This tholos tomb with stone dome, the largest known, was plundered in antiquity. An access passage (dromos), bordered by a peudo-isodome wall, leads to a façade 10.5 metres (34 feet) high. The door opens on to a rotunda, 14.6 metres (48 feet) in diameter and 13.5 metres (44 feet) high, with a masonry domed vault of 33 regular courses; some blocks bore a metal decoration, probably of 'patera' form. This door has a pyramidal shape which is also found in Egypt, and which reappears in classical architecture. The lintel is made up of two enormous blocks; the inner one weighs about 120 tons. The void triangle above it is characteristic of Mycenaean architecture: it serves to deflect the thrusts of the upper part of the building on to the supports of the door...No other Mycenaean building can boast such exact stone cutting, nor such refined proportions; not for another 1,000 years in Greece was such technical perfection put at the service of such a grandiose architectural design."

Olympia is one of my favorite’s archaeological sites in all of Greece. You can almost feel the magic of the ancient Olympic Games and service as you stroll around the ruins.

The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC and reached their height of popularity in 576 BC. The festival was open to only Greek born men but later Romans were allowed to compete most likely because they were running the country by then. Slaves and women were not even allowed to be spectators and women caught sneaking in were thrown off a cliff. The events included foot races, wrestling, discus, javelin, long-jump, horse and chariot racing, and a type of boxing called pancratium. There were not only athletic events but also writing, poetry and history readings, plus business transactions and treaties were made between leaders of city-states.

Meteora is an area in Thessaly (Central Greece) and Kalampaka is the city under

the rock towers of Meteora. The thing that makes Meteora so special is the monasteries on the top of the rock towers. The monasteries, the amound of peaks to climb and the paths for hiking brings in Meteora the whole year many tourists.

The Delphi Museum is situated right next to the ancient site of Delphi, and is a fascinating museum, filled with truly remarkable artifacts, statues and findings from excavations that have taken place in the site of Delphi. The main building of the museum is a shining white marble structure that is very modern, considering the ancient site next door that dates back thousands of years.

On approaching the museum from the walk from the entrance/exit of the archaeological site, you will follow a small path that passes through several relics and tombs located outside of the museum.

Rhodes (Rhodos or Rodos in Greek), lies between Crete and the near East in the Aegean ocean. Rhodes is the biggest of the Dodecanese islands. Named the sun island or island of light there are hardly any days when the sun doesn't shine. With its subtropical climate and over 3.000 hours of sun per year you can be guaranteed a good tan on your holiday. Rhodes is one of the most popular holiday islands in Greece - even Greeks themselves come to Rhodes for a holiday from the mainland.

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Greece Tour Guide

This article is a complete guide to Greece, Greece Tour guide, travel and a Greece Hotels guide. It proposes travel information too many areas/islands and also hotels and other sort of accommodations.

Most of the people choose holidays in Greece for the many beautiful landscapes and the long sandy beaches of every island with crystal clear waters. Some are considered as top world's beaches. Greece (and the Greek Islands) is a country that has amazing things to offer to the visitors. One of the main attractions of the country is the many Greece beaches decorating its coasts. There are long white sandy beaches with turquoise crystal waters, small beaches surrounded by huge cliffs or pine and palm trees forests, beaches with waters that seem to have had their blue color mixed with bleach, creating an amazing shade. All the beaches of Greece have their own beauty and charm. These are some of the beaches that our team and public opinion consider as of the most beautiful.

Santorini is the top holiday destination in Greece and was voted in 2005 as the second top destination worldwide! The island is characterized by its charming villages perched on the top of impressive cliffs. Greece is the favorites holidays destination for many Europeans and attracts every year millions of visitors. Greece is a country of natural beauty and charm which has everything to offer to the visitors.

Greece is the country where you travel dreams come true. This is the place of everyone's dream, in most cases every trip you make is a travel in itself. This is the place where our intimates lived and till now you can feel their feelings wandering through the magnificent traces left by the ancient Greek civilization. Athens - the capital of Greece is one of the most visited place in Greece. Athens is remarkable by the big number of the monuments and the greatest historical place such as Acropolis, Parthenon and many more. Greece is known as the place of birth of the Olympic Games - always during the Olympics all the wars stopped.

On the other hand for those who might want of touring Greece independently and in a more free style way we can offer all Greece tour packages and many other tours with a custom tour option. For further details please contact our tour reservations center.

So ask us! We want your trip to Greece to be the travel memory of a lifetime. Office Hours: Monday - Friday 09:00 AM - 06:00 PM; T: (973) 636-6660; F: (973) 636-6668

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Greece Travel Tips

Climate/Clothing:

Bring comfortable rubber soled walking shoes (recommended for all archaeological sites), a sweater, clothes you can layer, and an all-weather coat. On cruises, informal dress is the general rule, with some occasions requiring cocktail attire. Most religious sites and places of worship do not permit shorts and sleeveless shirts. Wrap-around skirts and shawls are available on site.

Spring: 60-80F; Summer: 85-95F; Autumn: 60-80F; Winter: 40-50F.

Currency:

Greek currency is the Euro. Notes are issued in values of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100; and coins 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cents.

Banks:

Banks are open Monday thru Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Likewise, you may find exchange offices throughout Greece, many of which are open from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. The exchange rate in Greece is regulated by the local government, and there is very little difference between exchange offices and banks.

ATM machines are abundant in Athens and other major cities, but they are located only in DLX hotels in Athens. In smaller towns and on the Islands they are few, and most are located in the town center, so be sure to make sufficient cash withdrawals while in town.

Traveler's Checks are not widely accepted, and may only be cashed in banks and by the holder. Most major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) are accepted, though not preferred, in small local restaurants and shops. Cash is the most common and widely accepted form of payment. Credit cards should only be used in large restaurants and never when the bill total is small.

Dining Out:

A service charge which covers the server's tip is included in your meal price. It is customary, however, to leave a small additional amount for good service (5%). You will also find a separate service charge on your bill ranging from Euro 1.00 to 3.00 per person, which is the restaurant's fee for table service (plates, flatware, and sometimes bread).

City Transportation:

The traffic in Athens is heavy, practically all day long. Although buses are available in sufficient numbers, taxis are the principal Athenian mode of transportation, and are thus, hard to come by. Between midnight and 6:00 a.m. cab fares double. Taxis' start their meters at Euro 1.00, and adding supplemental charges, the minimum cost to ride will be Euro 2.50. The maximum number of passengers per taxi is 4, and it is customary for people to share taxis. You can flag down a taxi that is carrying other passengers just as a taxi can pick up other passengers along your ride. Taxis may be ordered by your hotel staff for an additional Euro 4.00. In many cases, this is the easiest way to get a taxi.

Subway System:

The Metro is a safe, simple and affordable way to get around Athens. A single ticket cost only Euro 0.80. A Metro map will be provided to you upon arrival.

Health Precautions:

No inoculations are necessary when arriving in Greece from the U.S.; however, it is suggested that you consult your local health care provider before traveling.

Tap Water:

While tap water in Athens and on the islands is safe to drink, we recommend you purchase bottled mineral water. Such purchases can be made at hotels, shops, cafes, restaurants, and kiosks. Your stomach may still become upset due to the change in diet, especially if you have a sensitive stomach. Bring anti-diarrhea medicine just in case.

When visiting archaeological sites, we recommend you carry a good supply of bottled water as it is not readily available on site and the sun is very hot during the day.

Conservation/Code of Conduct:

Visitors to Greece will find the Greeks very much in tune with their historical and cultural heritage. Traditions and customs differ throughout Greece, but overall, a strong sense of citizenship prevails. The Greek Orthodox Church holds traditional influence on the Greek way of life, especially in more rural areas. The throwing back of the head is a negative gesture, and dress is generally casual.

Departure Tax:

There are currently no departure taxes in Greece.

Electricity:

The electric current in Greece is 220 Volts, the U.S. uses 120 volts. You will need an adapter for conventional appliances as well as a converter. Some hotels have a limited number available, however, you can purchase a converter and transformer at your local hardware store prior to traveling.

Language:

Greek is the local language. Limited English is generally spoken as well. English is spoken by cruise staff.

Religion:

The official religion is Greek Orthodox. You can recognize Orthodox churches by their characteristic Byzantine domes.

Local Emergency Phone #

General Emergency: 112, Ambulance/Medical: 166, Fire: 199, Police: 100 

Smoking Regulations:

There are very few non-smoking regulations in Greece. The ferries do have non-smoking sections, but they are not separated from the smoking sections by any visible barrier. All lounges on board cruise ships are divided into smoking and non-smoking areas, while the dining room is strictly non-smoking.

Tipping:

Gratuity is a matter of personal discretion. Although most bills do not include a service charge, it is customary to tip in restaurants and other places that cater to tourists.

Luggage:

Please visit http://www.right-travel.com/page.php?id=9 for luggage guidelines and Important Baggage Information for U.S. Travelers. When traveling on ferries, be advised that you will have to carry your own luggage, as there are no porters available.

Changing of the Guard Locations and Time Specifics Athens:

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located in front of the Greek Parliament Building at Suntagma Square. The Changing of the Guard ceremony occurs every hour, with a rotation on the half hour. The official ceremony takes place every Sunday at 11:00 a.m.

Shopping:

Although most people visit Greece for its historical sites, interesting souvenirs and artifacts abound. Most department stores and boutiques are open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday hours are 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

You will find souvenir shops throughout the city, many near Syntagma Square and in the Plaka area. Their hours are 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. daily. On Kolonaki Square and Ermou Street you will find the famous designer boutiques and popular local shops. There are souvenir shops on board cruise ships as well

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Spain Travel Guide

Did you know that Spain is one of the most popular destinations in Europe for golfing? Playing a few rounds in this country is a smart choice: good weather, excellent golf courses, and a variety of settings, first-class cuisine, culture and entertainment. Spain boasts long stretches of sandy beaches and once you leave the spurious glitz of the tourist resorts, you'll find the real Spain which shimmers to the strum of flamenco guitars.

Spain is more than bullfights, flamenco dancers and crowded beaches. It's a spectacular and diverse country, the north resembling the rolling, green hills of Ireland and the south giving you a taste of Moroccan landscapes and architecture. Its tremendous history is reflected in its prehistoric cave paintings, Moorish palaces, crumbling castles, Roman ruins, Gothic and Renaissance cathedrals as well as some very distinctive modern architecture. The season of festivals and fiestas is revving up to full throttle, from streets carpeted in flowers to films-by-the-sea, from the running of the bulls to concerts and ballet in the gardens of the caliphs.

Spanish people are very open-hearted and communicative. You won't have any problems to get to know someone, especially in the big cities like Madrid or Barcelona. It's often said that the Spanish living room is the bar where the people usually spend a lot of time in the mornings and in the evenings. If you like the countryside, then you will love “Green Spain”. The Regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country are home to some of the most valuable and best-conserved ecological areas in Europe. Contrasting landscapes, salt water rivers, endless green.

The north and east of Spain has its own special appeal. The north, central and north east of Spain, in the areas of Castile and Aragon are where the "Catholic Monarchs", Isabel the 1st and Fernando the 2nd of Aragon, ruled and engaged in the "Reconquest of Spain". The east of Spain holds the modernistic architecture of Barcelona, the ultra modern architecture of Valencia and the upcoming community of Zaragoza, not to mention numerous walled cities that retain much of their middle age character.

Right Travel offers you the highest quality and most economical tours in the market. Our daily goal is to deliver the best value and exceptional service to our family of travelers, we treat each customer as a unique individual with unique travel needs. Our enthusiasm of excellent service, innovative tours and competitive prices will make your vacation a valued and pleasurable experience.

So ask us! We want your trip to Spain to be the travel memory of a lifetime. Office Hours: Monday - Friday 09:00 AM - 06:00 PM; T: (973) 636-6660; F: (973) 636-6668

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The Royal Palace in Madrid (Palacio Real in Spanish) is the administrator residence of the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, though he doesn't live here himself. Though there has been royal residence of some kind on this spot for one thousand years, the present building dates back to the eighteenth century. The Royal Palace houses a huge collection of classical Spanish art from such luminaries as Goya and Velazquez - if you've done Madrid's other great museums such as the Prado and the Thyssen, this should be the next on your list if it's classic art you're after.

Europe has many outstanding art museums, but Madrid's El Prado Museum has to be rated as one of the very best. Originally built to be a science museum at the end of the 17th century. The Prado Museum is renowned as being the largest art gallery in the world. It also exhibits sculptures, drawings, coins and other works of arts, but it is certainly its large collection of paintings which has given it fame worldwide. It houses more than 8,600 paintings, of which they exhibit less than 2,000 because of lack of space available. Many museums throughout the world have less artistic riches in their halls than the Prado Museum has in storage. The Prado Museum maintains the art collection of Fernando VII and other royals.
The present day art gallery comes from the royal collections of the old Trinidad Museum, as well as acquisitions, donations and bequests.

El Escorial, royal fortress 43 km (27 mi) northwest of Madrid, found in the 16th century by Philip II of Spain. It incorporates a cathedralesque church, a monastery, a school, and a famous library, and reflects the deeply pious outlook of its founder. The vast complex, said to contain 160 km (100 mi) of corridors, was constructed between 1563 and 1584.
This palace structure was started after the Reconquista, the reconquering of Spain performed by the Christian kings, started. This adds to its aura. While the illiterate Christians were advancing, Spain reached its highest cultural level ever, but under the Muslim rulers. The slender structure of Alhambra, the breathtaking details, the celebration of life, the mixture of nature in men's design, all underline what disaster the return of Christianity in Spain was to be for centuries to approach.

Founded in 1203, the Sinagoga de Santa Maria La Blanca is nearly two centuries older
The synagogue was designed and decorated by Mudejar architects  and the Islamic influence is readily apparent. The white interior features graceful horseshoe arches, ornamental horizontal moldings, and a forest of pillars supporting capitals of enchanting filigree workmanship. Stormed in the early 15th century by a Christian mob led by St. Vincent Ferrer and converted into a church, the synagogue was later used as a carpenter's workshop, a store, a barracks, and a refuge for reformed prostitutes.

The most significant alteration was the construction of a Renaissance cathedral nave in the middle of the structure. It was constructed by permission of Carlos V, king of united Spain. Its reversion to a Christian church  may have helped to preserve it when the Spanish Inquisition was most active. The Cathedral of Seville, formally Catedral de Santa María de la Sede was begun in 1402, with construction continuing into the 16th century. It is the largest of all Roman Catholic cathedrals and also the largest Medieval Gothic holy building, in terms of both area and volume. It is 76 by 115 meters, and was built to cover the land before occupied by the Almohad Mosque. Its central nave rises to an awesome 42 metres and even the side chapels seem tall enough to contain an ordinary church. Its main altarpiece is considered the largest in the Christian world.

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Spain Travel Tips

Climate/Clothing:

Spring and Fall: 55°F - 75°F; Summer: 70°F - 85°F; Winter: 40°F - 55°F. Bring comfortable shoes, a sweater, clothes you can layer and an all-weather coat. Some religious sites do not allow shorts or sleeveless shirts. 

Language:

Spanish is the local language. English is generally spoken as well.

Passports and Visas:

Passport required. Visa not required for tourist or business stays up to 90 days. For more information, please see Right Travel Visa page

Currency:

Spain: The Euro

Tipping:

This is a matter of personal discretion. Although bills normally include a service charge, it is customary to tip in restaurants and other places that cater to tourists.  You may use the following as a guideline:
Porters: 50¢ per bag
Waiter/Waitress: $1.00 per person (dinner)
Chamber Maid: 50¢ per person, per day
Bus Driver: $2.00 per person, per day
Group Tour Guide: $5.00 per person, per day
Private Car Tour Guide: $10 - $15 per person, per day

Electricity:

The voltage used is 220 volts

*Note: The U.S. uses 120 volts and you can purchase a converter and transformer at most hardware stores for your 120V appliances.

Shopping:

Throughout Spain, stores are open in the morning, closing at noon for siesta. They re-open around 4:00 p.m. and do a lively business late into the evening. Spain is known for its fine leather goods and porcelain.

Health Precautions:

No inoculations are necessary when arriving in Spain or Portugal from the U.S. but you should consult with your health care provider before traveling.

To prevent Montezuma's Revenge, avoid the tap water, including raw fruits and vegetables washed in tap water. Your stomach may still become upset due to the change in diet. Bring anti-diarrhea medicine just in case.

For the latest overseas travel health information, call the Center for Disease Control's traveler's hotline at 404-332-4559. Or visit their web site at www.cdc.gov

Conservation/Code of Conduct:

Spanish life has undergone rapid change in recent years and many of the stricter religious customs are giving way to more modern ways, particularly in the cities and among women. Nonetheless, many old customs, manners and traditions have not faded and hospitality, chivalry and courtesy remain important. Handshaking is the customary form of greeting. Normal social courtesies should be observed when visiting someone’s home. If invited to a private home, a small gift is appreciated. Flowers are only sent for special celebrations. Conservative casual wear is widely acceptable. Some hotels and restaurants encourage men to wear jackets. A black tie is only necessary for very formal occasions and is usually specified if required. Outside resorts, beachwear should be confined to beach or poolside. Smoking is widely accepted. The evening meal is taken late, generally 9 -10 p.m. The Spanish have two family names; in conversation only the first should be used.

Luggage:

Right Travel tour packages allow one piece of luggage per person, plus carry-on bag. Additional baggage will be subject to handling charges of up to $100 per piece.

As Right Travel will not be responsible for loss or damage to luggage and personal belongings, you MUST report any loss or damage immediately at the time of the incident and obtain a written report from the local authority for submission to your insurance provider. If you luggage is lost or damaged by the airlines, a baggage claim form MUST be filed with the carrier before leaving the airport See Right Travel Luggage Page for Important Baggage Information for U.S. Travelers.

Departure Tax:

There are currently no departure taxes in Spain, please see Right Travel departure tax page for more information.

Travel Insurance:

We strongly recommend the purchase of travel insurance as additional security in the case of cancellation or interruption of travel plans, lost or damaged luggage, travel delays, illness, or accident. Keep all boarding passes, ticket copies and receipts for expenses paid during your trip if it later becomes necessary to file a claim.

Local Emergency Phone #:

General emergency: 112 or 061

Holidays:

January 1 New Year's Day, Jan 6 * Epiphany, Mar 19 * San Jose, Mar 24 * Maundy Thursday, Mar 25, Good Friday, May 1 Labor Day, Aug 15 Assumption, Oct 12 National Day, Nov 1 All Saints’ Day, Dec 6 Constitution Day, Dec 8 Immaculate Conception, Dec 25 Christmas Day

Spanish Regional Holidays:

Jan 29  Dia de la Convivencia (Ceuta)
Feb 28 Andalucía Day
Mar 1 Balearic Isles Day
Apr 23 San Jorge (Aragon) and Day of the Region of Castilla y Leon
May 2 San Segundo (Castilla y Leon) and Fiesta of the Communidad de Madrid
May 17 Dia de las Letras Gallegas (Galicia)
May 30 Canaries Day
May 31 Day of the Region of Castilla-La Mancha
Jun 9 Day of the Region of Murcia and Day of La Rioja
Sep 8 Asturias Day, Day of Extremadura and Nuestra la Virgen de la Victoria (Melilla)
Sep 11 National Day of Catalonia
Sep 15 Nuestra Senora de la Bien Aparecida (Cantabria)
Sep 17 Commemoration of the Spanish refounding of the City of Melilla
Dec 26 San Esteban (Balearic Isles and Catalonia).

Note: *These holidays may be replaced by the autonomous communities with another date. **These dates are also celebrated as regional public holidays (within these regions, there are further public holidays peculiar to the various towns and cities). Catalonia, Navarra, Pais Vasco (Basque Country) and Valenciana also celebrate Easter Monday.

Driving:

Traffic drives on the right. There are more than 150,000km of roads. Motorways are well-maintained and connect Spain north–south. Tolls are in operation on some sections and have to be paid in Euros. Trunk roads between major cities are generally fast and well-maintained. Rural roads are of differing quality.

Rail Tickets:

The full description of the part of the Rail Ticket can be found on our rail ticket description page at Right Travel Rail Page.

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Kenya Travel Tips

Luxor has often been called the worlds greatest open air museum, as indeed it is and much more. The number and preservation of the monuments in the Luxor area are unparalleled anywhere else in the world that know of.  Actually, what most people think of as Luxor is really three different areas, consisting of the City of Luxor on the East side of the Nile, the town of Karnak just north of Luxor and Thebes, which the ancient Egyptians called Waset, which is on the west side of the Nile across from Luxor.

To say that the Luxor area is a major attraction for tourists in Egypt would be an understatement.  It has been a tourist destination since the beginning of tourism.  Even in ancient times, during the late Dynasties of the Greek and Roman periods, the area drew tourists, and has been doing so ever since.  Today Luxor is well equipped to accommodate tourists with many hotels and in general a tourist industry ready and willing to serve the people from many countries that descend on this area of the Nile Valley every year.

Within Luxor, there are only three main streets consisting of Sharia al-Mahatta, Sharia al-Karnak and the Corniched, next to the Nile.  The street in front of the train station is Sharia al-Mahatta and runs away from the Nile where it meets the gardens of Luxor Temple.  Sharia al-Karnak, or Maabad al-Karnak which means Karnak Temple Street runs along the Nile from Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple.  However, Sharia al-Karnak  is known as Sharia al-Markaz where it meets Sharia al-Mahatta street, and to the south around the temple it is known as Sharia al-Lokanda.  Along this street one will find the colorful signs of restaurants and cafes, as well as bazaars where the usual variety of Egyptian souvenirs can be found.  Of interest is the alabaster, which is plentiful along the west bank and miled not far from here.  Also look for the clay pots used by the locals for cooking, which are more unusual.

Luxor today is a city of some 150,000 people and is governed by special statues that allow it more autonomy then other political areas of Egypt.  One thing you might notice is that various government and other buildings confirm to an 'ancient' building code.  Particularly, the National bank of Egypt (located near the winter palace), the spa south of the police station, and the railway station are all designed to appear as pharaonic constructs.  All of this occurred after the Egyptianization of the modern town resulting mostly from the mania that resulted from Howard Carter's discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. As one might think, the city has all the amenities tourists might expect, including a variety of hotels, bars, nightclubs and restaurants.

In Luxor proper on the East Bank, one of the first stops must be the Temple of Luxor built by Amenophis III. Head south on Sharia al-Karnak to reach the temple, which was connected to the Karnak Temple via a long stone processional street called a dromos.  The dromos (Picture at right) was built by Nectanebo I, and originally was lined on either side by sphinxes. In front of the Luxor temple, the dromos is well preserved, and on the way to the entrance one passes by a Roman chapel of burnt brick dedicated to the god Serapis, which was built during the rule of Hadrian.  There is a path that leads to the Nile side of the Temple where one enters the complex.

After leaving Luxor, head back to Sharia al-Karnak and go north towards Karnak.  Down the road, near the police station which is near the tomb  is the oldest mosque in Luxor, the El-Mekashkesh Mosque.  It contains the remains of a 10th century Islamic saint who rumor has it was a monk prior to converting to Islam.  The mosque is a popular pilgrimage destination.  Here also is the Franciscan Church and its schools, one for boys and the other girls. Beyond this lies a great Coptic basilica.

At the Police station, head towards the Nile Corniche.  Here, opposite the Mina Palace Hotel you will find the Mummification Museum, which has most anything you would ever want to know about mummifications.  From here, head north towards Karnak.

About halfway to Karnak, you will discover the Luxor Museum.  (The image at left is a Block Statue of Iamu Negh from the Luxor Museum). It should certainly be visited if you plan a well rounded and educated experience.  While this is a small museum, most of the relics are from the surrounding area and provide considerable insight to the monuments you will visit.

From the Museum, head back to Sharia al-Karnak and continue north towards Karnak.  After crossing a small bridge one will begin to see the excavated dromos off the road and running through a small village. A little further on you will pass the ruins of the Temple of Mut where another dromos leads to the gateway of the tenth pylon.  The road finally arrives at the domed tombs of two saints, Sidi Ahmed and Sidi Ali, where a road leads past the Department of Antiquities leads to the main Temple of Karnak entrance. This road is built along a canal that once connected the Nile to the Temple.  There was a dock in ancient times, but now all that is left is the quay and the raised dais.   Just past that is a red brick Roman dock and past that two paved ramps led to the river bank.  They are bordered by stone parapets, and were built during the rule of Taharqa.  Past these is the Chapel of Achoris, which received the sacred boat of Amun when it was used in ceremonies.

To arrive at the entrance one follows the dromos with its crio-sphinxes.  They have the head of a Ram and the body of a lion and are symbolic of the God Amun.  Arriving at the temple, there is a statue of Ramesses II with his son between his feet. 

To the right is a structure that has red steps, a red front colonnade and red brick walls.  Inside there are pedestals. inscribed with the names of Roman emperors,  that once held their statues.  This was a Roman chapel dedicated to imperial worship. After leaving the Temple complex on the left is the Franco-Egyptian Center which has managed the temple complex since 1967.  Down on the shore of the Nile is the Centre National dl la Recherche Scientifque, or CNRS, which houses the French and the Chicago House, a project of the University of Chicago is near by. 

After this, you will wish to take a boat trip over to the West bank.  This trip had a special meaning to the Egyptians, for they were more crossing the way to the West and life, then to a necropolis.  The Valley of the Kings is as good as any to try first, with tombs from the 18th and 19th Dynasties. Outside the Valley of the Kings, the road leads past Antef, named for the 11th Dynasty prices who were buried here.  Some tombs can still be seen as one heads towards the Temple of Seti I.  Most of what is left of Seti's Temple is the view.  The court is entered by the ruined gate of a pylon  The court has what is left of a palace on the south side. The road continues south  passing Dra-Abu el-Naga necropolis. 

The road eventually winds itself westward until reaching the Valley of Asasif. These are 25th and 26th Dynasty tombs. At the end of of the Valley of Asasif at the foot of a cliff named Deir el-Bahri is a spectacular complex of temples.  The Temple of Mentuhetep I, Hatshepsut and Thotmose II here must be seen. Much of the architecture here seems so very powerful against the towering cliffs in the background.  From here, the road continues past the remains of the  temples of Ramesses IV and Thutmose III, eventually reaching the Necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna.   This 18th Dynasty necropolis sits amidst houses where there are hundreds of holes.  And below here, one comes to the famous Ramesseum, built by Ramesses II, a huge complex that took twenty years to complete.

As the road runs along past the remains of Thutmose IV, Merneptah, Ay and Horemheb's Temples, it finally comes to the huge complex known as Medinet Habu, which is another of Thebe's major attractions and a must see sight.  The gate has square towers and appears almost oriental.  Behind the complex is the workmen's village called Deir el-Medina. Out in the fields near here is the Colossi of Memnon, one of the major tourist attractions throughout time. Southwest of Deir el-Medina is the Valley of the Queens, where queens of the 18th and 19th Dynasties were buried. 

From here, the road continues past the mudbrick remains of the Amenhotep III's palace called Malkatta. There is a lake to the east and at the other end of that, a small Roman temple called Deir Shelwit and built at the end of the 1st century.

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The main temple was dedicated to Ramesses II and to the four universal gods Ptah, Re-Harakhte, Amun-Re, and to Ramesses II himself. Of the seven temples he built, Abu Simbel is considered to be the most impressive.

The facade of the main temple is 108 feet high and 125 feet wide with four colossal seated statues about 65 feet high wearing the double crown and having the cartouches of Ramesses II. They are taller than the colossi of Memnon at Thebes and are carved out of solid rock. At the feet of the calossus, beginning on the left are Queen Nofretari, Prince Amenhirkhopshef, the Kings mother Muttuya, Princess Bent'anta, unnamed, but probably Esenofre, Princess Nebettawy, Queen Muttuya, Princess Nofretari, Princess Merytamun, Princess Beketmut, Prince Ri'amsese, and Queen Nofretari, who where all members of Ramesses II's family. (Editor's Note: We wonder if Ramesses II bribed his kids to make good grades. Bring home an A and I'll put you in my new Colossus.)

Above the doorway in a niche stands the sun god, a falcon headed representation of Ramesses, holding a war-scepter which shows the head and neck of an animal which is read as user, in his right and a figure of Ma'at in his left. This cleverly creates the Kings throne name of User-Ma'at-Re. At the top of the facade is a row of baboons which are thought to be greeting the morning sun and indeed the monument looks best at that time. The sides of the thrones next to the entrance are decorated with Nile gods symbolically uniting Egypt, while below are prisoners, representing conquered nations, to the left, African and to the right, Asian.

The entrance leads into a Grand Hall which is 57 feet high and 52 feet wide and was cut from the rock. It is supported with eight pillars with statues of Ramesses. The statues on the north side of the hall wear the double crown, while those on the south the white crown of upper Egypt. Just as other temples in Egypt, the floor and ceiling taper off to draw focus to the sanctuaries in the back of the temple. The reliefs on the north wall of the Grand Hall show scenes from the Battle of Kadesh. Other walls depict the king slaughtering captives in front of the gods Amun-Re and Re-Harakhte, and storming a fortress with his three sons.

To either side of the Grand Hall are smaller rooms, two to the South and four to the North. Most suggest that these rooms were for storage (treasure rooms) but elsewhere it is suggested that they were used for festivals related to the Kings Jubilee.

Beyond the Grand Hall is the second hypostyle hall with its flowered pillars. Scenes in this hall show the King and his wife, Nefertari making offerings to Amun and Re-Harakhte (the Sun God), and beyond that is the three chapels, the central one containing the four deities worshipped in the temple (including Ramesses II). A Solstices occurs twice a year on or about February 20-22nd and October 20-22nd when the rays from the sun enter the front of the temple and bathe the statues of the Gods 200 feet inside the temple with light. Interestingly enough, all but Ptah, the source of Chthonian life.

On either side of the Facade are two small chapels. At the Southeast corner of the facade there are three stelae. One of these is called the Marriage Stela and documents the marriage of Ramesses II to the daughter of the King of the Hittites. (Editors Note: The question is, what did she look like? Did Ramesses consider this a heroic deed?) On the other side of the Facade is the Sun Chapel, an open court dedicated to the sun. Here, there are pillars with cavetto cornices. The one with steps held four praying baboons, the other a chapel with images of Khepri and Baboon-Thoth. The latter is now in the Antiquities Museum in Cairo.

Not only are the two temples at Abu Simbel among the most magnificent monuments in the world but their removal and reconstruction was an historic event in itself. When the temples (280 km from Aswan) were threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser, due to the construction of the High Dam, the Egyptian Government secured the support of UNESCO and launched a world wide appeal. During the salvage operation which began in 1964 and continued until 1968, the two temples were dismantled and raised over 60 meters up the sandstone cliff where they had been built more than 3,000 years before. Here they were reassembled, in the exact same relationship to each other and the sun, and covered with an artificial mountain. Most of the joins in the stone have now been filled by antiquity experts, but inside the temples it is still possible to see where the blocks were cut. You can also go inside the man made dome and see an exhibition of photographs showing the different stages of the massive removal project.

Abu Simbel was first reported by J. L. Burckhardt in 1813, when he came over the mountain and only saw the facade of the great temple as he was preparing to leave that area via the Nile. The two temples, that of Ramesses II primarily dedicated to Re-Harakhte, and that of his wife, Nefertari dedicated to Hathor, became a must see for Victorians visiting Egypt, even though it required a trip up the Nile, and often they were covered deeply in sand, as they were when Burckhardt found them.

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Dedicated to Horus, the falcon headed god, it was built during the reigns of six Ptolemies. We have a great deal of information about its construction from reliefs on outer areas. It was begun in 237 BC by Ptolemy III Euergetes I and was finished in 57 BC. Most of the work continued throughout this period with a brief interlude of 20 years while there was unrest during the period of Ptolemy IV and Ptolemy V Epiphanes.

This is not only the best preserved ancient temple in Egypt, but the second largest after Karnak. It was believed that the temple was built on the site of the great battle between Horus and Seth. Hence, the current temple was but the last in a long series of temples build on this location. It is said that the original structure housing a statue of Horus was a grass hut built in prehistoric times. At any rate, there is an earlier and smaller pylon of Ramesses II which sits in a 90 degree angle to the current building.

The main building, which includes a great Hypostyle Hall, was uncovered by Mariette in the 1860s. There are numerous reliefs, including a depiction of the Feast of the Beautiful Meeting, the annual reunion between Horus and his wife Hathor. The reliefs are mostly situated on the inside of the first pylon, and spiritually connect this temple with Hathor’s Temple at the Dendera complex. During the third month of summer, the priests at the Dendera complex would place the statue of Hathor on her barque (a ceremonial barge) and would thus bring the statue to the Edfu Temple, where it was believed that Horus and Hathor shared a conjugal visit. Each night, the god and goddess would retire to the mamissi, or berthing house.

There is still an entrance colonnade to the mamissi, and reliefs with considerable remaining color just outside the main temple. These images portray the ritual of the birth of Harsomtus, son of Horus and Hathor.

The pylons of the main Temple are about 118 feet high with typical scenes of the pharaoh in battle with his enemies. Within the pylons is the colonnaded courtyard with distinctive, pared columns, which leads into the great hypostyle hall. But on either side of the courtyard there are gates which lead to an area behind the temple and inside the bounding walls. Here, there are inscriptions recording donations of land which were probably transferred from demotic documents. There are also dramatic images depicting the defeat of Seth by Horus. There was an annual ritual called the known as the Triumph of Horus (10 harpoons) which ended in the slaying of a hippopotamus, the symbol of Seth.

The facade of the first hypostyle hall has images honoring Horus and Hathor, and there is an immaculate ten foot tall colossi of Horus as the falcon god here (a matching colossi is was destroyed). As you enter the great hall, you will begin to notice the use of light Even though the temple was build over hundreds of years, it is very harmonious, and ebbs and flow of lighting was certainly purposeful, portraying a feeling of mystery. Just inside the hall are two small rooms, a robing room on the west and a library to the east where the priest would obtain the religious orders of the day. Within this hall are scenes of offering including the temple foundation ceremonies.

Beyond the great hypostyle hall is a second, smaller hypostyle hall which leads to a well called the Chamber of the Nile where the Priests obtained pure holy water. This is a similar arrangement as found at Dendera. On the west side of the room are doors that lead to a small laboratory with recipes engraved on the walls for ointments and perfumes which where used daily to anoint the statue of Horus, and to a treasure room where offerings were stored.

Beyond the second hypostyle hall is the offering hall, followed by the vestibule and finally the sanctuary. There is a granite naos here dedicated by Nectanebo II, making it the oldest relic in the temple. It is probable that a golden gilded wooden statue of Horus about 60 cm tall would have resided on the naos. This statue would have been cared for by the priests in a human manner, being washed, dressed, anointed, fed and entertained.

The sanctuary itself is surrounded by chapels and rooms which, when facing north and in clockwise order, are the chapel of Min, the chamber of linen where the robs of the Horus would have been stored, the chamber of the throne of gods, the chamber of Osiris, the chamber of the West, the tomb of Osiris, the chamber of the victor (Horus), where there is a reconstructed ceremonial barge (barque), chapels of Khonsu and Hathor, the chapel of the throne of Re and a chapel of the spread wings, dedicated principally to Mehit, the lioness who guarded the path the soul passed on its journey towards resurrection. The front chapel on the east is the Chapel of the New Year, a sun court like that at Dendera. Here, a depiction on the ceiling show the voyage of the solar barque through the Twelve Hours of the day, with an inspiring image of the goddess, Nut. The statue of Horus would be taken from here up a flight of stairs to the roof terrace where it would be recharged by the sun during the Festival of the New Year. The walls of the stairs located in the outer anti-chamber depict this ritual.

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In Egypt, the desert areas are divided by the Nile, which runs south to north, and these separate regions are most frequently referred to as the Western and Eastern deserts. The western desert is well known among those familiar with Egypt, particularly for its relatively large and important oasis areas. However, other than a few well known coastal resorts, the Eastern desert and the Red Sea coast including their history are less familiar to many. Yet this region, sometimes called the Arabian Desert, covers some twenty-one percent of present day Egypt.

Near the coast, a high mountain range of ancient volcanic rock runs the length of the Red Sea. These mountains were formed about three billion years ago. The desert also has wide, high plateaus with accumulations of rubble from eroded sandstone and limestone. This topography is the result of faults and elevating shifts that took place during the formation of the Red Sea basin, some twenty to thirty million years ago.

The climate of the area is much the same as it was during pharaonic times. Prior to about 3500 BC, the region was wetter than it is today, but began to dry out during the same period that civilization took hold in the Nile Valley. The northern section of the Eastern Desert is nearly  devoid of vegetation today, as a result of the arid climate. However, higher humidity in the south, where trees and shrubs are found in some of the desert valleys, creates somewhat more precipitation.

During the wetter period of prehistoric and the very earliest historic times, the Eastern Desert was more densely populated than during most of the pharaonic period. This is evidenced by the numerous rock drawings which are, however, limited to the desert's southern region. In the north, we find only sporadic evidence of travel through the desert. Many of the rock drawings, which are very important to our understanding of Egypt's prehistory, are concentrated in the wide reaches of the Wadi Hammamat between Coptos and Quseir, in the Wadi Qena, near the Laqiya Oasis to the southeast of Coptos, around various wells such as Bir Menih, throughout the Wadi Barramiya near Edfu, in various regions close to Aswan, and at Quseir on the Red Sea.

The earliest drawings in these areas date to the Naqada I period. Many of these carvings depict Nile Valley and desert fauna that retreated from the region soon after 3500 BC, including elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros and ostrich. Also depicted are indigenous desert wildlife such as ibex, gazelle and antelope. There are also images of people, including those wearing the typical Libyan penis pouch and others with ornamental wigs (the so-called Dirwa people), which can also be dated to about 3500 BC. Other rock art depicts boats flying standards and groups of people wearing feather ornaments, who were originally thought to have been invaders who  moved into the area from the Red Sea. However, somewhat recent scholarship appears to prove otherwise. More likely, they were probably indigenous people who came in contact with others from the Nile Valley, and in fact, these people may have spent a part of their lives in the Nile Valley, migrating to the eastern desert during specific seasons.

Most of the pharaonic drawing in these regions came to a halt by the end of the Old Kingdom, though there are later drawings of horses and camels that date to Roman and Arab times.

During the Pharaonic Period, as now, desert nomads traveled from water source to water source across the coastal regions of the southern part of the Eastern Desert. In reports from expeditions during these times, the people who inhabited the desert were collectively referred to as "Medjay" Today, we make the assumption that the Bedja and Ma'aza tribes who inhabit the region are the descendants of the pharaonic Medja, but mostly because of the similarities in their names. This may not be the case, however. There is no documented continuity of settlement,  since during the fourth and fifth centuries, nomadic groups called the "Blemmyes" penetrated the region. The Medjay were used by the ancient Egyptians as scouts and workers, organized under their own chiefs on pharaonic expeditions.

During the Pharaonic Period, Sopdu was actually the deity most closely associated with the Eastern Desert region and yet, his significance there was negligible. At least in the southern part of the Desert, Min, or Amun-Min (phallically represented) was actually the dominant deity, with a number of shrines built in his honor at various quarry sites. Later, during Ptolemaic and Roman times, the god Pan, equated with the Egyptian god Min, was the protector of travelers through the Eastern Desert. Many shrines to the god were built along the main routes and, in the wadi behind Akhmin, "Pan-who-goes-into-the-mountains" or "Pan-who-is-with-the-expeditions" was honored. During the Roman period, Zeus, Helio and Sarapis were revered by the non-indigenous mine workers, many of whom were slaves and prisoners, as well as by the guards, soldiers and supply workers.

As early as the end of the Predynastic Period, Egyptians mined the Eastern Desert for its rich supply of rocks and ores. Stone vessels and smaller objects in breccia, porphyry, serpentine and steatite ( soapstone), dating to the prehistoric and early historic periods, were fashioned from accumulations of rock shingles found in the Eastern Desert. Gold was also found and extracted, most likely in the beginning as placer gold from the bottom of the wadis. There are many expedition inscriptions, notably beginning with the 4th Dynasty, the evidence the "state" interest in the special harder rock deposits, and we even find the names of earlier kings such as Narmer at Wadi el-Qash and Wadji in the Wadi Barramiya, farther south near Edfu.  These expeditions mined greywacke from Wadi Hammamat to the southeast of Coptos, as well as ore and gold.

In the Wadi Mueilha, which lies about halfway between Edfu and the Red Sea, many graffiti were found that date between the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period. Some scholars have suggested that this might have been an Early Dynastic mining site for native tin dioxide (cassiterite). There are also Old Kingdom inscriptions in the Wadi Barramiya and at the well of Bir Dunqash, east of Edfu, that frequently refer to the same individuals who may have been linked to pharaonic mines. At Wadi Gerrawi, about eleven kilometers southeast of Helwan, a unique 4th Dynasty stone dam presumably blocked the Nile flood from quarry operations.

Beginning in the Old Kingdom and thereafter, the many large and small limestone quarries in the Eastern Desert were all located near the Nile Valley and are less well known because of the lack of rock inscriptions. Gebel es-Silsila, north of Aswan and areas near Edfu and Elkab were some of the more important sandstone quarries of the Eastern Desert. Southeast of Aswan were the granite and granodiorite quarries which were mined in early times for material to build royal palaces. Calcite, often referred to as Egyptian or Oriental alabaster, was quarried since the Early Dynastic period and during the Old Kingdom, the focus of these quarries  was to the east of el-Minya, near Hebenu, a location later called by the Romans, Alabastronpolis. The calcite quarry at Hatnub, about eighteen kilometers southeast of the Amarna plain, was the richest and most documented and it was worked continuously from the 4th Dynasty into the New Kingdom. Nearby were the Ramessid period calcite quarries at Bersheh. Other calcite veins worked during the Pharaonic Period further out in the Eastern desert included Wadi Gerrawi near Helwan, in the Wadi Sannur near Beni Suef (during the Late Period), and an area east of Asyut.

By the reign of Amenemhet I during the Middle Kingdom, the village of Menat-Khufu (Khufu's wetnurse) near present day Beni Hasan in Middle Egypt became the administrative center for the northern area of the Eastern Desert. There, an official with the title, "Supervisor of the Eastern Desert", controlled the area from the southern Sinai to the Wadi Hammamat. This administrative position was established to control the labor force and expertise needed to operate the large calcite and sandstone quarries. One Eastern Desert administrator, Khnumhotep II, had depicted in his tomb near Beni Hasan, a Bedouin donkey caravan, which included women, children and soldiers, transporting galena (lead ore, used for black eye makeup) to the Nile Valley, probably in route to the Royal Palace. The leader of the caravan was accompanied by an Egyptian official, though the weapons and musical instruments identified in the scene evidence the main body of the caravan as being from either Canaan or Transjordan. This may have been a small tribe that worked for the Egyptians in the galena mines on the Red Sea. The substance was probably extracted from Gebel el-Zeit, which was actively mined for galena from the reign of Amenemhet III through the New Kingdom reign of Ramesses III, with its most active exploitation during the Second Intermediate Period.

The quarries in the Wadi Hammamat region (the Egyptian names translate to "Upper Rohana Mountains" and "Bechen Stone Mountains") were developed towards the end of the 11th Dynasty and during the 12th Dynasty of Egypt's Middle Kingdom on a very large scale. Also Amethyst, a violet variety of quartz, was extracted in the Wadi el-Hudi, about thirty-five kilometers southeast of Aswan. There, local expedition inscriptions date to a period from the end of the 11th Dynasty to the 13th Dynasty.

Administrators with titles such as "Treasurer of Gold", "Administrator of the Southern Districts" and "Administrator of the Southern Narrow Doorway" were given responsibility over work groups in the Eastern Desert that numbered in the thousands. Most of these workers were probably Bedouins hired from their chiefs. They were accompanied by hunters, soldiers and interpreters. Expeditions were sometimes led by very high officials, such as viziers. 

The larger quarry area of the Wadi Hammamat and its gold deposits were administered from Thebes during the New Kingdom. The "Coptos gold" was mentioned on a famous site plan known as the Mine Papyrus, dating to the Ramessid Period, which included the location of the gold-panning site and the gold-worker village near a rock-cut temple of Amun at Bir Umm Fawakhir. Bir Umm Fawkhir, where a shrine dedicated to Min was also located, was an important point for travelers on their way to the Red Sea. However, the focus of gold mining was in the Wadi Sid, though more than sixty ancient gold mines have been documented in the Eastern Desert. They include sites in the Wadi Semna, the Wadi Hammamat, and in the southern region at Wadi Barramiya, Dunqash, Wadi el-Hudi and elsewhere. During the New Kingdom, green diorite, graywacke and granite were mined, as was serpentine, especially in the Wadi Atalla. There was also softer stone, such as steatite, which was used for the small pharaonic scarabs, amulets and figurines.

Nubian soldiers and scouts carefully controlled and monitored the "desert of Coptos". The southern desert areas and especially the gold deposits in the Wadi Barramiya and the Wadi Mia across from Edfu were controlled by the viceroy of Nubia. Seti I had a stone temple to Amun (temple of Kanais) built in the Wadi Mia, next to a well and gold-panning site, from which the earnings were taken to Abydos where the pharaoh's new funerary temple was built. Later, Wadi Mia had an important Min shrine (Paneion) for travelers to the Red Sea.

After the New Kingdom, the quarrying activities in the Eastern Desert become more obscure. We also know that Darius I, during the First Persian Occupation, renewed graywacke quarrying in the Wadi Hammamat on a large scale.

Later, during the Ptolemaic Period, smaller galena deposits were found near the Philoteras harbor, close to Aenum in the Wadi Gasus, while amethyst mines had been located near Abu Diyaba. There was also from the Ptolemaic through Roman times, at Gebel Sikeit (Mons Smaragdus) and at Gebel Zabara, a green beryl (emerald) mine.

During Roman times in the reign of Agustinian, mining was carried out in the imperial porphyry quarries of Gebel Dokhan, 'The Mountain of Smoke", known to the Romans as Mons Porphyrites (imperial red porphyry and smaller deposits of green porphyry) and in the granite and quartzdiorite quarries of Mons Claudianus. These areas were exploited into the fifth century AD. The last dated inscriptions from the stone quarries in Wadi Hammamat were from the middle of the third century AD.

Of course, all of this quarry work needed routes and roads for transportation, but the Eastern Desert is also significant for its trade routes to and from the Red Sea. These routes have existed for millenniums, and are well known to us. The first ancient Egyptian expeditions to the land of Punt, perhaps located in the approximate region of present day Eritrea, probably followed the natural desert route from Coptos through the Wadi Hammamat to the Red Sea, which traders and state expeditions continued to follow long afterwards.

In the northern region of the Eastern Desert, the pharaonic roads cannot be accurately traced, and the road that ran parallel to the Red Sea coast cannot be mapped. A Rammessid Period stelae found near Nag' 'Alalma suggests that a road may have existed that connected el-Saff/Atfih, north of Beni Suef and past the Antonius Monastery to Zaafarana on the Red Sea. There is presumed to have been a route from the Central Egyptian villages of the eastern bank of the Nile, particularly from the Beni Hasan region to the Red Sea, and also in a southeasterly direction over the Wadi Qena to the Wadi Hammamat, though these routes are unconfirmed. 

The most important ancient road link from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea ran from Coptos to Thebes during the New Kingdom. The Wadi Hammamat was reached after passing the Laqeita Oasis, and caravans then traveled through the wadi Atalla and the Wadi Gasus to the harbor of Mersa Gawasis, south of present day Hurghada. This harbor was first mentioned in inscriptions only in the Middle Kingdom, after the reign of Senusret I, but it was probably older, and was the departure point for trade by way of the Red Sea with the southern land of Punt. Boats were prefabricated on the wharfs of Coptos and their components were then transported to the Red Sea Coast by huge donkey caravans of up to three thousand men, where they were assembled. This harbor was still active in the New Kingdom, where a "fort of (pharaoh) Meerenptah" was probably located to control the traffic of goods. 

The southern route from Edfu, or from  Elkab across the Wadi Abbad and the Wadi Barramiya to the Red Sea was also surely traveled during the Pharaonic Period, though evidence only exists for its use after the founding of the harbor of Berenice during the Ptolemaic Period. 

From About 600 BC onward, the activities of the Saite Pharaohs in the Eastern Desert are only sporadically documented. We know that Amasis restored an older Min shrine in the Wadi Hammamat and in Wadi Barramiya. The cult site in Wadi Hammamat, described as a rock-cut temple of Nektanebo I, served as a Pan shrine for later Roman travelers. Stelae from the 26th Dynasty were located in the Wadi Gausu, near the harbor.

During the First Persian Occupation which lasted from about 525 to 405 BC, economic contacts between the Nile Valley and Persia were maintained, in part across the Wadi  Hammamat and at the Egyptian harbors on the Red Sea. 

Afterwards in the Ptolemic Period, beginning with Ptolemy II, sea trade with Arabia and more distant regions, collectively referred to as "India", was intensified. Philoteras on the Red Sea Coast, about two kilometers south of the Pharaonic harbor of Mersa Gawasis, was active, but the southern port of Berenice, also called Troglodytike was built. There, a temple of Ptolemy VII was dedicated and foreign trade was conducted by boat along the coast to Suez (Arsinoe). Southwest of Berenice, there was a road that led to a small Ptolemaic station in the desert near el-Abraq (Shenshef), and the Ptolemies built a new road that led from Coptos to Berenice, which involved a five to six day passage. It left Coptos harbor in the direction of Phoinicon (the Laqeita Oasis), where it turned southeast and passed Didyme, Aphrodite, Compasi, Jovis, Aristonis, Falacro, Apollonos, Cabalsi, Vetus Hydreuma and Novum Hydreuma before reaching Berenice harbor. The road from Coptos to Quseir on the Red Sea was a three and one half day journey through the Laqeita Oasis, Qusur el-Banat, where a Roman shrine to Pan was later built, el-Bueib (with another Roman Pan shrine), Mweih, through the Wadi Hammamat and on to Zerqa and Sayala. 

North of Berenice were Nechesia harbor (Mersa Mubarak?), Leukos Limen (Quseir with a Ptolemaic temple, Philoteras and Myos Hormos (island of Abu Sha'r). All of these harbors were linked by road to the Nile Valley, though travelers began to use these routes more frequently only during the Roman Period. The road from Qena (Kaineopolis to Philoteras on the Red Sea passed through the stations of el-'Aras, Abu Qreiya, the Wadi Gidami, the Wadi Semna (where a Pan shrine was located) and, probably, through the settlement of Aenum in the Wadi Gasus before reaching Philoteras. The Road from Qena to Myos Hormos crossed the stations that were fortified during Roman times of el-'Aras, el-Hetah, Saqia, Der el-Atrash and Qattar, continuing past the Mons Porphyrites region either on to Myos Hormos or on to the nearby water source at Fons Tadnos. An alternative road forked off from the northern route at el-'Aras and continued to Myos Hormos, through Abu Zawal. It then passed Mons Claudianus and the road stations in the Wadi Sidris. 

In the Roman Period, the Eastern Desert routes were reinforced with well-enclosed outposts and way stations. The first confirmed road built by the Romans in the region is the Via Nova Hadriana, built in 130 BC by the Roman emperor Hadrian from his newly founded city of Antinoopolis (present day Sheik Abade), in Middle Egypt, to the Red Sea and then farther along the coast to down to Berenice. The Romans utilized the earlier route from Edfu (Apollonopolis) over Contra-Apollonopolis and the Wadi Abbad, but this was expanded at Falacro to join the main route from Coptos to Berenice.

Even now, mining continues in the Eastern Desert, but today, the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea Coast are popular among tourists for principally three reasons. The least of these is probably the various inscriptions from the Predynastic and Dynastic Periods, along with the few obscure temple ruins that dot the landscape. More popular, and gaining ground are the several Eastern Desert monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul. These have seen much interest of late. However, the most popular destination for tourists have little to do with Egyptian history. They are the Red Sea resorts, of which Hurghada is best known. Other popular coastal resorts are upscale el-Gouna, and of late, one of our favorites because of its proximity to Cairo, the Suez Canal and the Eastern Desert Monasteries, Ain Soukhna. Along the coast, there are other smaller resort communities, many specializing in scuba diving activities. Of course, like the Western Desert, there is also significant natural beauty which can be enjoyed by all.

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In the Middle East there are four primary sacred mountains: Mt Ararat in eastern Turkey, the traditional landing place of Noah's ark; Mount Sinai in the Sinai peninsula, the peak where Moses received the Ten Commandments; Mount Moriah or Mount Zion in Israel, where lies the city of Jerusalem and the temple of Solomon; and Mt. Tabor in Israel, the site of the transfiguration of Jesus. Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb and Jebel Musa (the ‘Mountain of Moses’) is the center of a greatly venerated pilgrimage destination that includes the Monastery of St. Catherine and the Burning Bush, Elijah’s Plateau, and Plain of ar-Raaha, near Mount Sinai.

The Monastery of St. Catherine, also known as the Monastery of the Transfiguration, is located in a triangular area between the Desert of El-Tih, the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Sinai. It is situated at an altitude of 4854 feet in a small, picturesque gorge.  It is a region of wilderness made up of granite rock and rugged mountains which, at first glance, seems inaccessible. In fact, while small towns and villages have grown up on the shores of the two gulfs, only a few Bedouin nomads roam the mountains and arid land inland. Well known mountains dominate this region, including Mount Sinai (2,285 meters), Mount St. Catherine (2,637 meters), Mount Serbal (2,070 meters) and Mount Episteme.

This is the region through which Moses is said to have led his people, eventually to the Promised Land, and there are legends of their passing in many places. Of course, one of the most exceptional locations is that of Mount Sinai, where Moses met with God who delivered to him the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. Obviously, the region is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike.

While grazing his flocks on the side of Mt. Horeb, Moses came upon a burning bush that was, miraculously, unconsumed by its own flames. A voice speaking out of the fire (Exodus 3:1-13) commanded him to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt and return with them to the  mountain. Upon his return Moses twice climbed the mountain to commune with God. Regarding the second ascent, Exodus 24: 16-18 states: And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and the seventh day God called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights. During this time on the mountain Moses received two tablets upon which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments, as well as precise dimensions for the Arc of the Covenant, a portable box-like shrine that would contain the tablets. Soon thereafter, the Arc of the Covenant was constructed and Moses and his people departed from Mount Sinai.

The Arc of the Covenant and its supposedly divine contents are one of the great mysteries of antiquity. According to archaic textual sources the Arc was a wooden chest measuring three feet  nine inches long by two feet three inches high and wide. It was lined inside and out with pure gold and was surmounted by two winged figures of cherubim that faced each other across its heavy gold lid. Some scholars believe that the Arc may have contained, in addition to the Tablets of the Law, pieces of meteorites and highly radioactive rocks. In the ensuing two hundred and fifty years, between the time it was taken from Mount Sinai to when it was finally installed in the temple in Jerusalem, the Arc was kept for two centuries at Shiloh, was captured by the Philistines for seven months, and then, returned to the Israelites, it was kept in the village of Kiriath-Jearim. During this entire time it was associated with numerous extraordinary phenomena, many of which involved the killing or burning of often large numbers of people. Passages in the Old Testament give the impression that these happenings were divine actions of Yahweh, the god of the Hebrews. Contemporary scholars, however, believe that there may be another explanation.

Some have suggests that the Arc, and more precisely its mysterious contents, may have been a product of ancient Egyptian magic, science and technology. Moses, being highly trained by the Egyptian priesthood, was certainly knowledgeable in these matters and thus the astonishing powers of the Arc and its 'Tablets of the Law' may have derived from archaic Egyptian magic rather than the mythical god Yahweh. However, it should be noted that this comes from an alternative school of thought.

On the peak of Jebel Musa stands a small chapel dedicated to the Holy Trinity. This chapel, constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th century church, is believed to enclose the rock from which God made the Tablets of the Law. In the western wall of this chapel is a cleft in the rock where Moses is said to have hidden himself as God’s glory passed by (Exodus 33:22). Seven hundred and fifty steps below the summit and its chapel is the plateau known as Elijah’s Basin, where Elijah spent 40 days and nights communing with God in a cave. Nearby is a rock on which Aaron, the brother of Moses, and 70 elders stood while Moses received the law (Exodus 24:14). Northwest of Elijah’s plateau hardy pilgrims visit Jebel Safsaafa, where Byzantine hermits such as St. Gregory lived and prayed. Beneath the 2168 meter summit of Ras Safsaafa stands the Plain of ar-Raaha, where camped the Israelites at the time Moses ascended the mountain and where Moses erected the first tabernacle.

Currently there is no archaeological evidence that the granite peak of Jebel Musa Mount Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula is the actual Mount Sinai of the Old Testament and various scholars, such as Emmanuel Anati, writing in his comprehensive study, The Mountain of God, have proposed several alternative locations. The association of Jebel Musa with the Biblical Mount Sinai seems to have first developed in the 3rd century AD when hermits living in caves on the mountain began to identify their mountain with the ancient holy peak.

Monastic life started at a very early period in the region around Mount Sinai. Christian hermits began to gather at Sinai from the Middle of the 3rd Century. St. Antony, who retreated into Egypt's Eastern Desert, inspired many others to cast off their worldly possessions and many of them settled at the foot of Mount Sinai, along with other nearby mountains, especially Mount Serbal, where they led a life of strict spiritual and corporal discipline.

The life that these early hermits followed was neither easy or safe. The 4th and 5th centuries were particularly troublesome times, when Christians were not only persecuted, but suffered from barbarian assaults. The monk, Ammonius of Egypt, wrote a Discourse upon the Holy Fathers slain on Mount Sinai and at Raitho, and there is much other documentation of the massacre and martyrdom of the Holy Fathers of the Sinai and Raitho by the Hagarenes and the Blemmyes of Africa, particularly during the Roman reign of Diocletian. This nevertheless did not prevent the development of monasticism in the Sinai desert, nor did it prevent the fame of many of the hermits from spreading both East and West.

Small monastic communities formed very early in the Sinai, particularly at Mount Horeb, thought to be the site of the Burning Bush and in the Wadi Feiran (ancient Pharan). The anchorites lived in caves, stone-built cells and huts. They spent their days in silence, prayer and sanctity.

Tradition holds that, in 330 AD, in response to a request by the ascetics of the Sinai, the Byzantine empress Helena (St. Helen) ordered the building of a small church, dedicated to the Holy Virgin, at the site of the Burning Bush, as well as a fortified enclosure where the hermits could find refuge from the attacks of primitive nomadic tribes.

Now, the South Sinai became a place of pilgrimage that was visited by many from far away lands. In 1884, a manuscript was discovered that relates a visit to the area by Aetheria between 372 and 374 AD. She was a Spanish noblewoman who was accompanied by a retinue of clerics. She relates finding a small church on the summit of Mount Sinai, another one on Mount Horeb and a third one at the site of the Burning Bush, near which there was a fine garden with plenty of water.

Her account clearly reveals the expansion of monasticism in the Sinai desert. In fact, by the 5th century, the growing population of hermits was apparently headed by a dignitary, mentioned as the Bishop of Pharan, who's office was eventually taken over by the Bishop of Sinai. With this development apparently came a request by the Sinai monks, to Justinian, the Byzantium emperor, for assistance. He thus founded a magnificent church, which he enclosed within walls strong enough to withstand attacks and protect the monks against nomadic raids, which today is known to us as the Monastery of St. Catherine.

By the 7th century, the Monastery faced a dangerous situation and a grave crisis, mainly due to the Arab conquest. Although information on this period is scant, one source tells that by the year 808, the number of monks in the monastery had been reduced to thirty, while Christian life on the Sinai peninsula  had all but vanished. However, the monastery itself did not vanish.

According to tradition, and evident from indirect information, the Fathers of the Monastery requested the protection of Mohammed himself, who saw the Christians as brothers in faith. Apparently, the request was favorably accepted and the so called ahtiname, or "immunity covenant" by Mohammed instructed his followers to protect the monks of the Sinai. Though this document has been a matter of controversy, it is doubtful that the monastery could have survived without the protection afforded by Mohammed and his successors.

The 11th century marked a new period for the monks of the Sinai. There was a transfer of relics of St. Catherine to France, and the presence of Crusaders in the Sinai between 1099 and 1270 spurred the interest of European Christians for the security and independence of the monks and for the safeguard of the land properties (dependencies) owned by the Monastery in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Crete, Cyprus and Constantinople.

The fact that a castle presupposes a military force accounts for the mention some authors make of a military order of St. Catherine, founded in 1063, which would thus antedate any other military order. No trace has been found, however, of the rule of any such order, or of a list of its grand masters. From the Crusades the Monastery of St. Catherine attracted many Latin pilgrims, who gradually formed a brotherhood, the members of which pretended to the knighthood. In return for a vague promise to protect sacred shrines and pilgrims, they were granted the coveted St. Catherine's Cross. The carved wooden portal giving access to the Narthex of the Katholikon (the earliest church in the monastery, built about the same time as the enclosure wall) and the various lain inscriptions in the old Refectory date from those years. Interestingly though, the Monastery had a Muslim garrison during the same period, so the Fathers had to maintain a delicate balance between the Christians of the West and the Muslims of the region. In fact, to this day an ancient Mosque, dating from the 10th or 11th century, sits within the walls of the Monastery.

The Roman Popes at times defended the rights of the Monastery with various bulls and proclamations. Pope Honorius III in 1217, Pope Gregory X (1271-1276), Pope John XXII (1316-1334), Pope Benedict XII in 1358, Pope Innocent VI in 1360, all expressed in many ways their goodwill for the monastery, and interceded in favor of the Monastery's privileges in Crete, Cyprus and other places.

Others also came to their aid. The Doges of Venice regulated with official documents the attitude of the Dukes of Crete concerning the Monastery's dependencies on the island. They ruled in favor of the monks' interests, granted tax exemptions and sometimes permitted even the collection of funds to aid the monastery.

Even though the Monastery of St. Catherine, since the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt, has been situated in a mostly Islamic region, communication with Constantinople never stopped and the relations with Byzantium were close. A number of documents reveal decisions and actions on the part of a number of Byzantine emperors, extending financial assistance to the monastery.  The official attitude and opinion of the Byzantines with regard to the Monastery and its prestige is expressed in a letter by the patriarch of Constantinople Gennadio (1454), addressed to "the most honorable among monks, Kyr Maximos, by his worldly name Sophianos, and to all the most blessed hieromonks and monks practicing asceticism in the holy Monastery of Sinai". He calls the Sinai "our pride", indicating the great esteem and reverence in which the Orthodox held one of the worlds oldest Christian monasteries.

Even Turkish Sultans, in particular Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent, at times issued favorable decrees exempting the Monastery from custom duties, which helped it attain great prosperity. On several different occasions, the Turkish Sultans defended the interests of the Monastery against the claims of powerful Jews on the Sinai. At the same time, Christian kings of Europe and other important rulers gave financial assistance and presented the monastery with generous donations.

When Napoleon conquered Egypt in 1798, he placed the monastery under his protection. The documents confirming this status, and which recognizes older privileges granted to the monastery, are now kept in the monastery's gallery.

Through the 14th century, many thousands of pilgrims came annually to the monastery, even though the journey from Cairo took eight days by foot and camel. Following the Reformation, the popularity of Christian pilgrimage drastically declined until, during the mid 1900’s, no more than 80 to100 pilgrims made the arduous journey each year. In the 1950’s the Egyptian government paved roads leading to oil fields and mines along the western Sinai coast and also developed a dirt track to the foot of Jebel Musa and the monastery, which allowed increasing numbers of secular tourists to travel in taxis from Cairo. The completion of a paved road further increased the number of visitors to Jebel Musa. Bus service to and from Cairo became available on a daily basis in 1986 and today it is not uncommon for a hundred or more pilgrims and tourists to visit the ancient sacred site in a single day. Currently Greek Orthodox monks tend the monastery and its extraordinary collection of Byzantine art and illuminated manuscripts.

It is not known when or how the monastery obtained possession of the remains of St Catherine of Alexandria and adopted her name. According to legend her body was transported thither by the hands of angels. The name, however, does not appear in literature before the tenth century.

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Four miles south the southern section of the town stands on a cliff overlooking the port. and is a great view.

Na'ama Beach is one of the center of the tourist activities. Located just north of Sharm, this area is developing into a resort town of its own.  Most hotels at Na'ama Bay have their own, private beaches with comfortable amenities such as chairs, shades and even bars.

Shark's Bay is also nearby, and again is a growing resort community with more and more to offer, along with several diving centers.

The small harbor known as Sharm el-Moiya is located next to the civil harbor, has accommodations for boats, and includes a Yacht Club with rooms. 

For those who live to shop, the Sharm El-Sheikh mall provides shops with both foreign and local products, including jewelry, leather goods, clothing, pottery and books. 

It has been said that this is a must visit for all diving enthusiasts.  There are many diving sites along the 10 mile beach between Sharm el-Sheikh and Ras Nusrani.

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Many people today still think of Egypt as a desert country, which it is to a large extent. But between its mainland Mediterranean coast, its long mainland Red Sea coast and the Sinai, it has an impressive amount of beach area. In fact, despite Egypt's aggressive construction of new beach resorts, the Sinai's western coast remains almost completely undeveloped. However, a notable exception is Ras Sidr, which is a very nice beach better known to Egyptians than foreign travelers. It lies about sixty kilometers south of the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel at the gulf of Suez's northern end.

The eastern coastline and the southern tip of the Sinai have a number of beach resort regions, though by far the most developed region is the region in and around Sharm el-Sheikh. At the other end of the Gulf of Aqaba to the north, Taba has also seen significant development, including an attempt to reproduce the success of El-Gouna on Egypt's mainland Red Sea coast in a project called Taba Heights. Between Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh, the major resorts are found at Nuweiba and Dahab, but all along the eastern coastline of the Sinai are a number of more primitive, though frequently popular, camp areas intermingled with some better resort compounds.

Sharm el-Sheikh is a very different resort community for Egypt, more like one might find in Europe, or even the US. Many of the main resorts are connected by a "boardwalk", which allows one to walk along a path bordered by shops, restaurants, clubs and hotels. There is excitement in the air here, particularly in the evenings when various entertainment cascades down the walk, and it seems like the crowds walking along speak in dozens of different languages. 

The main beach areas at Sharm el-Sheikh itself comprise two adjacent bays, known as Na'ama Bay and Sharm al-Maya. Of these, Na'ama Bay is the oldest development and the location of the boardwalk. Here, hotels are just separated from the beach by the boardwalk, with some facilities such as beach front restaurants and bars built on the beach itself. Sharm al-Maya is less developed with slightly more isolated beach resorts. 

The resort community of Sharm el-Sheikh, usually simply referred to as Sharm, is one of the two main beach havens in Egypt, the other being the vicinity in and around Hurghada on the mainland coast. While Sharm has a completely different flavor than Hurghada, it too receives most of its visitors by European charters. Even though there have been some very fine hotels built at Hurghada, and particularly at El-Gouna just north of Hurghada (and in other areas around Hughada), Sharm el-Sheikh has always been considered the most upscale of the two resort areas. In fact, one will find very few hotels other than four or five stars in Sharm el-Sheikh, while those of Hurghada are more varied. 

However, if one wants it all, from the Hard Rock Cafe to the Four Seasons Hotel, from beautiful reefs and crystal waters to almost a Las Vegas style atmosphere, then Sharm el-Sheikh has to be the Egyptian beach resort of choice. It is a world class spot to launch scuba diving expeditions, with crystal clear waters and many nearby dive sites. 

While Hurghada may still receive more beach tourists than any other region in Egypt, Sharm is famous throughout the world as the "City of Peace", a very secure area where, not infrequently, world leaders, attending summits,  mix with the beach vacationers, and one need not simply be limited to beach activities and world class scuba diving. Sharm el-Sheikh hosted the first ever official European professional golf tournament at the Movenpick Jolie Ville Course, and one may also visit what is, perhaps, the most famous of Egypt's ancient, and still active, monasteries known as St. Catherine's at the foot of Mount Sinai. For nature lovers, there is also Ras Mohammed, Egypt's best known and first National Park just south of Sharm. 

There is also, thirty-five miles north of Sharm, the Nabq Protectorate, the largest coastal park on the Gulf of Aqaba, which includes the world's most northerly mangrove forest. 

Further up the eastern coast of the Sinai, about 85 kilometers north of Sharm, is Dahab. At one time, Dahab had a bit of a reputation as sort of a hippie haven, which time has not completely erased, though it now has grown up and matured into more of a traditional beach resort. There are still beach camps here, but there are now also some good hotels, Italian restaurants and other trappings of tourism. There is a mixed variety of accommodations along a paved beachfront path 

Considerably further up the coast, after passing through the Ras Abu Gallum Protectorate, is Nuweiba, really one of our favorite small beach communities. The atmosphere at Nuweiba is really laid back and completely relaxing. It is, perhaps, not unlike some individual camps along the beaches at certain spots, but at the same time, does provide a little more in the way of accommodations and amenities, though only enough to be utterly comfortable. Here, Bedouin boys lead their camels out in the surf to use as diving platforms, while beach goers eat fish just caught by the same people who cook it up and serve their patrons. 

Nuweiba is divided into three parts. To the south is the port with its bus station, banks and the one really upscale hotel, the Hilton Coral Resort. About eight kilometers south of the port is the city center, which is spread out but contains a small selection of tourists shops, a few restaurants and a small bazaar. Still a bit further north is Tarabin, with a number of small hotels and camp-like operations. 

Further up the coast between Nuweiba and Taba are a number of small beach camps, some of which, while having fairly primitive accommodations and amenities, nevertheless front exotic and beautiful beaches with stunning blue water. These include, beginning from the south, Maagana beach, Ras Shaitan and Mahash. Maagana Beach is located about eight kilometers north of Tarabeen (the northernmost part of Nuweiba). Ras Shaitan is another two kilometers north of Maagana. Of these beaches, Mahash, about twenty kilometers north of Nuweiba is by far the most developed, though still a beach camp for the most part. Here, Basata is an eco-minded camp with about 18 huts and a common kitchen, but there is also now the Tango Beach Resort, a four star hotel with 64 rooms. Mahash is about twenty kilometers north of Nuweiba. There are also several hotels, such as the three star Awaki Beach hotel, and Club Aquasun, which is a 72 room domed hotel with somewhat more amenities. Finally, a bit further north, about 35 kilometers south of Taba is Bir Sweir, which is also a small hut style camp. 

Just prior to the actual city of Taba, some seventeen kilometers to the south, is the massive new Taba Heights development. This is a resort community being built by the same people who put together El-Gouna, in much the same way. There is already a Hyatt Regency, a Marriott and a Sofitel along with a golf course, and there will very soon be a Three Corners El Wekala, if it is not now open. The Taba Heights Inter-Continental is expected to open in 2005, and there will be at least several other major hotels opening in the near future. Like El-Gouna, this resort center is being planned with all of the amenities of El-Gouna, including many water sports facilities including diving shops, as well as a casino. 

In between Taba Heights and Taba itself is another small harbor named the Fjod, with no real accommodations but a small restaurant and beach area. There is also a small hotel called the Salah ad-Din Hotel just a bit further on adjacent to Pharaoh's Island, just before Taba. 

Taba itself is a few hundred meters of beach, and only one real luxury hotel, the Taba Hilton which was recently heavily damaged by a bomb attack. Taba sits on the Egyptian-Israel border. In fact, all that separates the Israeli beach resort of Eilat from Egypt's Taba is the border. 

The hotel is actually a managed property of Hilton Hotels and not owned by them. In a recent interview, Tour Egypt was advised that the owner does intend to repair the facility, though no timetable has been provided for such repairs. However, we were advised that the damage to the hotel may not have been as severe as originally thought, and that the repairs will probably take place as soon as possible. 

The Sinai is really a wonderful place to visit, with majestic mountains and scenery like nowhere else on earth. 

As the Jerusalem Post noted in a recent article, "Israelis consider Taba, just across the Egyptian border with Israel, part of their own backyard - partly because Israel controlled the tiny enclave for 22 years, and Israelis built the hotel that was wrecked by an explosion. Unfortunately, Taba, caters to many Jewish citizens, and it was almost certainly them, and not tourists in general that were targeted in the Taba attack. Nevertheless, the Egyptian government knows that, even though Taba is relatively isolated from most other beach areas in the Sinai, such an attack hurts tourism all over Egypt, and they will do everything in their power to protect the resort, as well as others, from any future problems. In fact, security in the region has already been stepped up considerably.

The location of the bombings are of some significance. The Taba Hilton sits right on the Egypt-Israel border, basically within meters of the physical crossing. This was the largest of the blasts. The second one occurred at Ras Shaitan, a fairly undeveloped beach area on the northern side of a rocky spur that juts out into the Gulf of Aqaba. The third explosion took place, not at Nuweiba as reported by almost all news sources, but about ten kilometers north of the town. In fact, one of these explosions did not cause much damage, we understand, because the vehicle was prevented from reaching its destination by Egyptian Tourist police. 

One interesting and relevant fact about these events is that places such as Taba Heights was not affected, probably because larger resorts have additional security, but perhaps also because there was less of a Jewish presence there. 

The bombings at and near Taba were the first such incident that has occurred in Egypt in some years now and a pity according to just about everyone's perspective. The incident killed and injured Muslims and Jews alike. Egypt considers itself a country of peace, and rightly so. Though an American, I have many friends in Egypt, and while I am not naive enough to think that there are not bad people everywhere, in every country and of ever religious persuasion, there are no more moderate, considerate and caring people than Egyptians. The Taba bombing was an act that alienated those responsible from everyone, crossing both borders and religions. Men such as those who performed this vicious act are always misguided, but these particular men were even more so. 

And while such incidents can happen in any corner of the world, obviously including the US, the Egyptian government is dedicated, above all else, to protecting its tourists. There is no doubt about that, because tourism provides essential hard revenue to both the Egyptian government and the people of Egypt, many of whom directly or indirectly support their families through the tourist industry. 

In the final analysis, Taba is not a major resort area for Egypt, really having less facilities, for example, than even Nuweiba or Dahab. It is a nice area and, of course, we can expect that Taba Heights some distance to the south, but not to really be confused with Taba itself, will be a very major and secure facility, as is El Gouna.

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Beach Vacation in Egypt

Despite Egypt's ancient allure, today the country probably attracts more beach vacationers than any other type of tourists. This is because, for many Europeans, the warm Egyptian beaches are both inexpensive and well appointed. Many European countries specifically lack warm beaches and the alternatives to Egypt are somewhat expensive. Therefore, not only do people come to Egypt's beaches independently, but many arrive by way of chartered airlines that specialize in such vacations from Europe. 

Depending on how one looks at it, Egypt can be said to have as many as seven beach zones. These consist of the Mediterranean beaches along the mainline coast from the Suez Canal over to Libya, the Mediterranean beaches along the northern Sinai, the Sinai coast along the gulf of Aqaba, the Sinai coast along the Gulf of Suez, the southern Sinai region which opens onto the Red Sea, the Mainland coast along the Gulf of Suez and the Mainland coast south of that along the Red Sea. Each of these areas vary either somewhat, or extensively from the others. Obviously the biggest differences are between the Mediterranean coast and all of the other regions that connect with the Red Sea. Some of these regions attract extensive tourism, while  others are almost void of tourists. Some attract very specific tourists, while others are more generalized.

In reality, the various regions are looked upon somewhat differently. For example, on the Egyptian mainland coast along the Mediterranean, there is a vast difference between the area from Alexandria over to Port Said from the region west of Alexandria. East of Alexandria is very populous along much of the Delta and not suitable for beaches until one reaches the northern Sinai.  The beaches at Alexandria cater almost exclusively to Egyptians, with the exception of some specific resorts, who either have their own villas or apartments, or who stay in hotel facilities. In fact, probably most Egyptians come to Alexandria not for a beach vacation as such, but to escape the heat of Cairo. West of Alexandria along the coast, thinning out as one proceeds further west, but extending almost to the Libyan border, are resorts that differ from the beach hotels and facilities to the east. These are frequently compounds, as opposed to real villages, some of which are very exclusive and have only recently been built. The main point is that, while indeed some foreign tourists can be found in this region, they are very few in number, other than tourists visiting Alexandria for more classical reasons. This, of course, may change over time. The regions west of Alexandria has been called "underdeveloped". That too is rapidly changing, as new resorts are popping up all along the shoreline, particularly just west of Alexandria.

One of the intriguing aspects of the Mediterranean coast beach resorts is that there is a certain amount of experimentation with various types of Beaches. For example, around Marina, one of Egypt's most exclusive northern beach resort areas, specific beaches have been set aside for women, who wish to enjoy the beach without interference from male eyes, and youth, where the atmosphere is a little more lively and geared to their pleasures.

Along the north Sinai coast there is today actually very little tourism. In fact, about the only well known tourist location is Al-Arish, which has tried to make a go of tourism but has not been too successful, even though there are some fairly nice hotels in the village.

What is not surprising is that the mainland beach along the Gulf of Suez is ever more popular among Egyptians, and may very well become more important to foreign tourists as well. Though perhaps not quite as warm as beaches further south, resort complexes such as Stella Di Mari, which already receives a large number of Italian tourists in particular, are very nice, relatively inexpensive, and an easy visit from Cairo. We have often praised this location, along an area known as Ain Sukhna, for its convenience to Cairo as a quick Red Sea jaunt (though it is actually on the Gulf of Suez), which also allows tourists close access to visit the Suez Canal, and fairly close access to the famous Eastern Desert Monasteries of St. Anthony and St. Paul. Though this area remains mostly a destination for Egyptians, we expect to see more and more foreign tourists in the future, for which it is well suited.

It is rather interesting that, along with the northern Mediterranean Sinai coast, the Sinai coast along the Gulf of Suez has not much been developed as a tourist destination, either for Egyptians or foreigners. This is not to say that no facilities exist, but they are very sparse.

Where we begin to see the most foreign beach goers is as Egypt's mainland coast opens onto the Red Sea. Specifically, the  and Hurghada region is one of the most popular beach areas in Egypt among foreign tourists. Hurghada has traditionally been known as one of the most  affordable beach resort communities, though there are certainly more luxurious facilities available in the city proper, while El Gouna, just to the north, has strictly an upper class reputation. Just to the south of Hurghada is also the exclusive compound of Soma Bay, with several hotels and a fine golf course. As one travels further south along the mainland Egyptian coast, resorts areas become less dense, and many of the more southern tourist destinations are more scuba diving camps than resorts though, for example Marsa Alam is gaining in importance as a general tourist destination.

The eastern shore of the Sinai along the Gulf of Aqaba has a number of beach vacation resorts and towns, from the very northern tip of the Gulf all the way down to the southern end of the the Sinai. These areas really are frequented almost entirely by foreign tourists. However, they vary considerably, from Taba, which probably receives most of its tourism from Israel, down to Sharm el-Sheikh, which like Hurghada, is one of the main tourist destinations for beach goers to Egypt. In between Taba and Sharm el-Sheikh are Nuweiba and Dahab, which seem to cater to a mix of foreign tourists looking for perhaps a little less formal resorts and for that matter, less crowded resorts.

In Egypt, one of the nice things about its beach resorts is that just about every area seems to be interestingly different, and there are a wide range from the standpoint of expense. Facilities range from very rudimentary beach camps to the finest imaginable five star hotels, and include the possibility of villa rentals. In general, in the region south of Hurghada, not including Marsa Alam, beach camps and more rudimentary accommodations seem to be more dominant, but then so too are open beaches with little in the way of crowds. On the east, Aqaba side of the Sinai, while Taba and especially Sharm el-Sheikh are built up areas with fine facilities to choose from, the area in between these two  destinations tend to be more camp-like, though there are certainly a few fine hotels here and there. These areas, south of Hurghada (and south of Soma Bay, and not including Marsa Alam), tend to be very laid back areas of beach with less formal entertainment facilities than the main tourist areas of El Gouna, Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba and more and more, Marsa Alam.

However, even the grand tourist destinations can be very different. For example, Hurghada is almost two cities in one. There is the downtown area with its less expensive hotels, some with beach front property, and then there are the individual resorts that are really somewhat segregated from the downtown area. The more segregated beach resorts at Hurghada are not all that different from those further north in the area of Ain Sukhna and along the Northern mainland coast west of Alexandria. They are essentially self contained complexes that offer little availability to the main city of Hurghada. Tourists tend to not stray far from the compound where they are staying. On the other hand, El Gouna, just to the north of Hurghada is set up more to allow tourists in the various resorts to roam around in the small village. Sharm el-Sheikh is probably the most open resort area, with a boardwalk that connects most of the beach front resorts and the town center, though there are a few more isolated resorts. What this means for the most part is that the entertainment possibilities in Sharm are much more varied.

It should be noted that in many more isolated compounds, such as Stella Di Mari in the north, there may be more than enough activities and entertainment for most people. Many of the individual compounds such as this have more than one hotel, and work hard to include various forms of entertainment and activities for the whole family.

One of the main differences between the the coastal regions that border the Red Sea and those in the Gulfs and Mediterranean Zones is the availability of Scuba Diving. There is some sparse scuba diving facilities in just about every zone, but by far, most Scuba Diving facilities are located from El-Gouna south along the Red Sea, and around Sharm el-Sheikh on the Sinai. In fact, perhaps as much as 80% of all Scuba Diving activities originate from the immediate region of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh. This is not to say that activities such as snorkeling cannot be found at almost all beach areas. Furthermore, other activities such as windsurfing and skiing, while available in many different locations, seems to be very popular along the mainland Gulf of Suez Zone. At various locations on just about all of the beaches there are other water sports available, such as sail boat rentals and parasailing.

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Of contemporary remains of Dynasty III, there is nothing more to record save some blocks of a temple built by Djoser at Heliopolis, so that we may now pass to the period which marked the apogee of Egyptian history. If its five great pyramids were all that the Fourth Dynasty had to show by way of accomplishment, these would still have to be viewed as a manifestation of purposeful power and technical genius unsurpassed in any age or clime. The excavations of the last sixty years have brought about an important modification in our conception of a pyramid. So far from this being merely a self-sufficient geometrically shaped tumulus of masonry raised above a royal burial, or, to define it more exactly, a gigantic tomb having a square base and four equal triangular sides meeting at the apex. It now appears rather as the culminating point of a vast funerary area comprising, apart from the pyramid itself, three distinct parts. First, near the desert edge and overlooking the cultivation so as to be accessible by boat in the Inundation season, there was regularly a Valley Chapel of modest, though none the less stately, proportions. Thence a walled-in Causeway often exceeding a quarter of a mile in length led upwards to the Funerary Temple proper, this abutting directly on to the east side of the pyramid, where a 'false door' or stela recessed so as to imitate a doorway enabled the deceased monarch to emerge in order to partake of the lavish fare from the many estates attached to the funerary foundation. The walls of all three elements were apt to be adorned with reliefs and inscriptions illustrating the various activities of the estates, the achievements of the Pharaoh, and the daily and festival ritual celebrated in his honor. Smaller pyramids close to his own were the burial-places of his wives and daughters. The pyramid shape was definitely the prerogative of royalty, both in size and in outward aspect contrasting vividly with the flat-topped mastabas of the related princes, courtiers, and officials which clustered around, and were apt to be laid out in orderly streets like those of a well-planned town. No visual symbol could have better conveyed the awe-inspiring relationship between an all-powerful monarch habitually described as ntr 'the great god' or ntr nfr 'the goodly god' and those who were at once his servants and his worshippers. A feature that has come into increasingly prominence of late is the presence on several sides of the pyramid of a full-sized wooden boat lying within a special roofed-over trench of its own. Examples of such boats have now been found as early as Dynasty I, and they have often been supposed to enable the king to travel across the sky in the train of the sun-god, but since they are found facing towards all four points of the compass, it is probable that they were intended simply to enable the pyramid-owner to voyage wherever he desired, even as he did while living upon earth.

Manetho's Dynasty IV starts with a king whose name is corruptly given as Soris. By this must be meant Snofru, already referred to as the successor of Huni. Since his wife, of whom more hereafter, bore the title 'Daughter of the God' it has been supposed that Huni was her father and that Snofru owed his throne to this connection. However that may be, the importance of what has survived of his activities, as well as the fact of his later deification at the turquoise mines of Sinai, makes it natural to think of him as the initiator of a new era. By a lucky chance the Palermo Stone together with the large Cairo fragment has preserved records of six of his twenty-four or more years of reign; besides the building of many ships and the making of doors and statues for his palace there are recalled a campaign against a Nubian land whence he is asserted to have brought back 7,000 captives and 200,000 head of cattle, and another campaign against the Tjehnyu Libyans which yielded very substantial, although smaller, booty. Even more interesting is the already mentioned arrival, doubtless from Byblos at the foot of the Lebanon, of forty vessels laden with cedar-wood. Any other achievements of the kind that there may have been would, however, doubtless pale against the mighty memorials of himself still to be seen at Dahshur, 4 miles south of Saqqara. It cannot but seem extraordinary that one and the same king should have built for himself two pyramids of vast dimensions at no great distance from one another, but the fact is vouched for by a decree of the time of Piopi I exempting their personnel from certain services to which less fortunate subjects of the Pharaoh were liable. The stele bearing this decree was found in what may well have been the Valley Chapel of the Northern Stone Pyramid of Dahshur, which therefore almost certainly belongs to Snofru. Recent excavations have proved that the second stone pyramid 2 miles farther south likewise belonged to him, and since it is hard to imagine that he erected three pyramids, the one at Maidum is now tentatively ascribed to Huni, though Snofru may have been responsible for its completion. The balance of evidence, however, seems to point to the unpalatable conclusion that Snofru did possess three pyramids. The southern of the two Dahshur pyramids is known as the Bent or Rhomboidal Pyramid on account of the conspicuously lower angle of its upper half. Its northern neighbor displays practically the same decrease throughout its whole slope, and consequently may be the later of the two. Both exceed 310 feet in height, and internally show the further resemblance of possessing very lofty corbelled burial-chambers. The excavations by Ahmed Fakhry at the Bent Pyramid have brought to light in its Valley Chapel admirable reliefs depicting female offering-bearers personifying Snofru's funerary estates in the various nomes of Upper Egypt, these presented in the order that subsequently became stereotyped. There had also been a Lower Egyptian series, but of this only a tiny scrap has been preserved. These scenes are of great importance as showing that already at this early date there had come into existence the broad administrative pattern which was to survive right down into Graeco-Roman times.

Snofru left behind him the reputation of an ideally beneficent and good-humored monarch. After him the line of pyramids moved north to Giza almost opposite Cairo, and with only a single exception they move consistently southwards. To describe the Giza pyramids as among the Seven Wonders of the World might even seem an understatement, since the Great Pyramid surpasses in bulk every building known to have been raised by the enterprise of man, its height (481 ft.) being exceeded in monuments made entirely of stone only by the tower of Ulm Cathedral. As already mentioned, the names of the creators of the three architectural giants stretching diagonally across the desert plateau at Giza are given by Herodotus as Cheops, Chephren, and Mycerinus respectively, and though in these forms they are far from correct, their familiarity justifies their continued use. The Great Pyramid has been described elsewhere so fully and so well that no more need here be said than that its internal arrangements exhibit two complete changes of plan, the last of which involved the construction of the marvelous Grand Gallery slanting upwards to the actual burial-place, a stately hall of granite now known as the King's Chamber. Three small pyramids at the base of the eastern side were destined for the royal builder's wives, while large mastabas in front of these were reserved for his principal sons. The funerary temple is now completely destroyed, but some blocks with sculptured reliefs are believed to have come from the causeway. Little is known of the author's career apart from this material testimony to his autocratic power. His cartouche, giving the name Khufwey or more fully Khnomkhufwey, is found in various quarries, in the tombs of his kinsfolk and his nobles, and in certain writings of later date. But among these many mentions no contemporary record can claim genuine historical value except that connected with the burial of his mother Hetephras. In February 1925 the Harvard expedition directed by Dr. Reisner was investigating the area immediately in front of the east side of the Great Pyramid when it hit upon the carefully concealed entrance to a tomb-shaft at the bottom of which was discovered the collapsed, but entire, burial outfit of this wife of Snofru and mother of Khufwey. The reconstruction of the furniture required many years of patient effort, but the result was the acquisition by the Cairo Museum of a collection of objects unrivaled for their chaste beauty and lovely proportions . This is not the place to expatiate upon the gold-cased and inlaid bed, carrying-chair, curtain box, and other treasures of this unique find, but we need to dwell a little upon the enigma which it presents. Though the wrapped viscera of the queen were found stored away in an alabaster box of the kind already at this period sometimes used for the purpose, not a trace of her mummified body was to be seen when the lid of the sarcophagus was raised. The dark romance reconstructed by Reisner to explain so strange a circumstance must be read in his own words. All that seems appropriate to be said in the present statement of facts being that there had clearly been a reburial carried out with the utmost secrecy and in such a way as to guard against any further molestation. It must be added that the family relationships of Khufwey's wives and children have been reconstructed by Reisner and his assistant Stevenson Smith with the utmost skill and ingenuity, but are too speculative to be discussed here. Nor is there any sound criterion upon which to base a decision as to Khufwey's length of reign. This the Turin Canon states as Twenty-three years, while Manetho, perhaps only guessing, accords to him no less than sixty-three.

The like may well apply to the sixty-six years which Manetho allows to Khufwey's second successor, the builder of the Second Pyramid. We have seen that the name given to him by Herodotus was Chephren. On the strength of this Egyptologists have been generally agreed to read his cartouche a Kha'fre', but not long ago Ranke produced strong reasons for inverting the two elements of the compound name and for reading it as Ra'kha'ef. If this be correct, we must suppose that the true pronunciation was later forgotten and replaced by another reflecting the written order of the two elements. Since, however, Ranke's surmise has not yet received the hall-mark of Egyptological acceptance, it is best to adhere to the time-honored appellation Chephren. The magnitude of Chephren's achievement as a pyramid-builder has been unduly over-shadowed by that of his father Khufwey, since alike in area and in height there is no great difference between their two monuments, and owing to the Second Pyramid's position on higher ground it actually appears the larger. The broken sarcophagus of polished granite still stands in its place in the burial-chamber, but the robbers left no trace of its original occupant. Substantial remains of the three parts of a normal pyramid establishment are still to be seen. The outstanding feature in Chephren's Funerary Temple is the immense size of the limestone blocks used in its construction, larger than any elsewhere known from Ancient Egypt. Whatever sculptured reliefs there may have been here and in the Causeway have perished, save perhaps one or two fragments. Neither have any been found in the Valley Chapel, where such decoration could only have detracted from the beauty of the plain red granite walls. As it still survives, this Valley Chapel , formerly miscalled the Temple of the Sphinx, is among the most awe-inspiring sights of the Giza area. The spacious halls with their austere square pillars reflect the simple, but for that reason all the more impressive, aesthetic standards of those early times. Here too, among other statues of Chephren, was found that marvelous diorite figure which is surely among the greatest masterpieces of statuary that have survived for antiquity.

Immediately to the north-east is the Sphinx, in the popular fancy of all ages the embodiment of unsolved mystery and recondite truth. Now that this colossal image of a human-headed lion has been completely disengaged from the surrounding sand, much of its cryptic charm has disappeared. But the riddle of its origin remains. The most probable view seems to be that it was fashioned by Chephren out of the knoll of rock close to his Causeway and so conveniently inviting portrayal of himself in the combined aspect of a man and a lion. The model doubtless did not start with him, and was fated to become a commonplace not only of Egyptian architectural adornment, but also as a decorative motif throughout the entire world. The Egyptians themselves were not interested in the historical origin of this particular specimen. For them the Giza Sphinx was a god whom they named Har-em-akhe 'Horus in the horizon', in Greek Harmachis. But it is certain that it was also regarded as a likeness of the king. There is much plausibility in the late Professor Gunn's suggestion that the word ssp'nh 'living image', a phrase properly requiring the addition 'of the Lord of the Universe' or 'of (the god) Atum' that is sometimes found. It is strange that Herodotus completely ignored the Sphinx, and that Pliny was the only classical author to mention it.

Concerning the events of Chephren's reign there is no more to be told than in the case of Cheops. The tradition preserved by Herodotus that both these kings were cruel and impious tyrants was perhaps only a deduction from the immense labors that they imposed upon their unfortunate subjects. The lie is given to the charge of impiety by large granite blocks from Mubastis bearing their names and evidently belonging to a temple. The reigns of the two kings were separated from one another by that of RA'djedef, whose tenure of the throne lasted only eight years. For some mysterious reason he selected for his pyramid a site a few miles to the north-west of Giza, and there, at Abu Roash, its unfinished remains have been excavated. Another short reign or even two may have intervened between Chephren and Mycerinus, if the figure of 18 (or 28?) years in the Turin Canon is to be assigned to the latter. To Mycerinus or Menkaure', to give his name a pronunciation in better accord with the hieroglyphic writing, belongs the Third Pyramid at Giza, a much smaller structure which would have vied with its gigantic neighbors in magnificence if the plan of coating the whole of it in red granite could have been carried out. The work was, however, left unfinished, and the use of crude brick for much of the Causeway and the Valley Chapel bears witness to its owner's unexpected demise. There is no means of telling how this came about, nor is it possible to say what credence should be given to Herodotus's statement that Mycerinus was a pious and beneficent king, in glaring contrast to his two great predecessors. The thoroughgoing investigation of his pyramid site by Reisner and his assistants was rewarded by the discovery of much splendid statuary. Of this perhaps the finest piece is the life-size slate group of Mycerinus and his queen which is among the principal treasures of the Boston Museum. There was also a series of much smaller slate triads representing Mycerinus between the goddess Hathor and one or other of the deities of the nomes; of these there may originally have been as many as forty-two, but only four have survived intact.

After Mycerinus the fortunes of the dynasty rapidly fell to pieces. His pyramid was hastily completed and equipped by Shepseskaf, the only other king of Dynasty IV recognized as legitimate by contemporaries and the Table of Abydos, though the Saqqara king-list added three more whose names are lost and consequently cannot be checked with those given by Manetho. That something went amiss about this time is suggested by the fact that Shepseskaf chose South Saqqara as his burial-ground and caused to be built there for himself, not a pyramid, but a tomb shaped, except for its sloping walls, like a typical sarcophagus of the period with beveled roof and straight upstanding ends. This tomb, known to natives of the district as the Mastabat el-Fara'un, was shortly afterwards imitated at Giza in a monument sometimes called the Unfinished or Fourth Pyramid. Excavations have shown that this monument between the causeways of Chephren and Mycerinus belonged to a King's Mother named Khantkawes whose cult was assiduously kept up throughout Dynasty V. Controversy has arisen over the inscription upon her huge false door, Junker believing it to show that she actually arrogated to herself the title 'King of Upper and Lower Egypt', a claim made by only three other women throughout the entire course of Egyptian history. There is, however, an alternative translation which is philological tenable, and which describes her as the mother of two kings, not only of one. In any case, it seems agreed that Khantkawes was the ancestress of Dynasty V, though that opinion is in conflict with the tradition preserved in a story of the late Middle Kingdom, according to which the first three kings of Dynasty V were the triplet sons of the wife of a simple priest of Re' in the Delta town of Sakhebu.

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Great Pyramids

Though there are many outstanding ancient monuments in Egypt that survive to this day, one in particular is best known and the most closely associated by the general public with ancient Egypt. It is, of course, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), the largest in Egypt, located on the Giza Plateau just outside Cairo. Its name was "Khufu's Horizon" In fact, even if people have very little knowledge of Egypt, they will frequently not only know of this monument, but will also have any number of opinions about how and when it was built, as well as its function. Arguably, it is the best known manmade structure in the world, and for good reason.

Of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Khufu's Pyramid is the first, and only survivor. It is indeed impressive, originally standing some 146.59 (481 feet) high and covering about thirteen acres of land , though in the last hundred or so years, modern marvels (the Empire State Building, built in 1930, is over three times as tall though situated on only two acres of land) probably make it seem less impressive to visitors than to those who, for thousands of years, came to visit the pyramid prior to our modern era. In reality, modern scholars for the most part probably find this pyramid less interesting than many other ancient structures in Egypt, mostly because it is not decorated with reliefs and inscriptions (though parts of its subsidiary structures were), and is otherwise, except for some parts of its  internal structure, a fairly typical pyramid complex. Other pyramids are almost as large, and many pyramids are really more enigmatic. Khufu's pyramid was not the first, nor was it even the first true pyramid. Other pharaohs, such as Sneferu, Khufu's father, had moved probably as much stone, building three different pyramids himself.

Yet, Khufu's pyramid was, in a line of astonishing architectural leaps forward, a significant link in Pyramid building's evolution. In terms of its size, the technical accomplishments of its construction, the great concern for cardinality and the organization required for its construction, this pyramid represents a phenomenal effort. Like later pyramids, it encompasses all of the standard elements of the pyramid complex, though most have since disappeared. The finished pyramid, which included a superstructure and substructure, was surrounded by an enclosure wall of fine Turah limestone, which enclosed a court paved in limestone. There was a valley temple, a causeway from it leading to a mortuary Temple that was itself situated against the pyramid. There was also a cult pyramid, as well as three pyramids for the burial of queens, a number of boat pit and other structures.

Though we really do not know with absolute certainty, the pyramid complex of Khufu probably remained mostly intact for almost 4,000 years. During that period of time, most visitors to it must have been amazed by its enormity, and probably by the ancient Egyptian's reverence toward the structure.

In the end, the deterioration of this pyramid, like its conception, can be attributed at least partially to religion. It was created to bury the king in a complex that would conform to the  ancient Egyptian religion. It probably survived in relatively good shape until that religion was replaced by another, and then another. By the time the Arabs invaded Egypt during the seventh century, there was little or no religious reverence afforded the structure, so casing stones and other building material from the complex were reused for new building projects in the area of Cairo.  This process was not exclusive to Khufu's pyramid and in fact, the reuse of material from older structures was not even uncommon during the age of the pharaohs. However, even this did not happen to the Great Pyramids until, in the Middle Ages, a series of earthquakes loosened the casing stones and allowed them to be harvested for other projects.

Most people with a limited knowledge of Egypt believe that the Great Pyramids of Giza lie out in the desert, and are therefore rather surprised when, traveling down Pyramid road to the east,  they see them rise up, seemingly among the distant buildings. They in fact sit on the city limits of Greater Cairo, and are threatened by man's expansion, though scholars are very aware of this today, and work to prevent damage to the structure.

For awhile, mankind treated the Great Pyramid with more curiosity than reverence. It was tunneled through, climbed, and generally abused, right up to our modern era. In her book, The Mena House Oberoi, Nina Nelson tells us that, "Climbing Cheop's Great Pyramid continues all and every day. It is a labourious task yet everyone who does it enjoys it. The blocks of stone measure from two to five feet high and certainly one3 should have a guide to help pull one along the difficult places." At one time, various people even attempted to set records for scaling the monument.

During World War II, there were even gun emplacements built on its apex. The Egyptological community, and particularly Zahi Hawass can be credited for bringing that to a halt. No longer are people allowed to climb it (unless very special permission is granted), and its investigation today is always non-intrusive. Planes are not allowed to fly above it and in general, it receives the national protection it deserves.

Nevertheless, it has been and continues to be a place of considerable activity. Races were often held at the pyramids, and in recent years, it has served as a backdrop for artistic displays and musical performances. With Zahi Hawass as Chairman of the SCA, it is doubtful that we will see  many more performances by artists such as Sting and the Grateful Dead, but it remains the primary venue for Verdi's Aida opera.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Khufu's pyramid complex is the amazing amount of investigation it has received, and the astonishing degree of controversy that it has inspired. The research of the complex continues even today, and new discoveries, sometimes major ones, have been made even in recent years. For example, only very recently, the estimated number of blocks used to build the pyramid itself has been cut almost in half, while as I write this article, a new robot is being prepared to further investigate the pyramid's internal structure.

The history of man's thoughts about this structure is by far more complex, and often more interesting than the pyramid itself. Even in recent years, speculation that the pyramid was constructed by aliens or perhaps Atlantians continues. Countless books have been written about this Pyramid, many scholarly, but others not.

Take, for example, the matter of the metric system. Used by most countries as the official standard of measure, and by the scientific community worldwide, there has been a reluctance on the part of Americans and the British to incorporate the system. Much of this may be a reluctance on the part of their respective populations to change from the system familiar to them.  However, the Great Pyramid of Khufu certainly played a part in all of this.

John Taylor was an eccentric British publisher who, in 1859, produced a work entitled The Great Pyramid: Why Was it Built? And Who Built It? Borrowing from the work of Tompkins, he thought that the Pyramid was actually built by Noah of biblical fame. He thought that the Great Pyramid's dimensions were very purposeful, which they probably were, but he saw in them relationships to many physical measurements, such as the number of days in the year and the radius of the earth. Part of his calculations involved a unit of measure he called the Pyramid Inch which he believed the Egyptians used in building the pyramid, which only differed from the British inch very slightly. He is essentially credited with being one of the founders of modern Pyramidology, but his ideas would probably not have caught on were it not for the work of Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, a British Israelite and the Astronomer-Royal of Scotland. Smyth built on Taylor's ideas. Though Taylor had not traveled to Egypt, Smyth did, and set about measuring every minute detail of Khufu's monument.

Smyth attempted to connect the measurements he made of the pyramid to many different natural aspects of the world and our universe, to the point were even many of his contemporaries thought him ludicrous. A Christian man, Smyth nevertheless though that the number relationships he derived from the pyramid were a record of "perfect" standards of measurement that God intended man to use. In reality, many of Smyth's calculations seem artificial and arbitrary to us today. Smyth was hardly a dispassionate, objective scientist when dealing with the pyramid. His writings shows that he certainly had a deep emotional commitment to demonstrating "scientifically" that the Christian religion is true, and that he saw his work with the pyramid as a means by which he could do so.

In his work, he pointed out that the meter was devised by man, whereas he believed the Pyramid Inch, and thus the British Inch, were a measurement provided by god. And while scientists seem to have in general rejected the work of Taylor and Smyth, a number of Christian religious leaders accepted their theories and made them an article of faith, particularly in England and the US, but also even in France.

Many of Smyth's contemporaries and disciples were as hostile to the metric system as was he. With some amusement Martin Gardner recounts the fact that in the United States the pyramidologist Ohio Auxiliary Society, of which President James A. Garfield was a supporter, published a journal entitled The International Standard to defend the "true inch" and other measurements against the metric system. Thus, the Great Pyramid of Khufu became a star in the arsenal of 19th century Christianity, and at least for a time, helped arrest the expansion of the  metric system of measurement. But perhaps more importantly, Taylor and Smyth helped create a mystic association with the Pyramid Khufu that spawned imaginative ideas that continue to this day.

When one visits the Pyramid of Khufu, one is actually walking in the footsteps of the famous, both of the modern and ancient world. Alexandria the Great stood before it, just as modern visitors, and swore to build for his father, the Macedonian king Philip II, a funerary monument as large as the Great Pyramid, though death took him before he was able to do so. Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny certainly all made visits to the pyramid. Doubtless, every famous traveler in antiquity must have visited Khufu's complex. Many later individuals came to see this wonder of the ancient world, and they continue to come today.  For years, it was popular for them to climb the pyramid, though this is no longer allowed, but atop it one can see the names etched in stone of those who did.

Though most of the early visitors to the Great Pyramid were non-intrusive, by the time of the Arab Invasion of Egypt, the ancient Egyptian religion was gone and so too was apparently the Egyptian's understanding of the monument. Fables arose of fabulous treasures and immense knowledge contained within the structure, long before Taylor and Smyth's work. Finally, Caliph al-Ma'moun (831-832 AD) is believed to have acted upon this information. Though the pyramid, or at least the substructure had been breached by unknown robbers during antiquity, al-Ma'moun was apparently the first known individual to do so. After having at least looked for the original entrance, but unable to find it, al-Ma'moun instructed his men to tunnel into the pyramid from a point at the center of its north face, seven courses up. Apparently, the pyramid still held at least some of its casing stones, for they had to light fires to heat the blocks before cooling them rapidly with vinegar to induce fractures. Once past the outer core, they dug for about 100 feet, finding nothing in the process. However, one of the workmen heard a muffled thud of something heavy falling within the pyramid, not too far away, and they altered course and eventually broke through into what is now known as the "Descending Passage". While al-Ma'moun's men explored a considerable part of the pyramid's interior structure, they apparently found nothing except an empty coffin, though rumors, legends and fables, also grew from their exploration.

Even though al-Ma'moun apparently found no riches or hidden knowledge within the Great Pyramid, it continued to retain its mysterious, hidden meaning for most travelers. All of the European scientific travelers and pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land seem to have visited it. They are too numerous to mention here. However, the first attempt at an Egyptological study, it seems, was conducted by John Greaves, and English scholar from whom Tomkins would later draw some of more fanciful ideas. he climbed to the top, measured the pyramid's blocks and also made his way inside the pyramid. His sectional drawing of the structure is remarkably accurate for its time.

However, only at the turn of the nineteenth century did true archaeological work begin using scientific methods. Nathaniel Davison discovered a lower relieve chamber as well as a tunnel connecting it with the Great Gallery during the 1760s. The scholars with Napoleon's expedition also measured and described the Great Pyramid again, and made exploratory soundings in and around it. Early in the nineteenth century, Giovanni Battista Caviglia cleaned out many spaces inside the pyramid and in 1937, both Vyse and Perring investigated the structure. Their books, Operations Carried Out on the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837 (3 vols.) and The Pyramids of Gizeh (3 vols.), respectively, are still valuable sources.

Between 1843 and 1844, Lepsius focused his attention primarily on the structure of the Great Pyramid, expressing his view that the core consisted of inclined accretion layers. For the birthday of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the archaeologists honored their prince and patron by scaling the pyramid and flying a flat from its top. Petrie, who carefully examined the Pyramid between 1881 and 1882 did not agree with Lepsius' accretion theory. Petrie, who seems to have always been more interested in his Egyptological studies than comfort, set up his headquarters in one of the nearby rock-cut tombs, and slept on a layer of sand, using a kerosene stove for cooking. The account of his investigations, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, remains even today one of the most important studies on the pyramids.

Borchardt also worked on the famous monument. He first concentrated on explaining the method originally used to measure and orient the ground plan, and on reconstructing the stages in which the pyramid was built.

In 1954, The Egyptian archaeologists Kamal Mallakh and Zaki Iskander and their colleagues discovered on the south side of the Great Pyramid, two pits that contained intact burial boats. Later, in the second half of the 1980s, the French architects, Jean-Ptrice Dormion and Gilles Goidin made precise geophysical measurements of its inner core, which was later confirmed by a Japanese team.

Finally, Zahi Hawass, a longtime investigator at Giza and now the Chairman of the SCA (Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities), focused on the grounds of the presumed valley temple, the causeway and the mortuary temple. It was he who, not so long ago, discovered the cult pyramid as well as its pyramidion. Though he has now moved on to head Egypt's antiquity community, work nevertheless continues.

Today, the Pyramid of Khufu, though lacking its original luster, remains perhaps the most visited site in Egypt. It is said that "Man fears Time, yet Time fears the Pyramids" Hence, the Pyramid of Khufu, though not the oldest in Egypt, nevertheless has become a symbol of long lasting durability, and it is probably for this reason more than any other, that one can still find it pictured on the reverse of the US Dollar Bill.

Technical

The Pyramid

Height: 146.5m
Base: 230.38m
Slope: 51o 50'

Great Gallery

Height: 8.48 to 8.74m
Length 47.85m
Slope: 26o 16' 40"

Queens Chamber

Height 6.26m
Length 5.76m
Width 5.23m

King's Chamber

Height: 5.84m
Length: 10.49m
Width: 5.42m

Causeway

Length: 825m

Boat Pits (On Northeast and Southeast Corners of Pyramid

Depth: 8m
Length 52m
Width: 7.5m

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Egypt Highlights

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest tombstone on the list of the Seven Wonders of the Antique World. The Great Pyramid took about 20 years to complete, and several theories are debated by scholars as to how it was built and by whom. Some theories point to slave labor, but it seems more reasonable that Egyptians themselves lent their efforts, working during the times of year when the Nile was flooded and their farm work would not have been possible. It would have been a sort of civil service.

Sphinx is an image of a recumbent lion with a human head invented by the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom, and is a cultural import in Greek mythology. Sakkara is one of the most wide archaeological sites in Egypt! It was the burial ground for Memphis, the capital of Ancient Egypt, yet it is still one of the virgin archaeological sites, despite the fact that so much has already been found here! The Egyptian museums describe the history and historical events of Egypt.
Mohamed Ali Mosque is surrounded by the most attractive Mosques in Egypt. It stands proudly on the highest point inside the courtyard of the Citadel of Saladin, and is also called the Alabaster Mosque. The architect was Yousf Boushnaq, a Turkish man who had come over from Istanbul to construct this huge Mosque for Mohamed Ali, the ruler of Egypt from1805 until 1849. He based his strategy on the Sultan Ahamed Mosque in Istanbul, and the building began in 1830 A.D. The work sustained ceaselessly until the death of Mohamed Ali in 1849, and had to be over during the reign of his successors.

Construction of the Abu Simbel Temple complex started in approximately 1284 BC and lasted for circa 20 years, until 1264 BC. Their purpose was to impress Egypt's southern neighbors, and also to support the status of Egyptian religion in the region. This is the great temple of Abu Simbel, dedicated to the glory of pharao Ramses II. Philae Island was a rocky island in the middle of the River Nile, south of Aswan. It was called in Hieroglyphic “Apo” which means Ivory. It was also known by the Greek “Elephantine”, most likely because it was an important centre of trade, especially for ivory.

Right-travel is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. It is much more than what we refer to as the Valley of the Kings, though many have called the whole of the area by that name. The Egyptian faith that "To speak the name of the dead is to make him live again" is surely carried out in the building of the tombs. The king's formal names and titles are inscribed in his tomb along with his images and statues.

The temple of Karnak was known as Ipet-isut (Most select of places) and was devoted to the Theben triad of Amen, Mut and Khonsu. It is actually a complex of three main temples, smaller enclosed temples, and several outer temples. This vast complex was built and enlarged over a thirteen hundred year period. Karnak is the biggest temple complex in the world, covering an area of 100 hectares.

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the River Nile in the city today known as Luxor. Many festivals were celebrated in Thebes. The Temple of Luxor was the center of the most important one, the festival of Opet. Built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, it appears that the temple's purpose was for a suitable setting for the rituals of the festival. The festival itself was to reconcile the human aspect of the ruler with the divine office.

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Shopping in Egypt

Egypt is a wonderland of shopping opportunities. Of course, there are the famous bazaars such as the Khan el-Khalili, but then there are also thousands of unusual stores scattered about the country, and especially in Cairo, though some products are better purchased perhaps from the locale from which they are produced, such as alabaster in Luxor. However, Cairo provides a huge variety of everything from antiques to fine clothing and especially jewelry.

In some shops, you must haggle while in others the price will be set. Which type of store provides the best possible deals depends both on the shop itself and the haggling ability of the buyer an seller. Frequently though some of the best deals at the best consistent quality is found in stores with fixed prices. There are many tourists who are not used to the concept of negotiating deals or haggling over prices, but these skills are part of the fun of shopping in Egypt and may be useful in other places too. Haggling is an art. But, it should only be used in the right place. In some exclusive shops, supermarkets, coffee shops, restaurants, clubs and public transport there is usually no haggling. Haggling is acceptable in the old souks where you can buy anything from gold bracelets to replica gifts and Egyptian dresses. Haggling in these outlets is permitted, sometimes expected, as a way of communication and exchanging information.

Prices, however, have to be put in perspective. Egypt is still fairly cheap, at least for tourists who exchange US dollars. The purchasing power of the US dollar in Egypt is almost double that of the dollar in most parts of the US. To make your life simple, you can draw a line about what is not worth haggling about. Items below LE 40 (roughly $ 10) are not usually worth the effort or the waste of precious holiday time. If you still think an item is overpriced, then offer your own price and walk away. This will put the vendor in a yes or no situation.

So, when it comes to shopping, know what you want, and negotiate hard to get it for the right price. Otherwise, don't waste your time, haggling over trivia or buying stuff you do not need. As most travelers know, the best bargains of holiday time often become clutter around the house, and end up in yard sales. So, after all the haggling, it may be worth paying a little over the odds to get what you really want.

There is no golden rule for haggling except offering what you think is a fair price. With a new exchange rate of more than LE 5.60 to the US dollar, Egypt is cheaper now than at any time in the past; the average tourist can afford to be a little generous, and still save money.

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Egypt is a sophisticated and modern country, and most anything that you need may be purchased in Egypt. But providing that you do not wish to purchase such things as shoes in Egypt, and that other items may be difficult to find, or very expensive, we have compiled a checklist of some of the more important items you may wish to carry with you. This list may seem rudimentary for the seasoned traveler, but for many making a first time trip to Egypt, it may prevent problems.

Hats and other covering: Large brimmed hats that provide not only a head covering but also a certain amount of shade will come in very handy in the hot Egyptian sun. In addition, women will be more acceptable when touring old churches and mosques if they are wearing some sort of head covering. In addition, scarves or other apparel should be taken along to cover shoulders and arms, and again, or not only important for visiting religious sites, but also to keep the sun off during treks. In very hot weather, a cloth hat or scarf that can be soaked will also help keep your head cool.

Squeeze Breeze this is a water bottle with a sprayer and a battery-operated fan attached, which is available in such stores as Wal-Mart in the US. If you can find something like this among the beach toys this summer, pick it up.

Sun block: While sun blocks may be purchased in Egypt, you might prefer to bring your own favorite brand, but do bring it. We have often, and we wish to emphasis, very often, seen tourists with painful sunburns after a days worth of sightseeing.

Sunglasses: Another item that may be purchased in Egypt are sunglasses, but again, many people will prefer to bring their own. There will be many times that tourists find themselves in a blaring, sand and desert landscape and there is nothing better than a good pair of sunglasses, with the highest UV rating you can find.

Water holder: Staying hydrated will mean the difference between a comfortable tour and one that might end with trouble. Most people quickly learn to carry a water bottle with them, and bottled water is easily accessible. However, lugging around a water bottle in your hand can be tiresome. It is much better to bring along either a canteen, or some other utensil that will allow you to carry the water bottle on your waist or around your shoulder. Fanny packs or backpacks with holders for water bottles, and for women, even a shoulder bag type of purse will make this more convenient.

Very good, comfortable walking shoes: This is probably one of the first things most people will tell you to bring to Egypt. Most tourists will be doing a considerable amount of walking, and shoes should not be just comfortable, but comfortable to walk long distances. Unlike leather shoes for mountain walks and such, it is also preferable for walking shoes to be breathable and perhaps made of a lightweight nylon or similar fabric. "Tennis shoes" or other sporting type of shoes are good for this. Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of steps in Egypt.

Power Adapters: Power Adapters come in two different varieties. Some electronic equipment have switches to allow you to change the power input type. For these, a simple wall adapter is all that is required. However, other electronic devices do not have such switches and in this case, you not only need a wall adapter, but also a power converter. Egypt uses 220 volt and plugs are two prong rounded.

Medication: Of course, bring your prescription medicine. It will usually be available in Egyptian drug stores, but it may be called a different name. There is no problem with bringing prescription medication into Egypt. However, it is also more convenient to bring your favorite non-prescription medications along. Though you may find such medication in Egypt, such as heart burn medication and pain capsules, you may have problems finding your favorite brands. In addition, many tourists who are a part of an organized tour will be staying in large hotels, which may lack a complete inventory of such medication, and trekking out to find a variety of over the counter medications may be inconvenient. Don’t forget your Imodium. While no one wants to get Tut’s Trot or Mummy’s Tummy, it may be handy to have some Imodium or other anti-diarrheic with you.

Camera: Most people are not going to forget to bring their cameras on an Egyptian tour. However, a couple of things should be pointed out. First, while you may take pictures as you like from the outside of most monuments, many require that you do not use a flash when taking pictures inside.

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Nile Cruises

Our elegant Nile cruise ship carries travellers in comfort and luxury. For those who want to see the natural beauty and ancient wonders of Egypt, this is a truly relaxing way of experiencing this. We offer so many ways to fill your day. You can take a dip in the pool on the large sundeck overlooking the River Nile, or simply relax as the world of the Nile glides by. There are excursions to famous archeological sites which provide you with the opportunity to see Egypt`s awesome pharaonic heritage. On board the River Nile cruise ship, our dedicated staff cater to your preferences.

First of all, it is very nice to unpack and once and have your hotel travel with you, rather then the hectic routine that accompanies the stop and go itineraries of air and land tours. But besides the more relaxed mode of travel, there are other significant advantages. Nile cruises often visit a wider variety of antiquities along the banks of the river. But equally important, they also allow the tourist to gain a prospective of the rural Egypt, where people live much the same way they did even thousands of years ago, in mudbrick homes, tending their fields with wooden plows and moving produce via donkey. It is a wonderful experience to sit on a shaded deck of a floating hotel, sipping an iced beverage while watching 5,000 years of culture slowly drift by.

The usual cruise is aboard a Nile cruiser, often referred to as a floating hotel. Indeed, the better boats have most the accommodations of a land based hotel, including small swimming pools, hot tubs, exercise rooms, nightclubs, good restaurants, stores and even small libraries. Depending on what one is willing to pay, rooms may be very utilitarian and small or larger then some land based hotel rooms. Some boats even have suites available.

All boats that we provide will always have private baths, air conditioning, and TVs. It is common for there to be video movies each night, and some boats are equipped with cameras allowing passengers to view the countryside from their TV. Floating hotels also offer various entertainment. Many of the boats have dance areas with disco or even live entertainment, and most offer a variety of nightly shows. These might include cocktail parties, Nubian shows, belly dancers and whirling dervish, plays and even dress up parties where guests don traditional apparel. Like land hotels, meals onboard most Nile cruisers are usually buffet style and include hot and cold food along with a variety of international and local cuisine. Most all boats have good modern water filtration, which is fine for showering, but it is still recommended to drink bottled water, which the boat will have aboard.

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Egypt Tours for Family

OFFICIAL NAME:
Arab Republic of Egypt

Geography:
Area: 1,001,450 sq. km. (386,000 sq. mi.); approximately equal to Texas and New Mexico combined.
Cities: Capital--Cairo (pop. estimated at 16 million). Other cities--Alexandria (6 million), Aswan, Asyut, Port Said, Suez, Ismailia.
Terrain: Desert, except Nile valley and delta.
Climate: Dry, hot summers; moderate winters

People:
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Egyptian(s).
Population (July 2006 est.): 78,887,007.
Annual growth rate (2006 est.): 1.75%.
Ethnic groups: Egyptian, Bedouin Arab, Nubian.
Religions: Muslim 94%, Coptic Christian and other 6%.
Languages: Arabic (official), English, French.
Education: Years compulsory--ages 6-15. Literacy--total adult: 58%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (2006 est.)--31.33 deaths/1,000 live births. Life expectancy (2006 est.): 71 years.

Government:
Type: Republic.
Independence: 1922.
Constitution: 1971.
Branches: Executive--president, prime minister, cabinet.
Legislative--People's Assembly (444 elected and 10 presidentially appointed members) and Shura (consultative) Council (176 elected members, 88 presidentially appointed). Judicial--Supreme Constitutional Court.
Administrative subdivisions: 26 governorates.
Principal political parties: National Democratic Party (ruling). Principal opposition parties--New Wafd Party, Liberal Party, National Progressive Unionist Grouping (Tagammau), and Nasserite Party.
Suffrage: Universal at 18.

Economy:
GDP (2005 est.): $303 billion.
Annual growth rate (2005 est.): 4.8%.
Per capita GDP (2005 est.): $4,282.
Natural resources: Petroleum and natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead, zinc.
Agriculture: Products--cotton, rice, onions, beans, citrus fruits, wheat, corn, barley, sugar.
Industry: Types--food processing, textiles, chemicals, petrochemicals, construction, light manufacturing, iron and steel products, aluminum, cement, military equipment.
Trade (FY 2005): Exports--$14.3 billion: petroleum, clothing and textiles, cotton, fruits and vegetables, manufactured goods. Major markets--EU, U.S., Middle East, Japan. Imports--$24.1 billion: machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products, livestock, food and beverages, paper and wood products, chemicals. Major suppliers--EU, U.S., Japan.

PEOPLE AND HISTORY:
Egypt is the most populous country in the Arab world and the second-most populous on the African Continent. Nearly all of the country's 79 million people live in Cairo and Alexandria; elsewhere on the banks of the Nile; in the Nile delta, which fans out north of Cairo; and along the Suez Canal. These regions are among the world's most densely populated, containing an average of over 3,820 persons per square mile (1,540 per sq. km.), as compared to 181 persons per sq. mi. for the country as a whole.

Small communities spread throughout the desert regions of Egypt are clustered around oases and historic trade and transportation routes. The government has tried with mixed success to encourage migration to newly irrigated land reclaimed from the desert. However, the proportion of the population living in rural areas has continued to decrease as people move to the cities in search of employment and a higher standard of living.

The Egyptians are a fairly homogeneous people of Hamitic origin. Mediterranean and Arab influences appear in the north, and there is some mixing in the south with the Nubians of northern Sudan. Ethnic minorities include a small number of Bedouin Arab nomads in the eastern and western deserts and in the Sinai, as well as some 50,000-100,000 Nubians clustered along the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt.

The literacy rate is about 58% of the adult population. Education is free through university and compulsory from ages six through 15. Rates for primary and secondary education have strengthened in recent years. Ninety-three percent of children enter primary school today, compared with 87% in 1994. Major universities include Cairo University (100,000 students), Alexandria University, and the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar University, one of the world's major centers of Islamic learning.

Egypt's vast and rich literature constitutes an important cultural element in the life of the country and in the Arab world as a whole. Egyptian novelists and poets were among the first to experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature, and the forms they developed have been widely imitated. Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arab to win the Nobel prize for literature. Egyptian books and films are available throughout the Middle East.

Egypt has endured as a unified state for more than 5,000 years, and archeological evidence indicates that a developed Egyptian society has existed for much longer. Egyptians take pride in their "pharaonic heritage" and in their descent from what they consider mankind's earliest civilization. The Arabic word for Egypt is Misr, which originally connoted "civilization" or "metropolis.

Archeological findings show that primitive tribes lived along the Nile long before the dynastic history of the pharaohs began. By 6000 B.C., organized agriculture had appeared.

In about 3100 B.C., Egypt was united under a ruler known as Mena, or Menes, who inaugurated the 30 pharaonic dynasties into which Egypt's ancient history is divided--the Old and the Middle Kingdoms and the New Empire. The pyramids at Giza (near Cairo), which were built in the fourth dynasty, testify to the power of the pharaonic religion and state. The Great Pyramid, the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu (also known as Cheops), is the only surviving monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ancient Egypt reached the peak of its power, wealth, and territorial extent in the period called the New Empire (1567-1085 B.C.).

Persian, Greek, Roman, and Arab Conquerors
In 525 B., Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, led a Persian invasion force that dethroned the last pharaoh of the 26th Dynasty. The country remained a Persian province until conquered by Alexander the Great in 322 BC, ushering in Ptolemeic rule Egypt that lasted for nearly 300 years.

Following a brief Persian reconquest, Egypt was invaded and conquered by Arab forces in 642. A process of Arabization and Islamization ensued. Although a Coptic Christian minority remained--and remains today, constituting about 10% of the population--the Arab language inexorably supplanted the indigenous Coptic tongue. For the next 1,300 years, a succession of Arab, Mameluke, and Ottoman caliphs, beys, and sultans ruled the country.

European Influence
The Ottoman Turks controlled Egypt from 1517 until 1882, except for a brief period of French rule under Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1805, Mohammed Ali, commander of an Albanian contingent of Ottoman troops, was appointed Pasha, founding the dynasty that ruled Egypt until his great-great grandson, Farouk I, was overthrown in 1952. Mohammed Ali the Great ruled Egypt until 1848, writing the first chapter in the modern history of Egypt. The growth of modern urban Cairo began in the reign of Ismail (1863-79). Eager to Westernize the capital, he ordered the construction of a European-style city to the west of the medieval core. The Suez Canal was completed in his reign in 1869, and its completion was celebrated by many events, including the commissioning of Verdi's "Aida" for the new opera house and the building of great palaces such as the Omar Khayyam (originally constructed to entertain the French Empress Eugenie, which is now the central section of the Cairo Marriott Hotel).

In 1882, British expeditionary forces crushed a revolt against the Ottoman rulers, marking the beginning of British occupation and the virtual inclusion of Egypt within the British Empire. In deference to growing nationalism, the U.K. unilaterally declared Egyptian independence in 1922. British influence, however, continued to dominate Egypt's political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, and governmental reforms.

In the pre-1952 revolution period, three political forces competed with one another: the Wafd, a broadly based nationalist political organization strongly opposed to British influence; King Fuad, whom the British had installed during World War II; and the British themselves, who were determined to maintain control over the Canal. Other political forces emerging in this period included the communist party (1925) and the Muslim Brotherhood (1928), which eventually became a potent political and religious force.

During World War II, British troops used Egypt as a base for Allied operations throughout the region. British troops were withdrawn to the Suez Canal area in 1947, but nationalist, anti-British feelings continued to grow after the war. On July 22-23, 1952, a group of disaffected army officers (the "free officers") led by Lt. Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew King Farouk, whom the military blamed for Egypt's poor performance in the 1948 war with Israel. Following a brief experiment with civilian rule, they abrogated the 1923 constitution and declared Egypt a republic on June 19, 1953. Nasser evolved into a charismatic leader, not only of Egypt, but the Arab world, promoting and implementing "Arab socialism." He nationalized Egypt’s economy.

Nasser helped establish the Non-Aligned Movement of developing countries in September 1961, and continued to be a leading force in the movement until his death in 1970. When the United States held up military sales in reaction to Egyptian neutrality vis-à-vis Moscow, Nasser concluded an arms deal with Czechoslovakia in September 1955.

When the U.S. and the World Bank withdrew their offer to help finance the Aswan High Dam in mid-1956, Nasser nationalized the privately owned Suez Canal Company. The crisis that followed, exacerbated by growing tensions with Israel over guerrilla attacks from Gaza and Israeli reprisals, resulted in the invasion of Egypt that October by France, Britain, and Israel.

Nasser's domestic policies were arbitrary and frequently oppressive, yet generally popular. All opposition was stamped out, and opponents of the regime frequently were imprisoned without trial. Nasser's foreign and military policies helped provoke the Israeli attack of June 1967 that virtually destroyed Egypt's armed forces along with those of Jordan and Syria. Israel also occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. Nasser, nonetheless, was revered by the masses in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world until his death in 1970.

After Nasser's death, another of the original "free officers," Vice President Anwar el-Sadat, was elected President. In 1971, Sadat concluded a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, but a year later, ordered Soviet advisers to leave. In 1973, he launched the October war with Israel, in which Egypt's armed forces liberated Suze Canal.

Camp David and the Peace Process
In a momentous change from the Nasser era, President Sadat shifted Egypt from a policy of confrontation with Israel to one of peaceful accommodation through negotiations. Following the Sinai Disengagement Agreements of 1974 and 1975, Sadat created a fresh opening for progress by his dramatic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977. This led to President Jimmy Carter's invitation to President Sadat and Prime Minister Begin to join him in trilateral negotiations at Camp David.

The outcome was the historic Camp David accords, signed by Egypt and Israel and witnessed by the U.S. on September 17, 1978. The accords led to the March 26, 1979, signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty, by which Egypt regained control of the Sinai in May 1982. Throughout this period, U.S.-Egyptian relations steadily improved, but Sadat's willingness to break ranks by making peace with Israel earned him the enmity of most other Arab states.

Domestic Change
Sadat introduced greater political freedom and a new economic policy, the most important aspect of which was the infitah or "open door." This relaxed government controls over the economy and encouraged private, including foreign, investment. Sadat dismantled much of the existing political machine and brought to trial a number of former government officials accused of criminal excesses during the Nasser era.

Liberalization also included the reinstitution of due process and the legal banning of torture. Sadat tried to expand participation in the political process in the mid-1970s but later abandoned this effort. In the last years of his life, Egypt was racked by violence arising from discontent with Sadat's rule and sectarian tensions, and it experienced a renewed measure of repression.

From Sadat to Mubarak
On October 6, 1981, Islamic extremists assassinated President Sadat. Hosni Mubarak, Vice President since 1975 and air force commander during the October 1973 war, was elected President later that month. He was subsequently confirmed by popular referendum for four more 6-year terms, most recently in September 2005. Mubarak has maintained Egypt's commitment to the Camp David peace process, while at the same time re-establishing Egypt's position as an Arab leader. Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League in 1989. Egypt also has played a moderating role in such international fora as the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Since 1991, Mubarak has overseen a domestic economic reform program to reduce the size of the public sector and expand the role of the private sector. There has been less progress in political reform. The November 2000 People's Assembly elections saw 34 members of the opposition win seats in the 454-seat assembly, facing a clear majority of 388 ultimately affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Opposition parties continue to face various difficulties in mounting credible electoral challenges to the NDP. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, remains an illegal organization and is not recognized as a political party (current Egyptian law prohibits the formation of political parties based on religion). Members are known publicly and openly speak their views, although they do not explicitly identify themselves as members of the organization. Members of the Brotherhood have been elected to the People's Assembly and local councils as independents, and most recently scored a major victory in 2005 parliamentary elections, winning 20% of the seats, thus forming the largest opposition group.

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Affordable Egypt Tour

For many, a trip to Egypt may be a vacation of a lifetime; something that one has always wished to do but unable to afford. One can arrange budget travel to Egypt at anytime. However, when times are bad in Egypt, which is a reoccurring event caused by world conflicts that seldom have much to do with Egypt such as the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, tour operators sometimes provide amazing deals. Tourists have remained safe during these periods in Egypt, and for one who wishes to make an Egyptian journey, not only are tours cheap, but monuments and other sightseeing locations are less crowded. So for the individual who has always wanted to got to Egypt but hasn't been able to do so, keep these periods in mind.

The costs associated with a budget trip to Egypt include, but are not necessarily limited to, the airfare or other transport to Egypt, lodging, food, transportation to different destinations in Egypt and tickets to enter the various attractions one wishes to see, with the possible hiring of guides. Most people will also be interested in finding the least expensive places and means of buying a few souvenirs. Of course, this is for a fairly standard classical excursion.

Budget travel does not necessarily imply independent travel. In many instances, an economy tour may ultimately yield a much more pleasant and even less expensive Egyptian holiday then an independently arranged trip. Tour operators frequently receive deep discounts from hotels and airlines as well as provide more efficient means of transportation within Egypt. Even the most experienced independent traveler may not be able to beat the cost of a value tour, particularly if a full agenda of sight seeing is required. Not infrequently in fact, packaged tours may be as little or less then the cost of airfare to Egypt if arranged independently.

Yet travelers should be advised that independent travel within Egypt is nothing to fear.  One of the most unusual aspects of Egypt in regards to other tourist destinations is that Egyptians in general will go out of their way to help tourists.  They are gracious hosts, even those outside of the tourism industry.  Most hotel personnel, if asked, will provide a world of information and be very helpful.  They will almost always be able to arrange various tours, and in the case of some chains, be able to guide and accommodate you from one end of Egypt to the other.

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Most people who think of Egypt think of antiquities, but Egypt offers much more. Certainly it is a prime location to see our great heritage from the ancient world, including Pyramids and wonderful temples, but it is also part of the Holy Land, and tours to Christian and other religious monuments are popular. Yet Egypt also offers  nature and desert treks, great scuba diving and even golf, fishing and birding expeditions. One may choose to relax on the wondrous Egypt Red Sea or Sinai coasts, take in the high culture of Cairo, or even leisurely float down the Egyptian Nile on a luxurious river boat.

Egypt could be said to have six different tourist super-sites.  Each has its own flavor, and mostly each serves a different purpose.  Surprisingly, or perhaps not, most of these tourist areas do not depend on ancient monuments to sustain them.  In fact, only Luxor is completely dependent on this trade.  These super-sites consist of:

Alexandria and the immediate area around the City.  It could in fact be argued that this area extends to Marsa Matruh to the west on the coast.  The area has a Mediterranean feel about it, and the attraction is the Mediterranean Sea, and to the people of Cairo, a somewhat cooler climate.

Cairo and the immediate area around the City.  Cairo has everything.  Cairo has great hotels, entertainment, restaurants, all manner of monuments from throughout the history of Egypt and it is often the entry point for most people visiting Egypt. It even has bowling allies and several golf courses to chose from.

Luxor and the surrounding area.  Luxor is a living museum with vast numbers of ancient Egyptian monuments.  It is also highly oriented to tourists, and might be thought of in the same regard as a theme park, where the attractions just happen to be real monuments.

Aswan and the surrounding area.  Aswan is probably the least of the super-site tourist areas, but has great hotels, along with the huge Lake Nasser just to the south.

Hurghada and the surrounding area, particularly El Gouna.  Not to far apart are El Gouna, Hurghada and Safaga, and these areas contain just about everything a tourist would like to have, with the exception of ancient monuments.  They make up for that with every variety of water sports, several golf courses, casinos and more. The Red Sea area has less of an Egyptian feel, but not as European as the Sinai.

Sharm El Sheikh and the surrounding area including Sharks Bay.  This is the Sinai super-site, again with most everything any tourist might wish.  There are even some wonderful Christian monuments nearby, and the water sports, as at Hurghada, are all inclusive.

In additionto the above main destination there is also the Oases, which became a new hot tourist attrection area for adventure tourists from all over the world.

For More Information:- http://www.right-travel.com/page.php?id=29

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Hotels in Egypt

Al Dakhla Oasis

• Sol Y Mar Mut Inn

Al Kharga Oasis

• Sol Y Mar Pioneers

Alexandria

• Four Seasons Hotel Alexandria
• Helnan Palestine Hotel
• Sheraton Montazah Hotel
• Sofitel Cecil Alexandria

Aswan

• Basma Hotel
• Pyramisa Isis Island Resort & SPA
• Hotel New Cataract Aswan
• Sofitel Old Cataract Hotel Aswan
• Movenpick Island Resort

Cairo

• Cairo Sheraton Hotel
• Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza
• InterContinental Pyramids Park Resort
• Le Passage hotel Cairo
• Movenpick Resort Cairo Pyramids
• Ramses Hilton
• Sleeper Train
• The Oasis Hotel
• Conrad International Cairo
• Grand Hyatt Cairo
• JW Marriott
• Marriott Cairo
• Nile Hilton
• Semiramis Inter-Continental
• Sofitel El Gezirah Cairo
• Four Seasons First Residence
• Grand Pyramids Hotel
• Le Meridien Pyramids
• Mena House Oberoi Hotel
• Novotel Cairo 6th Of October
• Shepheard Hotel
• Sofitel Le Sphinx

Hurghada

• Hilton Hurghada Resort
• Paradise Golden 5
• Sofitel Hurghada Red Sea
• Intercontinental Resort
• Safir Hotel & Resort
• The Desert Rose Resort
• Marriott Hurghada Resort
• Sheraton Soma Bay Resort

Luxor

• Sofitel New & Pavillon Winter Palace
• Sofitel Old Winter Palace
• Sonesta St. George Hotel Luxor

Sharm El Sheikh

• Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh
• Iberotel Lido Sharm
• Tropitel Naama Bay
• Hyatt Regency Sharm El Sheikh
• Marriott Beach Resort Sharm El Sheikh
• Iberotel Grand Sharm
• The Ritz Carlton

Siwa

Siwa Shali Resort

For More Information: http://www.right-travel.com/hotels_main_country.php?id=1&c=Egypt

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Egypt Travel Tips

Climate/Clothing:

Spring: 70°F - 85°F; Summer: 80°F - 130°F; Autumn: 70°F - 85°F; Winter: 60°F - 85°F. Bring comfortable shoes, a sweater, clothes you can layer and an all-weather coat. Sunscreen and a hat or sunglasses are also recommended. Some religious sites do not allow shorts or sleeveless shirts.

Language:

Arabic is the local language. Limited English is generally understood and spoken as well.

Passports and Visas:

Passport and visa required.

Currency:

The Egyptian pound is the currency of Egypt.

Tipping:

Tips are always a matter of personal discretion. No employees of Right Travel Egypt are permitted to request tips either personally or on behalf of other service providers. Although bills normally include a service charge, it is customary to add a small gratuity in restaurants and other places that cater to tourists. Tipping is considered by locals to be a part of their normal remuneration and some may approach you for additional compensation. There is no need to be intimidated by the request, nor should you feel pressured to pay more than recommended. If you become uncomfortable by any behavior you encounter, please advise your tour escort or phone our local office. Numbers have been provided in your documents for your convenience.

You may use the following as a guideline (as appropriate):

Porterage: 50¢ per bag

Hotel house-keeping staff: $1 per person per night

Waiter/Waitress: $1 per person (lunch and/or dinner)

Transfer buses: $1 per person per transfer

Driver/ guide: $6 per person per day

Bus Driver: $2 per person per day

Day tour guide: $2 per person per half day; $5 per full day

Cruise staff: $4 per person per night

Ferry to Philae Temple: $1 per person for roundtrip

Edfu carriage ride: $1 per person for roundtrip

Private Car tour guide: $10-15 per person per day

Electricity:

The voltage used is 220 volts.

*Note: The U.S. uses 120 volts and you can purchase a converter and transformer at most hardware stores for your 120V appliances.

Shopping:

Stick to the Egyptian bazaars offering colorful wares and great bargains, and be prepared to haggle. You may wish to avoid the street vendors, some of whom can be very aggressive. Egyptian tour guides do take visitors into pre-approved shops during the itinerary. Even shop owners at the most respectable stores tend to be somewhat aggressive. Again, should you be made to feel at all uncomfortable, do report the incident to your tour manager and/or Right Travel.

Health Precautions:

No inoculations are necessary when arriving in Egypt from the U.S. But consult with your health care provider before traveling.

*To prevent Montezuma's Revenge, avoid the tap water, including raw fruits and vegetables washed in tap water. Your stomach may still become upset due to the change in diet. Bring anti-diarrhea medicine just in case.

*For the latest overseas travel health information, call the Center for Disease Control's traveler's hotline at 404-332-4559. Or visit their web site at www.cdc.gov

Conservation/Code of Conduct:

Islam is the dominant influence and many traditional customs and beliefs are tied up with religion. The people are generally courteous and hospitable and expect similar respect from visitors. Handshaking will suffice as a greeting. Because Egypt is a Muslim country, dress should be conservative and women should not wear revealing clothes, particularly when in religious buildings and in towns (although the Western style of dress is accepted in modern nightclubs, restaurants, hotels and bars in Cairo, Alexandria and other tourist destinations). Official or social functions and smart restaurants usually require more formal wear. Smoking is very common.

Luggage:

Right Travel tour packages allow one piece of luggage per person, plus carry-on bag. Additional baggage will be subject to handling charges of up to $100 per piece.

As Right Travel will not be responsible for loss or damage to luggage and personal belongings, you MUST report any loss or damage immediately at the time of the incident and obtain a written report from the local authority for submission to your insurance provider. If you luggage is lost or damaged by the airlines, a baggage claim form MUST be filed with the carrier before leaving the airport.

Departure Tax:

There is no Departure tax levied in Egypt.

Travel Insurance:

We strongly recommend the purchase of travel insurance as additional security in the case of cancellation or interruption of travel plans, lost or damaged luggage, travel delays, illness, or accident. Keep all boarding passes, ticket copies and receipts for expenses paid during your trip if it later becomes necessary to file a claim.

Holidays:

Egypt: Public Holidays

Jan 7 Coptic Christmas Day

Jan 21 Grand Feast

Feb 10 Islamic New Year

Apr 25 Sinai Liberation Day (Sinai only)

May 1 Labor Day

May 2 Sham el-Nassim (Coptic Easter)

Jun 18 Liberation Day

Jul 23 Revolution Day

Aug 15 Wafa’a el Nil (Flooding of the Nile)

Sep 11 *Coptic New Year

Oct 6 Armed Forces Day

Oct 24 Suez Victory Day

Nov 3 Bairam Feast (End of Ramadan)

Dec 23 Victory Day 

*Note: (a) These holidays are not official, although Coptic Christians may observe them. (b) Muslim festivals are timed according to local sightings of various phases of the moon and the dates given above are approximations. During the lunar month of Ramadan that precedes the Bairam Feast, Muslims fast during the day and feast at night and normal business patterns may be interrupted. Some restaurants are closed during the day but most tourist attractions and hotels are not affected. Some disruption may continue into the 3-day Grand Feast itself.

Driving:

Traffic drives on the right. Besides the Nile Valley and Delta, which hold an extensive road network, there are paved roads along the Mediterranean and African Red Sea coasts. The road looping through the Western Desert oases from Asyut to Giza is now fully paved. The speed limit is usually 90kph (56mph) on motorways and 100kph (62mph) on the desert motorway from Cairo to Alexandria (there are substantial fines for speeding). Private motoring in the desert regions is not recommended without suitable vehicles and a guide. For more details, contact the Egyptian Automobile Club in Cairo.

For More Information:- http://www.right-travel.com/travel_tips.php?id=1

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Aberdare National Park

  Treetops Hotel

Amboseli

  Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge

Lake Nakuru

  Lake Nakuru Lodge

Masai Mara

  Mara Serena Safari Lodge

  Sarova Mara Game Camp

  Mara Simba Lodge Hotel

  Masai Mara Sopa Lodge

The Aberdares are an isolated volcanic range that forms the eastern wall of the rift valley, running roughly 100km north south between Nairobi and Thomsons Falls. The Aberdare National Park was formed in 1950 to protect the forested slopes and moors of the Aberdare Mountains. While the park has elephant, rhino,  black leopard, lion and the beautiful but elusive bongo antelope, it is rarely visited by safari companies and individual travelers. Soils are volcanic origin and  red. There are two main peaks Kinangop (3,906m) and Ol Donyo Lesatima (3,999m) separated by a lengthy saddle of alpine moorland at over 3,000m. The high rainfall turns the roads to mud and you need a 4x4 to get anywhere. The park often closes in the wet season. There are many clear streams and waterfalls.

Shaba National Reserve, which lies east of the road linking Isiolo with Marsabit, form a trio of unusual and attractive game sanctuaries very different from others in Kenya. Shaba National Reserve has a particular place in the history of Kenya game conservation for it was in this reserve that the authoress, Joy Adamson, died; her trilogy of books on the rehabilitation of the compliant leopard to a wild environment remained unfinished. Shaba was one of Joy Adamson's greatest African loves; it was in this tranquil wilderness where she released the first hand-raised leopards Shaba took its name from the Mount Shaba (1525 meters), a volcanic mountain that became extinct around 5,000 years ago. Mount Shaba lies on the border of the reserve.

Mt. Kenya is an imposing extinct volcano dominating the landscape of the Kenyan Highlands, East of the Rift Valley. Mt. Kenya lies about 140 km North, North-East of Nairobi with its Northern flanks across the Equator. The mountain has two main peaks - Batian (5200m) and Nelion (5188m). The mountains slopes are cloaked in forest, bamboo, scrub and moorland giving way on the high central peaks to rock, ice and snow. Mt. Kenya is an important water catchment area, supplying the Tana and Northern Ewaso Ngiro systems. Lake Nakuru is a very shallow strongly alkaline lake 62 km2 in extent. It is set in a picturesque landscape of surrounding woodland and grassland next to Nakuru town. The landscape includes areas of marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs and outcrops, stretches of acacia woodland and rocky hillsides covered with a Euphorbia forest on the eastern perimeter.

The Masai Mara is one of the best known and most popular reserves in the whole of Africa. At times and in certain places it can get a little overrun with tourist minibuses, but there is something so special about it that it tempts you back time and again. Serengeti national park in Tanzania occupies 14,763 square km. The park boasts the highest wildlife concentrate in the whole of Africa and one of the best places to see the “big five” elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo. The annual animal immigration led by the thousands of wild best starts in May and lasts until June. Gazelle, zebra, giraffe, buffalo and eland in search of water share the movement. Along side this migration are predators and scavengers such as lions, hyena and vultures. Other common species fond here include hippo, giraffe, eland, impala, baboons, monkeys and a profusion of almost 500 bird species.

Mara Balloon Safari

1-hour Hot air Balloon safari over the game filled plains and riverine forest of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. Champagne type breakfast is served on landing followed by a game drive back to camp.

For More Information:- http://www.right-travel.com/page.php?id=44

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Planning for your safari is what you have to do well. As you interact with the tour operators for various needs, it’s important to ask the following before you can make up your mind over the safari and the tour operator in Kenya

First thing, you need to find out the specialty of the company. Some are good at tailor made safaris, camping, overland, luxury. Lodge safaris or mountaineering. Right-Travel.com is the best in Kenya tour. There are many Tour operators in Kenya specializing in provision of tour services in Kenya. The services range from Tour to flights and hotel booking. Planning for your safari is what you have to do well.

A trip to Kenya is both fascinating and thrilling, created by the fascinating balance between the wildlife, the landscapes, good tour operator and its people.

Although your Kenya safari holiday is sure to be one of the most memorable and satisfying travel experiences you'll ever enjoy, there are more wonders to behold. A different kind of holiday adventure awaits those of you who decide to extend their stay and visit the mystical, beautiful island of Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu and Zanzibar. We offer different packages at the coast, in luxury hotels, Game Safari tour, Africa tour, family tour, adventure tour.

With a long history of musical and artistic expression, Kenya enjoys a rich tradition of oral and written literature, including many fables that speak to the virtues of determination and perseverance, important and widely shared values, given the country's experience during the struggle for independence.

You will always discover something different with Right Travel as a long time tour operator in all our tours, safaris, study tour, honey moon holiday, beach holiday, mountain climbing, water rafting and more...............!

So ask us! We want your trip to Kenya to be the travel memory of a lifetime. Office Hours: Monday - Friday 09:00 AM - 06:00 PM, Saturday - Sunday 10:00 AM - 03:00 PM; T: (973) 636-6660; F: (973) 636-6668

For More Information:- http://www.right-travel.com/page.php?id=45

Because Tanzania lies below the equator, the coolest months occur during the northern hemisphere’s summer, and all-year round the weather remains pleasant and comfortable. Between June to October, temperatures range from around 10°C in the northern highlands to about 23°C on the coast. On the plains and the lower-altitude game reserves, the temperatures from June to October are warm and mild. On the coast, these months are some of the most pleasant to visit, with balmy, sunny weather much of the day and cooling ocean breezes at night.

From December to March, the days are hot and sunny with often not a cloud in the sky. Temperatures range from the mid-twenties to the low thirties throughout the country while visitors flock to the parks and beaches to escape the dreariness of late winter in colder climes. Clear sunny days are the norm in the northern highlands and the heat of mid-day is tempered by the golden light in late afternoon and the especially striking sunsets. In the game parks and central plains, the beautiful weather provides perfect opportunities for unhampered game viewing, and clear night skies offer perfect opportunities for star-gazing and romantic evenings in the bush. On the shores of the Swahili Coast, the Indian Ocean reaches its highest temperatures and is ideal for swimming at any time of day or night.

Tanzania’s equatorial climate brings two seasons of rain each year: the masika, or long rains that fall from mid-March to the end of May, and the mvuli, or short rains, that come intermittently throughout November and parts of December, and sometimes stretch into early January. During the long rains, heavy showers fall in the early mornings but usually clear up by mid-day, with the weather often remaining clear and sunny until late afternoon. By evening, impressive cloud formations build, breaking sometime after dark and the rain often continues throughout the night. During the short rains, light showers in the mornings and late afternoons are punctuated by stretches of clear weather and beautiful rays of sunlight. The beginning of both rainy seasons is marked by a change in the winds which historically, marked the time for trading boats to set off on expeditions across the Indian Ocean or return to their native lands.

For More Information:-  http://www.right-travel.com/weather.php?id=34

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Entry requirements:

Canadian and US citizens are required to have a passport that is valid for at least 6 months after their intended return date, as well as a visa.

Climate:

SUMMER: October – March
WINTER: April – September

Madrid, Seville

Roundtrip airfare, 5 nights at your choice of hotels, daily breakfast, reserved rail seat

Price Includes:-

    * Flights NYC-Madrid, Seville-NYC
    * Other departure cities available. Click on date of departure for selection and prices
    * Airline fuel surcharges
    * 5 nights accommodations in your choice of hotels
    * 3 nights Madrid
    * 2 nights Seville
    * Transportation between cities via First Class rail (Plan A& B) or Standard rail (Plan C ) with reserved seats
    * Breakfast daily

Optional:-

Day:3  Florida Park Tapas Dinner & Show 8:30 PM
Day:3  Half Day Panoramic Madrid 9:45 AM
Day:4  Full Day Toledo with lunch from Madrid 9:45 AM
Day:6  Panoramic Sightseeing Tour of Seville

Not Included:-

Airport taxes, fees & September 11th Security Fee
Optional tours

Day by Day:-

Day 1: Wednesday - Depart USA

Depart the USA for Spain. Your flight includes meals, drinks, and in-flight entertainment for your journey

Day 2: Thursday - Arrival to Madrid

Arrive and transfer on your own to your hotel or you may choose our optional transfer. Balance of the day at leisure

Day 3: Friday - Madrid

Free day, or choose our optional Half Day Panoramic Madrid 9:45 AM (Today`s panoramic tour takes you to view the classical and modern squares of the city. See the Oriente, España, University Campus, Casa de Campo, Mayor Street, Villa and Mayor Squares, Puerta del Sol, Neptuno, Atocha, memorial Retiro Park, the Bullring, and the Colón. Continue to view the city`s newer realms, with its modern buildings, gardens, and large avenues reaching the Santiago Bernabéu Football Stadium (one of the largest in Europe). Continue to view the squares of Castilla and La Cibeles, and the famed Gran Via. Departs at 9:45 a.m. Pick up and drop off from terminal at Plaza de Oriente, 8. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time). Evenining free or you may choose our optional Florida Park Tapas Dinner & Show 8:30 PM (This evening, enjoy a panoramic tour of the city by night, followed by a traditional dinner and show. Via coach, travel through the city`s flood-lit avenues and squares, admiring Madrid`s spectacular illuminated fountains. Arrive at the Florida Park Nightclub for a Tapas dinner and a show including routines like the Spanish Flamenco and other traditional Spanish dances. Departs at 8:30 p.m. Pick up and drop off from Plaza de Oriente, 8. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time) ( B )

Day 4: Saturday - Madrid

Free day at leisure, or you may choose our Full Day Toledo with lunch from Madrid (Today, enjoy a full day tour of Toledo, the "Museum City." Overflowing with UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Toledo was once the capital, spiritual, and intellectual center of Spain. Here, in one of Europe`s oldest cities, enjoy a walking tour among its most famous monuments, including visits to the Cathedral, St. Tome Church (housing El Greco`s The Burial of Count Orgaz), and the Santa Maria la Blanca Synagogue. Admire the city`s famous handcrafted work, the "Damasquinado," before continuing to the military museum of Alcazars. See the Victorio Macho Museum and enjoy lunch at a local restaurant nearby. After lunch, conclude the tour with a visit to the Tavera Museum. Return to Madrid. Departs at 9:45 a.m. Pick up and drop off from terminal at Plaza de Oriente, 8. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time). ( B )

Day 5: Sunday - Madrid, Seville

Today you will get to the train station on your own to board the train to Seville, arrival and transfer on your own to the hotel. ( B )

Day 6: Monday - Seville

Free day at your leisure, or you may choose our optional Panoramic Sightseeing Tour of Seville (See Seville in a completely new and relaxing way with the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. Throughout your itinerary you will receive explanatory commentary of the history of Seville and its monuments. Tickets are valid all day, and allow you to get on and off at any of the stops (stops include Plaza de Espana, Isla Magica and Cartuja `92). Shop, see the sights, and have fun creating your very own tour. Tour departs from Torre del Oro, every 30 minutes. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time). ( B )

Day 7: Tuesday - Departure

Barcelona, Madrid

Price Includes:-

• Flights NYC-Barcelona-Madrid-NYC
• Other departure cities available. Click on date of departure for selection and prices
• Airline fuel surcharges
• 6 nights accommodations in your choice of Plan A, B, or C hotel plans
• 3 nights Barcelona
• 3 nights Madrid
• Breakfast daily

Optional:-

Day:3  Barcelona Flamenco Dinner & Show 8:30 PM
Day:3  Half Day Classic Barcelona City Tour 9:45 AM
Day:4  Half Day Montserrat from Barcelona 9:30 AM
Day:6  Half Day Panoramic Madrid 9:45 AM
Day:6  Half Day Toledo from Madrid 3:00 PM
Day:7  Half Day Escorial & Valley from Madrid 8:45 AM

Not Included:-

Airport taxes, fees & September 11th Security Fee
Transfers & optional tours
Land only price does not include flight Barcelona-Madrid

Day by Day:-

Day 1: Wednesday - Depart USA

Depart the USA for Spain. Your flight includes meals, drinks, and in-flight entertainment for your journey

Day 2: Thursday - Arrival to Barcelona

Arrive and transfer on your own to your hotel or you may choose our optional transfer. Balance of the day at leisure

Day 3: Friday - Barcelona

Morning at leisure or you may choose our optional Half Day Classic Barcelona City Tour 9:45 (Drive via Layetana and view the Cathedral, Gothic Quarter, and Plaza Sant Jaume en route to visit the Port and Olympic Village. Continue to Montjuic (Hill of the Jews) for panoramic views of the city and port, and tours of the Olympic Stadium and Sant Jordi Palace. Also visit the "Poble Espanol" (Spanish Village) to observe its regional architecture characteristic of early Spain. Here you will have the opportunity to taste the famous Catalan Cava (sparkling wine). An optional stop at the Hard Rock Cafe is available should you choose. Departs at 9:45 a.m. Pick up and drop off from terminal at 645 Gran Via, Bruc St. corner. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure). Evening free at leisure or you may choose our optional Barcelona Flamenco Dinner, Drinks & Show 8:30 PM (Founded in 1970, the Tablao Cordobes is considered one of the most important Flamenco venues in Spain, and has thus reached international prestige. Many talented flamenco artists have graced its scene and passed through to great careers, and that same trend continues strong today. Located right on the Ramblas, the city`s landmark boulevard, El Cordobes is one of the best locations in Barcelona for Flamenco. On arrival, enjoy a buffet-style dinner consisting of typical Spanish and Mediterranean cuisine, followed by a performance featuring Barcelona`s most talented flamenco artists. Evening attire is recommended. Dinner begins at 8:30 p.m.; show time is at 10:00 p.m. Please note that transportation to & from the hotel is not included). ( B )

Day 4: Saturday - Barcelona

Free day at leisure or you may choose our optional Half Day Montserrat from Barcelona 9:30 AM (Enjoy a relaxing drive along the picturesque villages of the province to reach Montserrat Mountain. On arrival, visit the Royal Basilica, where you will see the famous 12th-century Romanesque sculpture of "Virgen Moreneta." Upon your return, enjoy an optional stop at the harbor area to see the aquarium and its complex with traditional Spanish restaurants and shops. Departs at 9:30 a.m. Pick up and drop off from terminal at 645 Gran Via, Bruc St. corner. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time). ( B )

Day 5: Sunday - Barcelona, Madrid

Breakfast and check out from your hotel, transfer on your own to the airport for your flight to Madrid (flight will be included in our air & land rate but it is NOT INCLUDED in our land only rate). Arrival to Madrid and transfer to hotel on your own. ( B )

Day 6: Monday - Madrid

Free morning or you may choose our optionial Half Day Panoramic Madrid 9:45 AM (Today`s panoramic tour takes you to view the classical and modern squares of the city. See the Oriente, España, University Campus, Casa de Campo, Mayor Street, Villa and Mayor Squares, Puerta del Sol, Neptuno, Atocha, memorial Retiro Park, the Bullring, and the Colón. Continue to view the city`s newer realms, with its modern buildings, gardens, and large avenues reaching the Santiago Bernabéu Football Stadium (one of the largest in Europe). Continue to view the squares of Castilla and La Cibeles, and the famed Gran Via. Departs at 9:45 a.m. Pick up and drop off from terminal at Plaza de Oriente, 8. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to departure time). Afternoon free or you may choose our optional Half Day Toledo from Madrid 3:00 PM (Today, enjoy a half day tour of Toledo, the "Museum City." Overflowing with UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Toledo was once the capital, spiritual, and intellectual center of Spain. Here, in one of Europe`s oldest cities, enjoy a walking tour among its most famous monuments, including visits to the Cathedral, St. Tome Church (housing El Greco`s The Burial of Count Orgaz), and