Egypt Travel Deals

Enchanting Port City of El Alamein

2010-04-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

El Alamein is a beautiful historical town in north-eastern Egypt near the Mediterranean Sea. It is 326 kms northwest of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and 103 kms (64 mi) west of Alexandria. It is well connected by roads and railways to Alexandria.

The town was famous for being an oil shipping port. However, it has come up as a luxury tourist destination recently. The town has a pleasant weather all through the year. It has cold winters and warm to hot summers. The town’s relatively unpolluted and virgin environment lends a nice feel to the overall atmosphere. The beaches here are excellent and see lots of tourists each year. El Alamein is also very close to the Qattara Depression, which is an inland desert area below sea level.

The town is also a historical place where two of the most important battles of World War II were fought. The city hosts various British and German monuments from the World War II era. It also has graveyards of World War II soldiers and a war museum of relics from World War II.

You can find many good places to stay on the Mediterranean coast, north of El Alamein. Almost all rest-houses and hotels provide modern facilities.

El Alamein is great destination for beach holiday in Egypt
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See the Ancient Egyptian Remains at Edfu

2010-04-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

The town of Edfu is located on the west bank of the Nile River, some sixty miles south of Luxor. It is also supposedly the location of the mythological battle between the gods of Horus and Seth. The locals here worship Horus and the temple of Horus is the main tourist attraction. The temple has a beautiful sandstone Ptolemaic architecture.

Edfu has been inhabited since the ancient times, but the remains of the first few dynasties are not very well preserved. You can visit an ancient cemetery from the Old Kingdom, the temple of Karnak and many other interesting remains from the bygone era of Egypt. Edfu is a great destination if you wish to explore the Egyptian architecture.

Besides the temples, the remains of one of the seven small provincial step pyramids can be found 5 kms south of Edfu near the bank of Nile. The pyramid is made of rough reddish sandstone and is about 5.5 m in height. It is dedicated to King Huni of the Third Dynasty.

Edfu is a great destination if you are interested in the intriguing ancient Egyptian history. You can visit several ancient sites of great historical significance here.

(Image courtesy haemengine)

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Nabq – The Gateway to the Splendors of Red Sea

2010-04-13T04:42:00.000-07:00

Nabq is a scenic region in Sharm el Sheikh. It is a famous Red Sea diving destination and from here you can go to Ras Mohammed, Ras Om El Sid, the Straits of Tiran and wrecks of the Thistlegorm and Dunraven for an enchanting diving experience. You will also find a number of diving centres in the city where you can make reservations to go to any of these diving destinations.

You can also go for desert safaris from Nabq, if you are seeking desert adventure travel. The safari packages include camel and buggy safaris and also offer you a chance to view beautiful sunrises and sunsets of the desert.

You can also explore other modes of entertainment in Nabq like golf courses, casinos, discotheques etc. You can also charter a private boat and go on a small voyage in the Red Sea from Nabq. A private charter will allow you to freely decide where to go and what to do while on board, and makes the experience an even more enjoyable one.

Nabq also has many good luxury hotels and resorts for a comfortable stay. The weather in Nabq is quite hot in summers, but it is pleasant and warm in the winters.

(Image courtesy MichaelTyler)

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Aswan High Dam – Taming the Nile

2010-04-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Aswan High Dam in Egypt is one of the largest and most famous dams in the world. Located across the river Nile in the Upper Egypt, this colossal Dam is 11,811 feet long, 364 feet tall and 3215 thick at the base.

The Aswan Dam is not only the chief source of irrigation and electricity in Egypt, but it also offers magnificent views for the tourists. You can watch the large reservoir Lake Nasser, the power station and Kalabsha temple from the top of the 364 feet tall High Dam.

You can also visit the Temple of Isis at Philae, which is nearby. It was built by the Ptolemaic Kings over a long period of time. It is one of the most revered temples in Egypt occupying a large area of the island Philae. You will marvel at the large sized pylons in the temple and its beautiful scenic backdrop.

You have to go to Abu Simbel to see the historically important rock temples built in 1257 BCE. The temples were carved out of solid rock and dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Re and Re-Horakhte. You will be fascinated by the 119-feet wide façade, with four 67-feet huge figures of Ramses seated in front of it. Both the Temple of Isis and the rock temples were moved from their original sites, as they were submerged after the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

(Image courtesy upyernoz)

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Hurghada – A Place with Plenty of Sun and Sea

2010-04-12T04:42:00.000-07:00

Hurghada in the Red Sea is one of the most favorite tourist spots in Egypt. The attractions of the Red Sea, particularly the fish and coral reefs, have added to the appeal of Hurghada.

From Hurghada, you can take day trips to different places of interest. A must see place is Gebel Abu Dukhan or the Father of the Smoke Mountain, where you will see Roman Mons Porphyries. It was once a major quarry complex in the Red Sea Mountains and was excavated afterwards.

If you visit the Marine Biology Museum, you will find an amazing range of flora and fauna from the Red Sea. Rare animal species and plants have been exhibited here.

If you are a scuba diver, you must visit Shadwan Island, which is an ideal destination for scuba diving in the Red Sea.

The surroundings in Hurghada offer you a lot of sun and sea. You can have a nice time swimming, diving and snorkeling here.

From a non descript fishing village, Hurghada has become a seaside resort in the past ten years. If you are fond of water sports or just relaxing in the midst of beautiful seaside nature, you have to include Hurghada in your itinerary.

(Image courtesy shagy6six6)

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Umm Sid – Egypt’s Most Fascinating Diving Destination

2010-04-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

9:50 am

Umm Sid is located south of Na’ama Bay and is adjacent to Sharm El Moya. Its wonderful beach with coral reefs attract huge crowd of tourists round the year.

The unique topology of Umm Sid makes it an ideal site for snorkeling, diving, water sports and seafront hiking. The reef slopes down towards the sea up to 80 feet that can be accessed by a shore dive.

The most popular diving site at Umm Sid is The Temple. It is a huge cracked rock with a number of coral formations around it. You will enjoy diving in calm and crystal clear water in this fascinating setting.

There are several other exciting aquatic sites around Umm Sid. One of them is Fiasco, which is a wall of coral heads that slope down to the depth of 65 feet. Amphoras is another site where a cargo ship had sunk a few hundred years back. You can see the remains of the ship at a depth of 82 feet.

Besides the unique aquatic experiences, you can also spend some fun time with your kids at Fun Land Theme Park or check out the flora and fauna at the reserves of Ras Mohammed National Park.

A visit to Umm Sid will refresh you completely giving you the never before view of the life down under.

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Marsa Alam – Explore the Aquatic Beauty

2010-04-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

Marsa Alam is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea in eastern Egypt. From a little known fishing village, it has grown into one of the most popular seaside resorts in Egypt.

At Marsa Alam, you can have a great time diving and exploring the exotic coral reefs, playing beach games like volleyball and doing many other things. You can also go for a guided camel ride in the desert.

You can visit Elphinstone Reef, which has magnificent aquatic life. The big attraction of the place is creatures like hammerhead sharks, lion fish, moray eels and many other rare marine creatures. This is also an ideal diving destination.

You can also go to Samadai Reef or Dolphin House, which is a few hundred kms away from Marsa Alam. The place is ideal for swimming and snorkeling. You will find an assembly of dolphins here and it will be an experience of a lifetime swimming with them.

To make your trip even more interesting, you should spend a night on the coast in a hut made with bamboo and stone. Smoking shisha and watching belly dancing are some of the other entertainments offered on the beach.

(Image courtesy mattk1979)

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Sharm el Sheikh – A Rich History

2010-04-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Sharm El Sheikh has a shorter and yet a lot more interesting story than many of its counterparts across Egypt. Its history begins way back with it being the gateway to Jabal Musa, where Moses was handed down the Ten Commandments.

The city was invaded by Israel in 1956 and then again in 1967. It had to be restored to Egypt due to international pressures.

Having started from a remote Bedouin fishing village situated at the banks of the Red Sea Riviera, Sharm-el-Shiekh has now evolved into a full scale tourist destination. The commercialization of this small city situated at the Southern tip of Sinai Peninsula began with the Israeli occupation, who built new towns like Naama Bay and Ofira in addition to other tourist-oriented places around the bay.

When the city was handed back to Egypt in 1982, the government decided to convert it into a full fledged tourist spot to attract Europeans looking for a tropical experience close to home. The city has been nick-named the
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Temple of Mut

2010-04-10T04:42:00.001-07:00

Mut was considered the mother goddess the protector of Egypt in ancient times. Her most important temple is situated in Karnak. It is a beautiful site, primarily built by Pharao Amenhotep III though the later rulers also added to it.

The temple is spread in a wide area of 20 acres. It is ancient and in ruins but it gives a beautiful view of Luxor and the Nile River. There are many sphinxes in and around the temple, adding to its beauty. However, the temple is undergoing restoration and you can see the wild grass around it. The temple is not officially open yet to the tourists but you can get a special permission to enter it. Guards usually allow people inside if there is no excavation work going on at that moment.

The is situated to the south of the great temple of Amen-Ra, which led to various rituals being conducted that involved both the temples.

The
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The Sights Of Egypt

2010-02-15T03:35:00.000-08:00

Probably the most famous image of Egypt is the sole survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Pyramids of Giza still live up to more than 4000 years of hype. Their extraordinary shape, geometry and age render them somehow alien constructions; they seem to rise out of the desert and pose the ever-fascinating question, 'How were we built, and why?'.
Centuries of research have given us parts of the answer to this double-barrelled question. We know they were massive tombs constructed on the orders of the pharaohs by teams of workers tens-of-thousands strong. This is supported by the discovery of a pyramid-builders' settlement, complete with areas for large-scale food production and medical facilities. Ongoing excavations on the Giza Plateau are providing more and more evidence that the workers were not the slaves of Hollywood tradition, but a highly organised workforce of Egyptian farmers. During the season of the inundation, when the annual Nile flood covered their fields and made farm work impossible, the same farmers could have been redeployed by the highly structured bureaucracy to work on the pharaoh's tomb. The Pyramids can almost be seen as an ancient job-creation scheme, with the flood waters also making it easier to transport building stone to the site.
Egypt is on the list of the most popular places to visit and is certainly worth a trip to see and experience its wonders.

Egypt

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Egypt - Some History

2010-02-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C. and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to ready the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure
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Desert Tours

2010-02-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

The desert beckons but where and how will you go? I took a long time getting used to the idea that actually I could go anywhere in the desert. It is like the sea no one owns it and nothing stops you roaming in any direction. Nothing stops you except the need for water and fuel of some kind. I think it is best to think of the desert as a place where you walk. Certainly you can only experience its wonders when you are up close and personal with the sand and the rock. Driving and camel riding may get you to where you want to be but it will be your own legs that always complete both the outer and inner journey of a desert of quest. That said, the choice of transport depends on how deep you want to go into the desert and how much time you have. The tours listed below are a tiny fraction of what is possible. There purpose is to get you thinking. You can then start talking with guides and safari operators from a strong position of knowledge.

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