Egypt is the oldest tourist
destination on earth. Ancient Greeks
and Romans started the trend, coming
to goggle at the cyclopean scale of
the Pyramids and the Colossi of
Thebes. At the onset of colonial
times, Napoleon and the British in
turn looted Egypt's treasures to
fill their national museums,
sparking off a trickle of Grand
Tourists that, by the 1860s, had
grown into a flood of travellers,
packaged for their Nile cruises and
Egyptological lectures by the
enterprising Thomas Cook.
Today, the attractions of the
country are little different. The
focus of most visits remains the
great monuments of the Nile Valley,
combined with a few days spent
exploring the souks, mosques and madrassas
of Islamic Cairo. However,
possibilities for Egyptian travel
also encompass snorkelling and
diving along the Red Sea coasts,
remote oases and camel trips into
the mountains of Sinai, or visits to
the Coptic monasteries of the
Eastern Desert.
The land itself is a freak of
nature, whose lifeblood is the River
Nile. From the Sudanese border to
the shores of the Mediterranean, the
Nile Valley and its Delta are
flanked by arid wastes, the latter
as empty as the former are teeming
with people. This stark duality
between fertility and desolation is
fundamental to Egypt's character and
has shaped its development since
prehistoric times, imparting
continuity to diverse cultures and
peoples over five millennia. It is a
sense of permanence and timelessness
that is buttressed by religion,
which pervades every aspect of life.
Although the pagan cults of ancient
Egypt are as moribund as its legacy
of mummies and temples, their
ancient fertility rites and
processions of boats still hold
their place in the celebrations of
Islam and Christianity.
The result is a multi-layered
culture, which seems to accord equal
respect to ancient and modern. The
peasants ( fellaheen) of the
Nile and Bedouin tribes of the
desert live much as their ancestors
did a thousand years ago. Other
communities include the Nubians of
the far south, and the Coptic
Christians, who trace their ancestry
back to pharaonic times. What unites
them is a love of their homeland,
extended family ties, dignity,
warmth and hospitality towards
strangers. Though most visitors are
drawn to Egypt by its monuments, the
enduring memory is likely to be of
its people and their way of life.
