market square. It was founded in the early thirteenth century, around 1203 according to local tradition, when the inhabitants of the oasis gathered in a defensible position to protect themselves from raids by Bedouin tribes. The town was built of kershef — blocks of salt-rich mud from the lakes, mixed with clay and dried in the sun — together with palm wood, and grew upward over the centuries into a dense, multi-storey labyrinth of houses, lanes, wells, olive presses and mosques, enclosed by walls with a single gate for much of its history.
Abandonment
Kershef is strong in a dry climate but dissolves in water. In 1926 three days of exceptional rain caused large parts of Shali to collapse, and its inhabitants gradually moved out to build new houses at the foot of the hill, leaving the old town to crumble into the sculptural, eroded forms seen today. The Old Mosque, with its distinctive conical minaret, remains in use.
Restoration
In recent years, restoration work using traditional kershef techniques has stabilised parts of Shali, cleared and reopened its lanes and installed lighting and paths, making it possible to walk up through the old town to its highest points. From the top, the view takes in the whole of Siwa: the modern town, the palm groves, Gebel al-Mawta, Gebel Dakrur and the salt lakes.
Exhibo editorial
Shali looks like something half-melted — walls of salt and mud slumping into fantastical shapes, doorways leaning, lanes winding up through the rubble like a sandcastle after a wave. In the evening, when it's lit, the whole hill glows above the square.
Walk up at sunset through the restored lanes to the top, where the call to prayer drifts up from the old mosque and the palms of the oasis spread out in every direction. Then come down for mint tea in the square below. It's the heart of Siwa, in every sense.
How to find it
Shali rises directly above Siwa's main market square in the town centre. Paths into the old town start from the square and from the lanes around the Old Mosque; follow them uphill through the restored lanes to the viewpoints at the top.
