Egypt

Passports and Visas:
Non-Egyptian visitors arriving in Egypt are required to be in possession of a minimum 3 months valid passport. Entry visas may be obtained from Egyptian diplomatic and consular missions abroad or from the Entry Visa Department at the Travel Documents, Immigration and Nationality Administration (TDINA). It is, however, possible for most tourists and visitors to obtain an entry visa at any of the major ports of entry. Please check with the nearest Egyptian diplomatic mission for specific details and regulations relevant to your nationality.

Attractions& Excursions:
Egypt is a millenary country, at the crossroad of numerous civilizations. Its cultural heritage is visible everywhere. The majority of Egyptian historical attractions are, naturally located along the fertile Nile Valley, which was the cradle of the Egyptian pharaoh empire. But the vast Red Sea territory has been widely inhabited during the centuries, and has left a number of extremely interesting places to visit.
From Pharaoh emerald mines to Roman Empire quarries, to Coptic monasteries, Ottoman fortresses and Muslim shrines, the intriguing Eastern Desert and the awe-inspiring Sinai hide numerous attractions worth an excursion during a holiday in the Red Sea Riviera.

Among the “things to do” list of your Red Sea holiday agenda there are places full of history and beauty such as the imposing Ottoman fortress on Pharaoh’s Island in Taba, the serene and peaceful Coptic monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul, the remote and impressive Emerald Mines, the loneliness and richness of the temples of Serabit el Khadim, and, of course, the amazing heritage of Sinai, resonant of centuries of culture and religion, as well as the Monastery of St. Katherine and Mount Sinai.

Have a look at listings for each destination, to find out what ancient treasures await you during your holiday in the Red Sea Riviera.

Karnack Temples:
Luxor is the greatest open - air museum in the world, filled with the awe - inspiring monuments of ancient civilization. On the east bank of the Nile, in the city of the living, Luxor and Karnack temples greet the sunrise.
The Southern Temple, dedicated to the principal of Thebes Amon, was built by the New Kingdom Pharaoh Amenophis III and expanded over centuries by famous pharaohs including Ramses II, Tit, and also Alexander the Great. The grandeur of the edifice represents that of Thebes at its zenith
It was known to the ancient Egyptians as “lpet Reseyet”, the “Harem of the South”.

Classical Holidays to Egypt:
The classic tour of Egypt is mostly of ancient Egypt of the pharaohs, though most of the time these will also include some religious and Islamic sightseeing. The most common classic tour is usually 10 to 14 days, and generally includes Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, though not particularly in that order. Classical tours are often arranged with, or without a Nile Cruise.
Typically, such a tour will begin in Cairo, as that is the major airport from where most tourists enter Egypt. However, tours of the Cairo area are frequently split between the beginning and end of the trip. For example, a tour might cover the Giza Pyramids (Great Pyramid), as well as Saqqara (Step Pyramid) and even the Egyptian Antiquities Museum on the first day of the tour. Then, after traveling to Luxor and Aswan and returning to Cairo, tours will often visit the Citadel and Khan El-Khalili market in Islamic Cairo and the churches and Coptic museum in Old Cairo. Of course, the tours may not be in this specific order.

After the first day or two in Cairo, such tours usually move on to either Luxor or Aswan, usually by air but possibly by train. However, other forms of travel are often arranged, including bus travel. If this is the case, the bus may stop at antiquity sites along the way, such as some of the ancient sites near the Fayoum. The next leg of the tour usually begins in either Luxor or Aswan.
Luxor is often arranged as either a one or two day tour. In the morning, of Day-1 of a two-day stay, the tour visits the West Bank where many monuments and tombs are to be found, including some of the finest in Egypt. This usually takes place in the morning in order to avoid the heat of the afternoon. Then, one afternoon or one day will be reserved for the East Bank, where the Luxor and Karnack temples are located, as well as the excellent Luxor museum. Other activities might include a visit to the local bazaar.

For Aswan further south in Egypt, a day tour is usually sufficient for many, and may include visits to the Elephantine Island, St. Simeon>s Monastery, the unfinished Obelisk, the Nubian Museum, the High Dam and Phila Island, though time may not permit most standard tours to visit all of these sites. However, a frequent addition to the standard classical tour is the temples at Abu Simbel. This will usually add a day to the Aswan tour. Most tours fly to Abu Simbel and return the same day, leaving some of that time open to expand the tour to Aswan sites. Other less common tours may travel by bus to Abu Simbel, possibly with a stay at a local hotel there.

If, after Cairo, a tour first ends up in Luxor, the next destination will usually be Aswan, or if Aswan is the first stop, the next destination will usually be Luxor. The most common forms of transport between these two destinations are tour bus or Nile Cruise boat. While one may take a train or even fly between the two destinations, this is usually not done due to the antiquity sites such as the temples of Kom Ambo and Edfu, which are located between the two cities.

Religious Tours:
One might say that there are four different types of Religious Tours. The first type might be considered Islamic tours but is outside of the scope of most westernized tours. While westerners frequently visit a few ancient mosques, they usually do not plan an entire tour around Islamic monuments. The other three types of religious tours include the Holy Family Route, the Exodus Route and unstructured religious tours. Unstructured religious tours simply have no grand plan, such as following the Holy Family or Exodus Route. On the other hand, they may present a more balanced survey of all religious sites in Egypt, including those on both the Holy Family and Exodus Routes. Simply put, the Holy Family and Exodus tours attempt to follow the routes of these holy journeys, while unstructured religious tours may cover a spectrum of religious sites including both: Holy Family Route and Exodus Route. In any event, many such religious tours can and often do include visits to the most important pharaoh sites such as the Pyramids and the Egyptian Antiquity museum. Furthermore, unstructured religious tours and the Exodus tours will often include the Sinai, so even a short beach stay might be included.

Adventure and Specialty Tours:
Adventure and specialty tours are very often combined with a classical pharaoh tour, though they need not be, and in some specific cases, rarely are. However, some specialty tours are in fact classical tours with a twist. These types of tours vary considerably and it is not possible to name every variety available. However, they include:

Golfing Tours:
Golfing tours almost always include a classical element. This is not a traditional tour at all, so it is difficult to say what the normal tour will include. However, usually they include one or two courses in Cairo, then perhaps Luxor and possibly the Red Sea coast or the Sinai. Many such tours are set up for a morning or afternoon of Golf, with the remainder of the day spent on sightseeing. However, getting in a round of Golf in Egypt does not necessitate taking a golfing tour. A round of golf may be arranged at several locations on a classical tour, or for that matter most of any other type of tour, as there are now a variety of courses spread over Egypt.

Fishing Expeditions:
One may, of course, fish most anywhere along the Nile, and visitors will see Egyptians doing so even on the bridges and banks in Cairo. Due to the growing popularity and uniqueness lake nasser attracts people who practice fishing. Here, one may find some of the largest fresh water fish in the world, and there are regular fishing expeditions. Because Lake Nasser is just south of Aswan, fishing expeditions to the area may include some classical sightseeing, though often they will not.
While somewhat rare there are deep sea fishing opportunities in the Red Sea, though one must look around to find them. Specifically,there are deep-sea fishing boats in Hurdaga on the Red Sea coast and Nuweiba in the Sinai.

Bird Watching:
Bird watching has been more and more popular in Egypt, as the country lies on the migratory path of many species of birds. While birds may be found throughout the Nile Valley and the Sinai, the most popular areas appear to be near Aswan, and the Northern Sinai. Bird watching around Aswan is almost always accompanied with a classical tour, and may simply be an addition to a standard classical tour. However, there are few ancient monuments in the Northern Sinai, so these tours rarely involve a classical component.

Nature Tours:
Most commonly, nature treks occur in the Sinai and specifically in the mountainous region of middle southern Sinai. Actually, such treks in the Sinai Mountains are as much spiritually oriented as nature oriented.

Simple Holidays:
Simple holidays in Egypt are a European tradition dating back over 100 years, when people would visit Aswan and Luxor not for the antiquities, but simply to relax around a pool in a nice hotel and watch the traffic slip down the Nile. Obviously, it would be simple to include a classical element to such holidays, but many people who come to Egypt for this purpose have seen the sights before. They usually come for the warm, dry climate and they include mostly mature adults and families. A good example of a hotel that caters to these vacationers is the Movenpick Jolie Ville in Luxor, which is a complete resort including a golf course.

Classical Egyptian Tours:
To a large extent, Egyptian tours are not very complicated, but it can appear that way because of the seemingly thousands of companies offering them. With regards to Egypt, classical tours are basically antiquities tours that visit various sites in Egypt that have often been popular among tourists since classical times. Typical, classical tours almost all hit the same major spots, with minor tourist attractions making up their largest variations. Originating in Cairo due to the international airport there, one usually spends a few days either at the beginning, at the end or split between the beginning and end exploring Cairo’s heritage. From Cairo they go south, usually to Luxor or Aswan, but one way or the other visiting both cities. Sometimes they include a Nile Cruise in this arrangement. They will frequently visit a few of the other temples above Luxor, between Luxor and Aswan, and just below Aswan. Add-ons might also extend the tour further south to Abu Simbel or east for a short beach vacation at Hurghada, or across the Gulf of Suez to Sharm el-Sheikh, and perhaps some sightseeing at St. Catherine’s Monastery and Mount Sinai. Recently, many classical tours are also purchased with Alexandria add-ons. More exotic add-ons may carry tourists into the Western Desert, or the Eastern Desert, but all in all, the basic classical tour is not all that complicated. Yet, when looking from tour operator to another tour operator, there often seems to be a whole maze of confusing options for many people.
Take a look at what some of this really involves.

Full classical tours usually last from between four and 15 days. One can, of course, find shorter or longer tours. Shorter tours are common, but are generally very limited in scope. They may only visit the environs of Cairo, for example, and so they are not really full classical tours. They are, however, useful, mostly to people passing through Egypt on their way to someplace else, there on business or at a conference, or for people with limited time visiting from ocean cruise liners. Tours longer than 15 days are less common, as people simply do not have that much time. They must also either wish to have a very comprehensive tour of Egypt, or a special interest in some aspects of ancient Egypt to justify a longer tour.

On these tours, one usually has one or more tour leaders. Some tours will travel throughout Egypt under the same leader, and it is better to choose such a tour. Others may shift the tour leader’s responsibilities off between various regions. For example, there might be one tour leader in Cairo, another in Luxor and/or Aswan, and a third if, for example, on a Sinai addition. Economically, this makes some since, as the tour company does not have to pay for the guides’ travel, which would frequently be by air, and he may go home at night to his own home, rather than having to stay in a hotel with the group. Also, a tour leader who specializes in a specific region may be able to better deal with local hotels, restaurants, tourist authorities, etc.

On the other hand, not having one person on site and responsible for the tour throughout its stay in Egypt has at times caused some problems, though not all that frequently. The biggest complaint comes when a tour leader drops the ball, for example, being late to pick up the tourists at an airport as the group moves from one area in Egypt to another. This is, however, rare. It is perhaps more common, in fact, for larger tour operators to use multiple tour leaders. Smaller tour companies may in fact be led by the owner of the company, and this is particularly true for some foreign arranged tours, where the company selling the tour arranges for land services from a local Egyptian agency, but the tour is led by the company selling the tour from an outside country. It should also be noted that, in some instances, there may not be a visible tour leader at all. Sometimes, the guide will also be the on-site tour leader, while behind the scene is the tour operato’s offices, others monitor and control the tour. In fact, most of the time there will be employees of the tour company in the background monitoring and managing the tour.

All of this can seem complicated, and even more so due to the guides. For smaller companies, the tour guide may in fact also be the owner, as well as the tour leader. Even in the larger companies, the guide may act as both, with others managing the tour from the company’s home office. However, unless the company is very small, there will almost surely be more than one guide during a classical tour, though the guide will almost certainly be Egyptian. If the tour has been arranged from a foreign country, the leader may by foreign, but they must use local, licensed guides. And guides are usually specialized, meaning that they are not really equipped to provide tours to every location in Egypt. There is no obvious reason for this.

Smaller tour companies, or even larger tour companies who arrange more flexible tours could have a single guide. But for large tours, there is a time table. It’s not just that a guide must know most of the information about a single site, he or she must also be practiced in conducting the tour of a site in a very specific period of time. There is little margin of error. The guide will have practiced the speech to be given in every section of a specific site, and will have little time to deviate. They will have specific stopping points at each site, and a specific time at each.

In many respects, this is a good thing. One tourist complaint is when sites on an itinerary are, for some reason, skipped, and if the guide cannot maintain the schedule. This may very well mean missing the next stop on the tour. In a small, custom tour, where the traveler is somewhat more closer to the guide, this may be no problem if the tourist wants to linger at a specific place, while being informed that it may mean less time at the next. But in larger tours with 50 or more people, such arrangements simply cannot be made.

Location:
Northern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula
Geographic coordinates:
27 00 N, 30 00 E
Map references:
Africa
Area:
Total: 1,001,450 sq km
Land: 995,450 sq km
Water: 6,000 sq km
Area - comparative:
Slightly more than three times the size of New Mexico
Land boundaries:
Total: 2,665 km
Border countries: Gaza Strip 11 km, Israel 266 km,
Libya 1,115 km, Sudan 1,273 km
Coastline:
2,450 km
Climate:
Desert; hot, dry summers with moderate winters
Terrain:
Vast desert plateau interrupted by Nile valley and delta
Elevation extremes:
Lowest point: Qattara Depression -133 m
Highest point: Mount Catherine 2,629 m
Natural resources:
Petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc.
Natural hazards:
Periodic droughts; frequent earthquakes, flash floods, landslides; hot, driving windstorm called khamsin occurs in spring; dust storms, sandstorms
Geography:
Controls Sinai Peninsula, only land bridge between Africa and remainder of Eastern Hemisphere; controls Suez Canal, a sea link between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea; size, and juxtaposition to Israel, establish its major role in Middle Eastern geopolitics; dependence on upstream neighbors; dominance of Nile basin issues; prone to influxes of refugees
Nationality:
Egyptian(s)
Ethnic groups:
Egyptian 98%, Berber, Nubian, Bedouin, and Beja 1%, Greek, Armenian, other European (primarily Italian and French) 1%
Religions:
Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%, Coptic 9%, other Christian 1%
Languages:
Arabic (official), English and French widely understood by educated classes
Country name:
Conventional long form: Arab Republic of Egypt
Conventional short form: Egypt
Local long form: Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah
Local short form: Misr
Former: United Arab Republic (with Syria)
Government type:
Republic
Capital:
Cairo
Administrative divisions:
26 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Ad Daqahliyah, Al Bahr al Ahmar, Al Buhayrah, Al Fayyum, Al Gharbiyah, Al Iskandariyah, Al Isma’iliyah, Al Jizah, Al Minufiyah, Al Minya, Al Qahirah, Al Qalyubiyah, Al Wadi al Jadid, As Suways, Ash Sharqiyah, Aswan, Asyut, Bani Suwayf, Bur Sa’id, Dumyat, Janub Sina’, Kafr ash Shaykh, Matruh, Qina, Shamal Sina’, Suhaj
Independence:
28 February 1922 (from UK)
National holiday:
Revolution Day, 23 July (1952)
Currency:
Egyptian pound (EGP)
Exchange rates:
Egyptian pounds per US dollar - 5.725 (2006), 5.78 (2005), 6.1962 (2004), 5.8509 (2003), 4.4997 (2002)

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