Egypt : The Complete Guide to Cairo, Ancient Wonders, the Red Sea, Sinai, and Desert Oases

Destination: Egypt

Living in an Antique Land


People come to Egypt for its antiquities, and Egypt is ancient on a scale most of us can barely begin to comprehend. The civilizations that we in the West see as occupying the outermost reaches of antiquity -- the Greece of Homer, say-- are only middle-aged by Egyptian standards. When Alexander the Great extended the Hellenic world to include the Nile Delta 2,300 years ago, Egypt was already in its 30th Dynasty. And by the time the Romans erected the Colosseum, the great king Ramesses II had been entombed for 1,300 years. By the calendar that most of the world uses, time starts with the birth of Jesus Christ. Today, we are closer to that beginning than Christ himself was to the pharaoh Djoser, who built the Step Pyramid in Saqqara.


What's Where

Geography


Egypt stands at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Mediterranean Europe, a position that has been both a blessing and a curse: Egypt has been the envy of empire-builders everywhere. In ancient times it marked a terminus of the spice trade, whose caravan routes reached all corners of the (known) world. In more modern times, once the Suez Canal started functioning in the 1860s, Egypt became the key to Britain's control over India. All of this has made Egypt a culturally rich, incredibly diverse society, because several millennia of exposure to foreign peoples and ideas have been woven into the very fabric of the country.


It comes as a surpise to many foreigners imagining a land of rolling sand dunes that Egypt is, in parts, quite mountainous -- the result of the African and Eurasian plates' grinding together for eons. The Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea coast near Hurghada are lined with rugged, atmospheric mountains, and Egypt's highest point, Gebel Katherina in the Sinai, stands at 8,652 ft. Most of the country is near sea level. The area known as Lower Egypt begins at Cairo, runs north to the Mediterranean, and is remarkable mainly for the wide delta of lush agricultural land watered by the branches of the Nile. The north coast has long been a summer retreat for Egyptians escaping the heat of the rest of the
country, and development now extends west from Alexandria along the shore to Marsa Matruh.


The eastern end of the Sahara Desert surrounds the Nile. The Western Desert, bordered by the Libyan Desert, has four central oases, Bahariyya, Farafra, Dakhla, and Kharga. In this desert's northwest corner, tucked in between the edges of the Libyan Plateau and the formidable Great Sand Sea, resides Siwa Oasis, where its famous oracle is said to have told Alexander the Great that he was descended from the gods. Between the Nile and the Red Sea, the Eastern Desert is the final, forbidding band of the Sahara, the edge of the continent.


Cairo


For well over 1,000 years one of the world's great cosmopolitan cities, Cairo is infinite and inexhaustible. Different religions, different cultures -- sometimes, it seems, even different eras -- coexist amid the jostling crowds and aging monuments gathered here at the head of the Nile Delta. Don't expect to find a city frozen in layers of ancient history: Cairo's current vitality is as seductive as its rich past.


Alexandria


Home to polyglot communities in ancient and modern times alike, Alexandria embodies the Mediterranean side of Egypt's character: breezy, relaxed, oriented toward the sea. It is a city of cafes and late-night dinners, of horse-drawn carriages and long strolls along the Corniche. And it is a city of history -- numerous overlapping histories.


The Nile Valley


From the implacable nobility of its pharaonic monuments to the raw strength of the Aswan High Dam, the Nile Valley is arguably the world's most enduring nexus of human striving for greatness. Natural beauty has fused with historic destiny as nowhere else on the planet. Stark desert borders verdant fields and silvery palm groves; and the diamond gleam of the late afternoon sun plays on the mighty river. Prepare yourself for a dose of pure iconography.


Nile and Lake Nasser Cruises


Roman emperors and their ladies, medieval travelers and historians, 19th-century romantics and antiquarians -- all have fallen for the legendary Nile, the majestic ghostly presence of its pharaohs, its healthy climate. Until the completion of the High Dam at Aswan in 1971, the land of Nubia was the age-old link between Egypt and the Sudan. Now it lies under Lake Nasser, on the shores of which stand fabled monuments like Ramesses II's great temple at Abu Simbel.


The Sinai Desert, the Red Sea Coast, and the Suez Canal


Leaving Cairo, at first you see nothing but miles of flat, sandy landscape that seems to extend well beyond the horizon. A barren desert, seemingly lifeless -- and the beauty is just beginning. Cross the Suez Canal and the Sinai Desert will take your breath away. As you snake through the rust-colored mountains toward the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba, the crystal sea peeks out between peaks that join it to the sky. Mysteries both on land and under the sea fairly beg to be explored. From the mountains of the eastern Sahara, hills and sands tumble right down into the Red Sea. The Suez Canal Zone isn't much to look at, but remnants of colonial building put up for French canal employees are highlights in neighborhoods in Ismailiya and Port Said.


Western Desert Oases


Turn west from the Nile, and the desertscapes seem to echo with the haunting melodies of the Bedouin flute. Start the day with bread baked in the hot sand, and finish it with a plunge into a hot spring with the moon as your lantern, shining out from the stellar sea of the Milky Way. You'll sip strong, sweet oasis tea or thick Arabic coffee roasted over a desert fire. Embrace all of this and feel like you've crossed into another world.