Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/484



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

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-