Marsa Matrouh and Siwa · Siwa
Cleopatra's Spring
A stone pool fed by a spring, lit after dark, on the Aghurmi road out of Siwa.
The spring rises into a round pool edged with stone, on the way out of Siwa towards Aghurmi. The water comes up warm and never stops: it spills over into a channel that goes off to irrigate the date gardens below. A wooden pavilion and a café run around the pool, and people mostly bathe after dark, when the floodlights are on the water. The name comes from local tradition rather than from any text: nothing establishes that Cleopatra bathed here.
The extra bit
Come after dinner: the heat has dropped, the pool is lit, and you can sit out at the café. Take a torch for the way back, the lighting stops at the pavilion.
Know before you go
This is a public pool, not a hotel one: the bottom is stone, the rim is slippery, and there is neither lifeguard nor changing room — you change in the café's cubicles when they are open. Siwa is conservative: men bathe in shorts, a woman who wants to get in does so clothed, T-shirt and trousers, and you can ask the café whether there is a time set aside for women. Bathing costs nothing, tea and a chair are paid for, in cash. Once the sun is down, the palm grove sends out its mosquitoes.
