In Siwa town hail a caretta and rattle off through the palm groves to the village of Aghurmi, Like Siwa town, Aghurmi rests peacefully at the foot of a formerly inhabited acropolis. To ascend the acropolis pass through an old gate made of palm logs and then underneath a weather-beaten but sturdy old mud mosque. Up ahead, perched dramatically at the cliff-edge of the acropolis, looms the well-preserved Oracle of Amon, where Alexander came to consult the renowned priests of Amon. First he had to pass through the stone temple’s simple gateway into the outer, then the inner court, as you must do to see the site. Accounts by ancient Greek and Roman historians paint the scene: priests carried the sacred boat containing the image of Amon as women sang and danced in procession. The oracle of Amon is said to have confirmed suspicion that Alexander was a god-king, proclaiming him the “son of Amon.” Alexander never told what he asked the oracle in private, nor wliat the answer was. The secret died with him, less than 10 years after his visit.

The temple of the Oracle of Amon is thought to date from the 21st dynasty (c. 1000 BC). It became widely celebrated in later dynasties and was well known to the ancient Greeks, who constructed many shrines to Amon in their own country. Twentieth-century visitors enjoy unrestricted access to the temple and the Aghurmi acropolis-no guards, no fees. You can look around the acropolis, peer down the sacred well where offerings were purified (next to the mosque), and climb the mosque’s minaret for a masterful view of the town and fiery sunsets.

If you follow the road heading southeast of Aghurmi, after lkm you’ll stumble onto the emaciated remains of the Temple of Amon, also known as Umm Ubeidah. Time has been unforgiving to this formerly glorious companion of the oracle temple. In 1897 a government official of Siwa (the Marmur) demolished the temple to acquire materials for the construction of a police station and the modern mosque in Siwa town. All that is left is an inscribed, broken wall amidst the palms.