Major Cities
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.
Sharm El Sheikh,
and the surrounding area including Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba.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.
This is not to say that there are many more tourist
destinations, particularly on the Red Sea and in Sinai, and on
Egypt's mainland interior, the oases. However, in much of the
rest of the mainland interior, travel and destinations are
limited. However, the tourist super-sites encompass perhaps
ninety-five percent of the ancient monuments, and most else
there is to do in Egypt.
Hurghada
and the surrounding area, particularly El Gouna. Not to far
apart are Quseir , Marsa Alam 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.
Luxor,
and the surrounding area including Esna and Edfu. 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 including Komombo and Abu Simbel. 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.
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