Taba High Lights

Taba
The small town of Taba lies near the Israeli border, bounds the Egyptian coasts of the Red Sea to the north. In ancient times caravans following the Aqaba track stopped there owing to the presence of a freshwater well.

With it's five star hotels, Taba is a meeting of borders. It overlooks Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Major plans are currently taking place to promote this area as a tourism center. It has good restaurants and beach cafes.

The town used to be characterized by the structures of the Hotel Hilton Taba, which was built by the Israelis and subsequently sold to Egypt. In recent times Taba has become a significant tourist resort, owing to both the nearby International Airport of Nakab and the building of new hotels.

One of Taba's main attractions, Pharaoh's Island, is simply breathtaking. The island, surrounded by outstanding blue and turquoise water was once a Phoenician port. Later occupied by Crusaders and then taken under control by Sultan Salah El Din. The island and the castle remain intact. The reef around the island is popular with snorkels and divers alike.

Pharaoh's Island, sometimes called Coral Island, or Geziret Faraum, was originally built by Baldwin I, the King of Jerusalem. From the top of the fortress, one can see four countries, including Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Work apparently began on the fortress around 1116 AD.

The toponym “Taba” appeared for the first time only at the beginning of the twentieth century, and precisely in 1906, when the English marked out the eastern border between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire according to a line starting from Rafah, on the Mediterranean coast, and arriving at Taba, on the Red Sea. In more recent times, after Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982, Israel continued exercising control over Taba until 1989, when the border took on its present position.

Since1998, Taba and its surrounding region have been included in the protected areas of the Sinai Peninsula in order to preserve their naturalistic beauties. Among them is the Color Valley, rich in multicolored sandstone and now crossed by a large asphalt scenic road going towards El-Arish, a seaside resort of the Mediterranean Sea.

Alexandria ... High Lights

Alexandria

Known as “The Pearl of the Mediterranean”, Alexandria as the second largest city in Egypt has an atmosphere that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern, its ambiance and cultural heritage distance it from the rest of the country although it is only 225 km. from Cairo.

Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., Alexandria became the capital of Greco-Roman Egypt, its status as a beacon of culture is symbolized by Pharos, the legendry lighthouse that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The setting for the stormy relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Alexandria was also the center of learning in the ancient world. But ancient Alexandria declined, and when Napoleon landed he found a sparsely populated fishing village.

Blessed with a mild, pleasant climate and a string of exquisite beaches, Alexandria, nevertheless, is not merely a place to catch a fresh summer breeze. In fact, it is the city where ancient Greek history and modernization unite.

Montazah, located along the coast about 15 miles east of Alexandria’s old district along the Corniche, is where many of the modern Alexandrian hotels are located, as well as one of the elegant heritage hotels. Khedive Abbas II built the Salamlik as a residence. Here also is the magnificent Montazah Palace.

The Corniche is doted with Casinos built on stilts and rows of beach huts. The avenue here did not always exists, for until the 20th century, the areas remained fortified by a five mile long wall with towers which had protected the city since the 13th Century. In the early 1900s, a strip of land with a width of about 100 yards was reclaimed from the sea, and the area became popular with beach goers. That is no longer the case, but it remains a lively area of Alexandria.

On the western end of the Corniche near Silsila where the New Alexandria Library is located, the Shatby Tombs are said to be the oldest in Alexandria. Nearer the San Stefano area across the tram tracks is also the Royal Jewelry Museum.

Moving to Alexandria’s ancient Roman sights, you’ll be impressed by the variety of places to visit.

The Roman Theatre was probably a roofed theatre used for musical poignancies and passed on the inceptions carved on the seats. Nearby is also a bathhouse of the era. To the east is the Antiques District where dealers sell antiquities, books, old weapons and furniture. There is also the Attarine Mosque, which was once a church dedicated to Athanasius.

You can enjoy a wide variety of Pharonic, Ptolemaic, Roman and Christian antiquities at the Greco Roman museum. It consists of rare Greek and Roman relies and coins about 40,000 pieces from the 3rd century BC to the 7th century AD.

Pompey’s Pillar which is a column of red granite from Aswan that was erected in honor of the Emperor Diocletian, stands around 90 feet high.

Catacombs of Kom El Shokafa is an extensive three level funerary and chambers cut out of the rock to a depth of about 35 m. probably dating from the 2nd Century. The bottom level is flooded and inaccessible. It is a blend of Pharonic and Roman Graves together, but the areas that can be visited are impressive enough.

Qaitbay Fort was built in the 1480’s by Sultan Qaitbay, on the site of Alexandria’s ancient lighthouse (parts of the remains of the lighthouse can be seen in the construction of the old fort). The lantern and the top two stories fell around 700 AD according to many reports and the rest of the lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake around 1100. Located inside the fort is the Naval Museum, which contains artifacts from the Roman and Napoleonic battles.

Alexandria has, for long, been considered Egypt’s best nearby summer resort. Easily getting to the great city after a two-hour drive, Alexandria is the perfect place to get away and relax.

EL Giza High Lights...

El Giza

Giza, the capital of Giza Governorate, forms a unique suburb of Cairo on the River Nile. Together with Qalubeyya Governorate, and the eastern and southeastern parts of Cairo, the three parts are known as greater Cairo.

Stretching 18 km westwards from the Nile to the Pyramids, adjoining Dokki to the north and petering out into fields to the south, Giza covers some 4,700 square kilometers and is the third largest city in Egypt.

The word "Giza" is thought to be of Arabic origin that means "a crossing," alluding to the fact that it was where they crossed the Nile at the time of the Arab conquest. Giza’s historical involvement does not end here, as it happens to be one of Egypt’s richest governorates in ancient remains. It contains the largest number of pyramids-thirty in all; including the three great Pyramids,one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, as well as the great Sphinx. Giza also holds the site of Egypt’s first capital, Memphis, founded by the Pharaoh Narmer (Menes), founder of the first Dynasty and the unifier of the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt.

While not being the capital, Giza is home to most foreign embassies and government offices. Moreover, it has many luxurious apartment buildings along the Nile, making it a preferred residential area. All in all it is a vibrant city and an administrative, cultural, and commercial centre.

Cairo University, one of the Middle East’s most prominent universities, happens to be one of Giza’s landmarks. It was founded in 1908 and moved to its current location in 1924.

A number of major museums can also be found in Giza, such as the Zoological Museum, Botanical Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum and Muhammad Mahmoud Khalil Museum. Additionally Giza is home to one of the biggest and oldest zoos in the Middle East and the first media production city to be built in Egypt and the Middle East.

El Gouna ..High Lights

El Gouna
Spreading over 11km of the most pristine beaches, built on clusters of Islands surrounded by turquoise lagoons, and bordering the crystal waters of the Red Sea, lies El Gouna, 20 km from Hurghada and one of Egypt’s most exclusive destinations. El Gouna began with a romantic vision: friends, boats and a passion for the sea, gradually evolving into a fully comprehensive resort with luxurious villas, internationally-renowned hotel chains, a wide range of restaurants and a vibrant bustling night life, with a character and soul of its own.

The architecture of El Gouna with its pastel coloured domed buildings, was carefully designed to blend in with the surrounding environment, in marked contrast to the bright turquoise of the surrounding lagoons. “Kafr El Gouna”, or the downtown area and the heart and center of El Gouna, is independent from the big hotels and is unique in style due to the cluster of inner courtyards, alleyways and whitewashed domes that depict the traditional Egyptian rural architecture. The architects are Ramy El Dahan and Soheir Farid, who design in the style of Hasan Fathy, Egypt's most famous Architect. The kafr provides everything one would expect of a lively town: shops, art galleries, cafés, restaurants, bars, discotheques, a cinema, school, in addition to a travel agency, museum and aquarium. There is also a sufficient choice of hotels which vary from the deluxe five-star beach-front resort hotel to the small and quaint boutique hotel.

In short, this town has something for everyone, secluded beaches and exclusive hotels for those seeking a getaway, desert safaris, water skiing, parasailing, windsurfing, sailing catamarans and deep-sea fishing , and the world’s best diving for the adventurous, endless in-house entertainment for those traveling with their family, a great and bustling night life for fun seekers, even golf lovers can enjoy the picturesque and challenging golf courses of El Gouna.

Yet, in spite of the great facilities on offer, El Gouna provides much more than the sun, sand and sea and good hotel management, it is above all, a very active community with powerful infrastructure and extensive community support facilities, including a hospital, private airport, an international school , a nursery and even its own radio station, to serve the rapidly burgeoning community. All this has been done with great care for its surroundings, that “El Gouna” was voted the “most environmentally friendly resort in Egypt.”

Marsa Alam ...High Lights...!

Marsa Alam

Marsa Alam is situated 250 km south of the popular Red Sea resort of Hurghada, 280 km east of Edfu and about 135 km south of Quseir. This city, like most cities on the red Sea coast was initially a small fishing village, until it was opened up for international tourism, with plans to transform it into a world-class resort. The inauguration of an international airport early this year, will definitely attract more attention to this pristine, and unexplored haven on the Red Sea coast. Unquestionably, sun, sea and sand are the main attractions, available all year-round, coupled with a mild and sunny climate with virtually no rainfall. 80 km of Sandy beaches, surrounded by the turquoise, emerald and sapphire of the sea, provide a perfect setting for a relaxing, carefree vacation.

Not surprisingly, it’s particularly popular with watersports fans and divers drawn to its quiet offshore coral reefs and world-renowned sites such as Elphinstone Reef with its hammerhead sharks and unmatched wealth of marine life. The quantity and beauty of the fauna and flora of these waters can only be compared with the ones in other famous coral reefs in the world, in Australia, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean. Marsa Alam is also considered an ideal base for a fishing holiday, with conditions ideal for deep-sea fishing trips.

One of the unique features of this area is the virgin sea coast, lined with rich mangrove swamps, loved by marine and bird life. This is why a safari by jeep, horseback, camel or even quad bike, into the surrounding mountainous desert to explore oases or the long-abandoned goldmines, is one of the things not to be missed .

There are currently 3 hotels in the area, built with local materials to minimise negative impacts on the environment and to complement the unique environment of this area, with optimistic plans to develop the tourist infrastructure, to cope with the anticipated surge of travelers seeking the serene beauty of Marsa Alam

Luxor High Lights...!

Luxor

Once the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, Luxor lies about 670 km south of Cairo and contains the greatest achievements of Egyptian architecture. Here in a sort of open-air museum that occupies both banks of the Nile is the highest construction of monuments in ancient Egypt. One cannot write about Luxor, without going back in history, for insights about this unique and dramatic city.

For centuries the capital of the Egyptian Kingdom at the height of its splendour, ancient Thebes was proverbially famous for its wealth. It is the city which Homer in the IX canto of the Iliad referred to as “Thebes of the hundred gates”. Its importance started to emerge appreciably from the 10th dynasty onwards, for both political and spiritual reasons, until finally it became the capital of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (1550 BC - 1070 BC) for 500 glorious years and remained the country’s spiritual center for much longer, a capital whose glory still glowed in the memories of classical writers a thousand years after its decline. The god Amun, part of the triad, which also included Mut and Khonsu, was worshipped here with great pomp. Here the booty of foreign wars, tributes, and taxes poured into the coffers of the 18th and 19th dynasty pharaohs, each of whom surpassed his predecessor in the construction of grandiose temples to the god, creating a concentration of monuments that rivals that of any imperial city before or since. It is hence quite understandable why this city was named “Al-Uqsur”, derived from the Arabic word “Al-Qusur”, which means “The Palaces” in Arabic.

The Nile divides the old Egyptian Capital in two, on the eastern bank lie the great Luxor and Karnak temples dedicated to Amun, whilst on the western bank in a narrow gorge stretches the necropolis with the famous Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, the tombs of nobles and dignitaries and the great funerary compounds. Thebes of the dead comprises splendid funerary temples and vast hypogea (underground chambers) dug from twisting canyons. For an unforgettable experience you can view these awe-inspiring monuments from a hot-air balloon. From Luxor you can take Nile cruises south to Aswan, visit the magnificent temples in Kom Ombo, Edfu, Esna, Dendara and Abydos, take tours to the first Oasis in the Western Desert or head to Hurghada on the Red Sea. Luxor is a small town, ideal for walks - whether along the Nile promenade or through the innumerable little streets with their countless souvenir stands. Shopping is also something you shouldn’t miss here, with silver, gold, cotton goods, leather goods and spices among the best bargains to be had. Luxor has an international airport and is accessible from Cairo by buses or trains which run every day.

Luxor has attracted tourists and treasure hunters along its history, who camped in or around the tombs and temples, or stayed on board their sailing boats, and today with more tombs and temples uncovered, more tourists eager to visit them, more hotels needed to accommodate them, Luxor hosts numerous luxurious hotels and Nile cruises catering to every taste and offering tourists unforgettable experiences.

Hurghada High Lights...

Hurghada

Once similar to many of the other littler sea ports and fishing villages along the eastern coastline, Hurghada has developed into Egypt's major Red Sea resort, catered by a growing number of hotels and self-contained beach-side holiday villages, with a wide and excellent variety of facilities.

The warm shallow sea with its numerous coral reefs and abundant variety of fish attracts countless diving and fishing enthusiasts to Hurghada. The brilliant marine life can be explored by all, from casual snorkelest to experienced divers. Both national and international diving instructors are on hand to provide introductory, courses and to take the more seasoned campaigners to deep drop-off zones and under-water caverns. If your are not a diving enthusiast, you can nevertheless enjoy the view of the fascinating coral reefs and the abounding marine life on board one of the numerous bottom glass boats. Due to unmatched sea clarity Hurghada also attracts a lot of both professional and amateur underwater photographers. Besides diving, Hurghada, with its perfect weather all year round, is also an international centre for water sports : swimming, sailing, water-skiing, and windsurfing. Other than water sports, hotels and resorts offer a full complement of sports activities, from tennis and squash to beach volleyball and basketball. Hurghada is also home to the International Hurghada Squash Championship, hosting the top squash players in the world .

There are around 25 small islands around Hurghada offering excellent getaways to travelers wishing to escape to private, secluded beaches. Excursions can also be made into the desert hills to Roman Mons Poryphyrites remains at Gebel Abu Dukhan ( Mountain of the Father of Smoke), 65 km north of Hurghada. Adventure seekers should try the thrill of dune driving, by taking four wheel drive vehicles to the countless sand dunes and try to put their driving skills to the test. Sand-surfing is also one of the experiences not to be missed! To get a more intimate feel of the beauty of the desert, go on a safari by four wheel drive vehicles or by camels and camp overnight in the heart of the majestic Red Sea mountains.

With guaranteed sunshine all year, golden sandy beaches, and warm turquoise water, Hurghada is an ideal place for travelers wishing to unwind and recharge their batteries. Hurghada is serviced by regular flights to and from Cairo and is accessible by a 528 km road journey Via Suez. A good road connects Hurghada with Luxor. This 280 km journey takes about four hours and combines the spectacular scenery of the eastern desert with the lush rural setting of the Nile.