The silence of Siwa

A man sits outside his home in Siwa under graffiti that reads ‘May God accept your pilgrimage and forgive your sins’ - an expression used for people returning from Mecca.

Men smoke and use their mobile phones as they sit at a small cafe in Siwa.

A goat pokes its head through a wall in Siwa.

A man bathes in a natural hot water spring which is full of minerals.

Men warm themselves by a fire outside their houses on a street in Siwa.

A restaurant worker sits among empty tables as he waits for customers in Siwa.

A man stands at a farm while a worker collects palm leaves to make a traditional basket used for storing food in front of his house.

Sheikh Abdulla, a blind man, uses his stick to climb to a mosque inside the old city, Shali, where he works as an Imam.

Residents of Siwa have been hurt by declining tourism in Egypt, which received 9.5 million tourists last year, down from over 14.7 million tourists in 2010, before the uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Nationwide, the situation is gradually improving and the government says tourism could recover to pre-crisis levels next year if regional turmoil spares Egypt. But Siwa, located just 50 km (30 miles) from war-torn Libya, still sees only a fraction of the tourists that once visited the desert oasis, the head of Siwa’s tourism authority says.

Reuters photographer Asmaa Waguih’s pictures hint to a quieter Egyptian landscape where locals patiently await the trickle of tourism which often follows poltical stability. Time will tell how the town of Siwa fares during the new chapter in Egypt’s history.

Photos by Asmaa Waguih / Reuters