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Located in the western desert at the borders with Lybia, Siwa is the most mysterious of all Egypt's oases, its history has been shaped by all major civilizations. The Siwan people have their own culture and customs and, beside Arabic, they speak own Berber (Amazigh) language. Women still wear traditional costumes and silver jewellery and Siwa remains one of the best places to buy traditional local handicrafts.
This project aims to revive the cultural heritage and promote a sustainable use of natural resources,through rehabilitating traditional houses,fostering ecotourism activities and improving the handicraft 
tradition in order to produce items for the local market and to evaluate the possibility to address the products to a more large market as the Egyptian or international one.
Traditional architecture, natural and cultural resources and local handicraft production are rich and valuable, moreover to preserve this heritage is a way to promote local economic development.
The initiative resulted from the common desire of governmental and non governmental cooperation to collaborate in promoting sustainable and eco-compatible development in oases of Siwa and El Gara.
Cospe Egypt is responsible for the component related to traditional handicraft, the production consists on dresses and scarves, tools, basket and silver jewellery. Not all of this production still exists and the skill of the producers, mainly women and girls working at home, can be improved in design, finishing, quality control. The project will find, together with the community, the right way to provide training and marketing opportunities to the producers, inside and outside Siwa.
Location(s)
| Restore Shali | Structural interventions of consolidation, restoration and rehabilitation in the historical site of Siwa based on a training-on-the-job methodology, using traditional constructive techniques and traditional materials |
| Promote Ecoturism | Cooperate with the local authorities and the private sector to promote ecotourism in the oases, training the local guides and fostering the creation of an ecotourism association, enhancing natural and cultural resources and advocating for sustainable development as a mean to increase the income of the local people |
| Train handicraft producers | Organize vocational training sessions in the new training centre built by the Governorate, train the trainers and follow-up on product development and marketing. |
| Preserve the Archeological Heritage | Support the Department of Antiquities concerning the preservation and the enhancement of the archeological heritage, cataloguing the properties, both protected and not, monitoring the state of conservation. |
| Rehabilitate the Siwa House | Reorganize and promote the Siwa Museum hosted in a traditional house, restoring the structure, setting up the objects, updating the information, opening a showroom for traditional handicraft and promotional material. |
| Share information | Organize seminars regarding the safeguard and enhancement of the historical architectural and archaeological heritage, cultural heritage and traditional handicraft, creating a network of contacts and collaboration with other museums of the traditions present in both Egypt and Italy. |
| Support the Local Council | Offer technical support to the Local Council to develop the management structure and train the human resources. |
