Egypt’s history spans 7000 years and is
reflected in its monuments, temples, and towns. The country is a
combination of both ancient and modern civilizations with first -
class conference and tourism facilities side-by side with
monuments of Egypt’s glorious past.
Pyramids,
churches, mosques, and museums are spread all over the capital
city of Cairo. A comfortable blend of the old and the new is
found on both sides of the famous Nile. On the Western side, at
the edge of the desert plateau stands the symbol of the great
Pharaohs, the Pyramids of Giza. Designated by the World, they
stand today as they did thousands of yeas ago, still guarded by
the legendary Sphinx.
On the Eastern side, high in the center of the
Old City, is the Citadel of Salah El Din. Crowning the old
section of Cairo, the Citadel reigns over an area that hosts some
of the world’s most beautiful Islamic sites. Visiting this area
one plunges into a living museum.
A touch of the Middle Ages can be found in the Khan El Khalili
Bazaar, Al Hussien Mosque and the Islamic Museum. This is also
the site of the world’s oldest university, Al Azhar, which is
open now for over a thousand years.
Near
the Citadel, on the bank of the Nile, lies the old Christian
sector of the city, Coptic Cairo. With numerous ancient
churches, some dating to the time of the Holy Family’s flight
into Egypt, Coptic Cairo offers the visitor a unique insight into
the early years of Christianity.
More than 100,000 objects are on display in the Egyptian Museum,
which is located in the center of Cairo. The museum also holds
the full collection of King Tutankhamen.
The warm-hearted hospitality of the Egyptians, Egypt’s moderate
and sunny climate, the beautiful beaches and luxurious hotels
combine to give the visitor a taste of a unique lifestyle.
In modern Cairo, many forms of entertainment are available.
Nightclubs and discos, with both Arabic and Western programs,
stay open until the early hours of dawn. Restaurants and cafes
offer cuisine of different nationalities. Shops of every type
line the streets and boulevards, inviting the visitor to sample
Egypt’s own products as well as imported goods.
Important Links
Egypt Attractions
Cairo - City of the Thousand Minarets
Cairo is the largest city in Africa and Egypt's most
populous city. Its official name is Al-Qahira, although the name
informally used by most Egyptians is "Masr" (Egyptian Arabic name
for Egypt), from the original name of Egypt's first Arab capital
Fustat, Misr al-Fustat, "City of the Tents". The capital of the
Arab Republic of Egypt has a population of about 7.7 million
people, while its metropolitan area encompasses about 17.285
million people, making it the sixteenth most populous
metropolitan area in the world.
Aswan
Aswan is where Egypt travelers go for
relaxation, besides shopping and sightseeing. About 680 km (425
miles) south of Cairo, just below the Dam and Lake Nasser, Aswan
is the smallest of the three major tourist cities based on the
Nile. You feel you have reached Africa (as most westerners
imagine the continent), mainly because it has a large population
of Nubian people, mostly resettled from their homeland in the
area flooded by Lake Nasser.
The area is rich in granite quarries exploited
since antiquity. Most of the obelisks seen in Luxor were sourced
from Aswan. And speaking of rocks, there's Elephantine Island, so
called because its huge dark smooth rocks resemble the skin of
elephants.
The Pyramids of Giza
The Giza pyramids are located some eight km inland into
the desert from the old town of Giza on the Nile, some 20 km
southwest of Cairo city center.
Of the three principal Giza pyramids, only
Khafre's pyramid retains part of its original polished limestone
casing, towards its apex.
Saqqara
The Step Pyramid of Djoser was built for the burial of
Pharaoh Djoser by his Vizier Imhotep. It was constructed during
the 27th century BC at the Saqqara necropolis to the northwest of
the city of Memphis.
This first Egyptian pyramid consisted of six
mastabas (of decreasing size) built atop one another in what were
clearly revisions and developments of the original plan. The
pyramid originally stood 62 meters tall and was clad in polished
white limestone. The stepped pyramid (or proto-pyramid) of King
Djoser is considered to be the earliest large-scale stone
construction.
Alabaster Mosque
The Alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali is the most popular
Islamic mosque among Egypt travelers, because of its grandeur and
its location at the Citadel in Cairo, making it the most visible
of Islamic monuments in Cairo. It was built during the first half
of the 19th century. Muhammad Ali Pasha, viceroy and effectively
king of Egypt, is buried here.
Philae Temple
The
Philae Temple was constructed over a three-century period, by the
Greek Ptolemaic dynasty and the Roman Principate. The principal
deity of the temple complex was Isis, but other temples and
shrines were dedicated to her son Horus and the goddess Hathor.
In Ptolemaic times Hathor was associated with Isis, who was in
turn associated with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. For centuries
the Philae temple complex was the holiest site for Isis
worshippers. The temple was officially closed down in the 6th
century A.D. by the Byzantine emperor Justinian. It was the last
pagan temple to exist in the Mediterranean world. Philae was a
seat of the Christian religion as well as of the ancient Egyptian
faith. Ruins of a Christian church were still discovered, and
more than one adytum bore traces of having been made to serve at
different eras the purposes of a chapel of Osiris and of Christ.
The Philae temple was converted into a church dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, until that was closed by Muslim invaders in the 7th
century.
Dahab
Dahab is a small village situated on the south eastern
coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Formerly a Bedouin fishing village,
most visitors have been backpackers traveling independently and
staying in hostels in the Masbet area. In recent years, new
international chain-hotels in the Medina area and the
construction of other facilities have made it a popular tourist
destination. The nearest international airport is located at
Sharm el-Sheikh.
The word Dahab is Arabic for gold and is
possibly a reference to the geographic locality. Gold washed down
from the desert mountains may have accumulated on the alluvial
flood plain where the town was built. The name may also be a
reference to the color of the sands to the south of the town
itself.
Alexandria
Alexandria is Egypt's second largest city and the
country's window on the Mediterranean Sea.
The city is a faded shade of its former
glorious cosmopolitan self, but still worth a visit for its many
cultural attractions and memories of a glorious past. It remains
an important city, as Egypt's chief seaport on the Mediterranean
and a home to at least 3.5 million Egyptians.
Alexandria was the eponymous foundation (in 334
BCE) of the Macedonian conquerer Alexander the Great (Iskander
al-Akbar), a rival of Rome in its heyday, and the world's
greatest center of learning for millennia, now a dusty seaside
Egyptian town with an over-inflated population of 5 million. The
French-style parks and the occasional.
Luxor
Luxor is the premier travel destination in Upper
(southern) Egypt and the Nile Valley. In antiquity, the city,
known as Thebes by the greeks, was the dynastic and religious
capital of Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom Egypt. Today, it has
much to offer the traveler, from vast temples, to ancient royal
tombs, via spectacular desert and river scenery and a bustling
modern life.
The modern city of Luxor is on the East bank.
This area has the train and bus stations, most of the hotels and
restaurants, some museums, tourist shops and so on.
Visitors usually stay on the East bank and
travel across to the West bank of the Nile, where most of the
pharaonic attractions are.
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Valley of the Kings
Soon after the defeat of the Hyksos and the
reunification of Egypt under Ahmose I, the Theban rulers realized
the need for a new royal necropolis.The idea of pyramid tombs was
abandoned, robberies being one principal reason. A valley on the
west bank was chosen as an appropriate area where the new tombs
could be excavated underneath in the limestone and protected from
ransackers. This valley, presently known as the Valley of the
Kings is under the shadow of impressive cliffs and the tallest
peak, Al Qurn, is shaped naturally as a pyramid. The area is both
attractive for its natural beauty and the sheer quantities of
archaeological wonders discovered there and yet to be found.
Abu Simbel
Abu
Simbel is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock
temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser
about 290 km southwest of Aswan. It is part of the UNESCO World
Heritage Site known as the "Nubian Monuments", which run from Abu
Simbel downriver to Philae (near Aswan).
The twin temples were carved out of the
mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II in the 13th
century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen
Nefertari, to commemorate his alleged victory at the Battle of
Kadesh, and to intimidate his Nubian neighbors. The complex was
relocated in its entirety in the 1960s to avoid being submerged
during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water
reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan dam on the river
Nile. Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's top...
Hurghada
Since the 1980s, Hurghada has become the principal
bathing resort on the Red Sea, visited by American, European and
Arabs. Holiday villages and first class hotels provide excellent
aquatic sport facilities.
What used to be a small fishing village is now a fully developed
resort that stretches for about 40 km along the Red Sea shore,
attracting package holiday tourists mostly from Europe, notably
Russians, Czechs and Germans. Many restaurants, bars and shops,
small pubs and internet cafes are available all over Hurghada.
Known as a party town, with its many clubs,
life in Hurghada begins at night. Nearly every hotel has its own
disco. The most famous ones at the moment are "Calypso" and
"Papas Beach". Renowned for belly dancing, Arabic and
Sharm-el-Sheikh
Sharm-el-Sheikh's
major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its
dramatic landscape, year-round dry and temperate climate and long
stretches of natural beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for
most of the year and have become popular for various watersports,
particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkeling (which many
consider to be among the best in the world). Coral reefs, under
water and marine life, unmatched anywhere in the world, offer a
spectacular and dazzling time for divers. There is wide room for
scientific tourism with diversity in marine life species - 250
different coral reefs and 1000 species of fish.
The Red Sea Coast
Egypt's Red Sea coast is famed for its crystal clear
blue waters and exotic marine life, attracting thousands of
tourists yearly. The reputation is well deserved - in 1989, an
international panel of scientists picked the north part of the
Red Sea as one of the Seven Underwater Wonders of the World. The
sea carries over 800 fish species, including the lethal stonefish
and butterfly fish as well as shark and over 200 coral species.
In addition, the shores of the sea are visited by thousands of
migrating birds every year and bird watchers are bound to have a
good time here.
Beni Hasan
Beni Hasan is a small village and an important
archaeological locality in Middle Egypt, some 20 km south of the
city of Minya. Located on the eastern bank of the river Nile, the
small but interesting site consists of cliff-hewn tombs
overlooking the river valley with truly magnificent views in both
directions. During the Middle Kingdom, it was the centre of the
cult of Pakhet.
There are 39 ancient tombs here of Middle
Kingdom nomarchs of the Oryx nome, who governed from Hebenu. Due
to the quality of, and distance to the cliffs in the west, these
tombs were constructed on the east bank, but are otherwise
similar to other Middle Kingdom tombs.
Abydos
Abydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt,
about 11 km (6 miles) west of the Nile. The Egyptian name was
Abdju, "the hill of the symbol or reliquary," in which the sacred
head of Osiris was preserved. The Greeks named it Abydos, like
the city on the Hellespont; the modern Arabic name is el-'Araba
el Madfuna.
Considered one of the most important
archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, the sacred city was the
site of many ancient temples, including a royal necropolis where
early pharaohs were entombed. Abydos became notable for the Great
Temple built by Seti I, which contains a tunnel displaying a
chronological list showing cartouche names of every dynastic
pharaoh of Egypt from the first, Narmer/Menes, until the pharaohs
of the last dynasty.
Ecotourism in the Desert
Where the irrigated fertile valley of the Nile changes
abruptly into the barren Red Land, called "dashur" in Ancient
Egypt, wonderful treasures await the adventurous traveler who
dares enters into a spiritual journey of individual contact with
nature in magnificent total isolation.
Not many tourists ever venture into the desert
to witness the spectacular natural wonders of Egypt. Perhaps this
is a blessing, since large scale tourism often carry a negative
impact. Jonathan Tourtellot, from National Geographic Traveler
magazine, has coined the term "geotourism" to describe a form of
"tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of
a place—its environment, heritage, aesthetics, culture, and the
well-being of its residents."
Siwa
Oasis
The Siwa Oasis is located between the Qattara
Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert,
approximately 50 km east of the Libyan border, and some 560 km
from Cairo.
About 80 km in length and 20 km wide, it is one
of Egypt's most isolated settlements, home to about 23,000
people, the majority of whom are ethnic Berbers who speak a
distinct language known as Siwi. Agriculture is the main
activity, primarily the growing of dates and olives.
Dendera
Dendera is an archaeological locality in Egypt
just outside the town of Qena (62 km north of Luxor) in the
region of Middle Egypt.
The modern Arab town is built on the ancient
site of Ta-ynt-netert which means 'She of the Divine Pillar', or
Tentyra which is Greek for Dendera. It was the capital of the
sixth nome or province of pharaonic Upper Egypt, also named
Nikentori or Nitentori, which signifies willow wood or willow
earth. Others give the derivation from the sky and fertility
goddess Hathor, also associated with Aphrodite, who was specially
worshiped there. The crocodile is recognized as the deity of the
city and was also venerated as such in other Egyptian cities,
which caused many quarrels, notably with Ombos.
Amarna
The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or
incorrectly as Tell el-Amarna) is located on the east bank of the
Nile River, some 58 km (38 miles) south of the city of al-Minya,
312 km (194 miles) south of the Egyptian capital Cairo and 402 km
(250 miles) north of Luxor. The site includes several modern
villages, chief of which are el-Till in the north and el-Hagg
Qandil in the south.
