From Sphinx to Oracle

A description of the author's quest to reach the sacred site of Jarabub there to be found the tomb of Mohamed ib Ali as-Senussi, founder of the Islamic sect known as the Senussi. He completes his journey at the Oasis of Siwa where he finds the ruins of the ancient Oracle of Jupiter Ammon.

---

'...to fully realise the desert, one must ravel far into its solitudes and drink deep of its silence.' This is just what the author did when he set out on his quest to reach the sacred site of Jarabub in the Libyan desert. There was to be found the tomb of Mohammed ibn 'Ali as-Senussi, founder of the Islamic sect known as the Senussi. It was a place to which no European had been permitted to pass and, as it turned out, Arthur White was to be no more successful than his predecessors in achieving his aim. However, his small caravan - seven men besides himself, and six camels - did complete the journey of nearly 500 miles across the desert to the oasis of Siwa, withini which verdant island are to be found the ruins of the ancient Oracle of Jupiter Ammon. In recounting the long march from Cairo to Siwa and his sojourn among the antiquities of that desert town, the author presents a series of fascinating glimpses of the desert and its people which, taken together, convey and acutely realised impression of nomadic life at the turn of the century.