[7] The limestone plateau and inselbergs resulting from the oasis' erosion along the dunes create reliefs that the Isiwan describe as mountains (adrar in Tamizight).

[14] The additional evidence of the Egyptian source of Siwa's name is another place name in Kharga Oasis that may share the same etymology – S.t-wȝḥ, modern Deir el-Hagar).

[23] The first European to document a visit since Roman times was the English traveler William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the ancient temple of the Oracle of Amun.

Egypt began to assert firmer control after a 1928 visit to the Oasis by King Fuad I, who berated the locals for homosexual practices and specified punishments to bring Siwan behaviour in line with Egyptian morals.

The British Army's Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was based here, but Rommel's Afrika Korps also took possession three times.

[27] In 1942, while the Italian 136th Infantry Division Giovani Fascisti occupied the oasis, a tiny Egyptian puppet government-in-exile was set up at Siwa.

After it was damaged by three days of heavy rains in 1926[28] it was abandoned for similar unreinforced construction housing on the plain surrounding it, and in some cases those, in turn, have been replaced by more modern cinder block and sheet metal roof buildings.

Gradually eroded by infrequent rains and slowly collapsing, the Shali remains a prominent feature, towering five stories above the modern town and lit at night by floodlights.

Other local historic sites of interest include the remains of the oracle temple; the Gebel al Mawta (the Mountain of the Dead), a Roman-era necropolis featuring dozens of rock-cut tombs;[1] and "Cleopatra's Bath", an antique natural spring.

The traditional culture of Siwa shows many unique elements, some reflecting its longstanding links with the isolated Oasis life and the fact that the inhabitants are Siwi Berbers.

These were used to export dates and olives, bring trade goods, or carry pilgrims on the route which linked the Maghreb to Cairo and hence to Mecca.

[31] As a result of this isolation, Siwis developed a unique natural culture manifested in its crafts of basketry, pottery, silverwork and embroidery and in its style of dress.

The jewelry, which was made by local silversmiths, consisted of silver necklaces, earrings, bangles, hair ornaments, pendants, and many rings.

These pieces are decorated with symbols common to Berber people across North Africa designed to promote good health, fertility and to protect the wearer from misfortune.

[35] The arrival of the road and of television exposed the oasis to the styles and fashions of the outside world and the traditional silver ornaments were gradually replaced by jewelry made of gold.

[36] The material for the "tarfutet", the distinctive all-enveloping shawl worn by women, are brought from outside the oasis, specifically from the town of Kirdasa, in the Giza Governorate.

Unlike other Egyptians, however, on Eid al-Adha Siwis cook the skin of the sheep (along with its innards) as a festival delicacy, after removing the hair.

"[25] Siwa is of special interest to anthropologists and sociologists because of its historical acceptance of intergenerational male homosexuality and rituals celebrating same-sex marriage – traditions that the Egyptian authorities have sought to repress, with increasing success, since the early 20th century.

The German Egyptologist Georg Steindorff explored the Oasis in 1900 and reported that pederastic relations were common and often extended to a form of marriage: "The feast of marrying a boy was celebrated with great pomp, and the money paid for a boy sometimes amounted to fifteen pounds, while the money paid for a woman was a little over one pound.

"[50] In 1937, the anthropologist Walter Cline wrote the first detailed ethnography of the Siwans in which he noted: "All normal Siwan men and boys practice sodomy...among themselves the natives are not ashamed of this; they talk about it as openly as they talk about love of women, and many if not most of their fights arise from homosexual competition....Prominent men lend their sons to each other.

[53] The Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry, who studied Siwa for three decades, observed in 1973 that "While the Siwans were still living inside their walled town, none of these bachelors was allowed to spend the night in the town and had to sleep outside the gates...Under such circumstances it is not surprising that homosexuality was common among them....Up to the year 1928, it was not unusual that some kind of written agreement, which was sometimes called a marriage contract, was made between two males; but since the visit of King Fu'ad to this oasis it has been completely forbidden...However, such agreements continued, but in great secrecy, and without the actual writing, until the end of World War II.

"[54] Despite the multiplicity of sources for these practices, the Egyptian authorities and even the Siwan tribal elders have attempted to repress the historical and anthropological record.

While the majority of the population of Siwa is Berber, the oasis is also home to a Bedouin community related to the Awlad Ali, the Shahibaat, as well as to a growing number of other Egyptian settlers.

[64][65][66] In late 2013, an announcement was made regarding the apparent Archaeoastronomy discovery of precise spring and fall Equinox sunrise alignments over the Aghurmi mound/Amun Oracle when viewed from Timasirayn temple in the Western Desert, 12 km away across Lake Siwa.

[70] In British author Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, the ninth and eleventh instalments Scorpia Rising and Never Say Die feature Siwa.

In Australian author Matthew Reilly's Jack West series of seven novels starting with Seven Ancient Wonders feature prominently the Oracle of Siwa.