Main Tips About Hurghada

Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century. For many decades it was a small fishing village, but it has grown into a major Red Sea resort as a result of Egyptian and foreign investment that began in the 1980s. Holiday resorts and hotels provide facilities for windsurfing, kitesurfing, yachting, scuba diving, and snorkeling. The city is known for its watersports, nightlife, and warm weather. Daytime temperatures are around 30 °C (86 °F) most of the year, and during July and August temperatures can reach over 40 °C (104 °F). Hurghada is a popular holiday destination for Europeans, especially during the winter, and some spend Christmas and New Year there. Tourist numbers from Russia dropped significantly after the Metrojet Flight 9268 plane crash in November 2015.

Hurghada stretches for about 36 kilometers (22 mi) along the seashore, and it does not reach far into the surrounding desert. The resort is a destination for Egyptian tourists from Cairo, the Delta, and Upper Egypt, as well as package holiday tourists from Europe. Today Hurghada counts 248,000 inhabitants and is divided into:

El Ahia and El Helal, the northern part;
El Dahar (Downtown) is the old part;
Sekalla is the city center;
El Kawsar is the modern part;
El Memsha (Village road) is a pedestrian road stretching over 4 km.
Along with the El, Mamsha can be found many of Hurghada‘s new hotels, restaurants, and shops. Most of the newest and biggest hotel resorts located in the area between Mamsha to Sahl Hasheesh (Village road). After Sahl Hasheesh there is Makadi Bay with its hotels. Dahar is the oldest part of the town, where the town’s traditional bazaar, the post office, and the long-distance bus stations, Go Bus and Upper Egypt Bus are situated. The busiest area is its “city center” Sakala, which is spread along Sheraton Road. There are some hotels, shops, and restaurants along Sheraton Road.[1]

The city is served by the Hurghada International Airport with scheduled passenger traffic connecting to Cairo and directly with several cities in Europe. A new terminal was opened in 2015 to accommodate rising traffic.

Tourism

A fake Lidl store in Hurghada
Although a town in its own right, Hurghada’s current major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its dramatic landscape, year-round dry and temperate[dubious – discuss] climate, and long stretches of natural beaches. Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for various water-sports, particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkeling.

Dive sites around Abu Ramada Island, Fanadir, Giftun Kebir, and Giftun Soraya are popular. Tourists also visit shipwrecks such as the El Mina or the Rosalie Moller. The beach at Hurghada is not secluded; out to Sigala, the beach is then followed by coastal holiday villages and then desert.

Demographics
Russian residents

Hurghada has 4 schools for Russian children, which are: Galaxy (Созвездие), Our Traditions (Наши Традиции), Dina (Дина) and The World of Knowledge (Мир знаний) (the Russian School Hurghada); as well as the newsletter MK in Egypt. Much of the signage in the city, as of 2015, is in Russian. In June 2015 MK in Egypt publisher Yulia Shevel stated that there were about 20,000 Russians in Hurghada, giving it Egypt’s largest Russian population, though only about 3,000 were officially documented.[10] Russian women staying in Hurghada often marry Egyptian men through an ‘urfi (non-shariah) process.[11]

In 2017 the Russian Consulate was open in Hurghada.[12]

Climate
Hurghada has a subtropical desert climate (Köppen climate classification: BWh), with mild-warm winters and hot to very hot summers. Temperatures in the period December–January–February is warm, but in the evening’s temperature may drop from an average of 20 Celsius degrees to 10. November, March, and April are comfortably warm. May and October are hot and the period from June to September is very hot. The average annual temperature of the sea is 24 °C (75 °F), ranging from 21 °C (70 °F) in February and March to 28 °C (82 °F) in August.

The highest temperature recorded occurred on June 12, 2013, and was 46 °C (115 °F), while the lowest record temperature was recorded on February 2, 1993, and was 0 °C (32 °F).[13]

there are special organized tours to discover the magic of the area

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Alexandria ,the second capital of Egypt

Alexandria, Arabic Al-Iskandariyyah, major city, and urban muḥāfaẓah (governorate) in Egypt. Once among the greatest cities of the Mediterranean world and a center of Hellenic scholarship and science, Alexandria was the capital of Egypt from its founding by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE until its surrender to the Arab forces led by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ in 642 CE. One of Egypt’s largest cities, Alexandria is also its principal seaport and a major industrial center. The city lies on the Mediterranean Sea at the western edge of the Nile River delta, about 114 miles (183 km) northwest of Cairo in Lower Egypt. Area city, 116 square miles (300 square km). Population (2006) city, 4,110,015.
Character Of The City
Alexandria has long occupied a special place in the popular imagination by virtue of its association with Alexander and Cleopatra. Alexandria played an important role in preserving and transmitting Hellenic culture to the wider Mediterranean world and was a crucible of scholarship, piety, and ecclesiastical politics in early Christian history. Although it has been asserted that Alexandria declined as a result of its conquest by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE, such a statement is misleading. While the city’s political primacy was lost when the capital was moved to the interior, Alexandria remained an important center of naval operations, maritime commerce, and craft production. As late as the 15th century, the city prospered as a transit point in the trade conducted between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean basin.
Landscape
City site
The modern city extends 25 miles (40 km) east to west along a limestone ridge, 1–2 miles (1.6–3.2 km) wide, that separates the salt lake of Maryūṭ, or Mareotis—now partly drained and cultivated—from the Egyptian mainland. An hourglass-shaped promontory formed by the silting up of a mole (the Heptastadion), which was built soon after Alexandria’s founding, links the island of Pharos with the city center on the mainland. It’s two steeply curving bays form the basins for the Eastern Harbour and the Western Harbour.

Climate
The prevailing north wind, blowing across the Mediterranean, gives Alexandria a markedly different climate from that of the desert hinterland. The summers are relatively temperate, although humidity can build up in July and in August, the hottest month when the average temperature reaches 87 °F (31 °C). Winters are cool and invariably marked by a series of violent storms that can bring torrential rain and even hail. The mean daily temperature in January, which is the coldest month, is 64 °F (18 °C).
People
From the late 19th century to the 1980s the population grew 10-fold, the result of high birth rates and migration from the countryside. In the decade following the 1952 revolution, the city’s population reached roughly 1.5 million; by 1976 the population stood at more than 2 million, with half the people under 20 years of age. The city’s population continued to grow, reaching more than 4 million in the early 21st century.

Economy
Manufacturing, finance, and other services
Alexandria’s industrial and commercial activities—manufacturing, shipping, warehousing, banking, food processing, and the production of petrochemicals and cement—indicate the importance of the city’s output for the national economy. Alexandria and its environs account for roughly two-fifths of Egypt’s industrial production. Most industrial development has taken place in the western approaches to the city, around the more modern Western Harbour, and along its southern flank; the industry is the city’s chief employment sector.

The area around the port known as Mīnāʾ al-Baṣal contains warehouses and was once home to the Cotton Exchange. West across the Al-Maḥmūdiyyah Canal is the Al-Qabbārī neighborhood, site of the asphalt works and rice and paper mills. Farther to the west is Al-Maks, with its salt and tanning industries, an oil refinery, a cement works, and, farther on, the limestone quarries. Other industrial development has taken place still farther west in Al-Dukhaylah. To the south lies the area of Al-ʿAmiriyyah, the site of two more refineries, including the Middle East Oil Refinery (Midor), which was designed to meet stringent environmental standards. The lighter industry is concentrated on the banks of the Al-Maḥmūdiyyah Canal.

Agriculture is an important economic activity in the hinterland, and land reclamation has been attempted with some success. In one such project implemented near Alexandria, the Egyptian government has aimed to encourage food production and divert job seekers from overcrowded urban areas by offering graduates of universities and other institutes of higher education parcels of reclaimed land, which they are able to purchase using long-term loans.

Europe’s increasing demand for cotton—introduced into Egypt in the 1820s—was by the 1840s contributing substantially to the city’s wealth. As a result, Alexandria became an increasingly important center for banking and commerce. The Alexandria Stock Exchange, founded in 1883, was followed by the Cairo Stock Exchange in 1903; they eventually linked their operations and continued as the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE). Though some banks, such as the Alexandria Commercial and Maritime Bank, are based in Alexandria, a majority of banks—including the Bank of Alexandria—are headquartered in Cairo.

there are special organized tours to discover the magic of alexandria

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luxor the world’s greatest open-air museum

Luxor, Arabic Al-Uqṣur, also called El-Aksur, city and capital of Al-Uqṣur muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Upper Egypt. Luxor has given its name to the southern half of the ruins of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Area governorate, 1,080 square miles (2,800 square km); city, 160 square miles (415 square km)
Luxor is often called the world’s greatest open-air museum, but that comes nowhere near describing this extraordinary place. Nothing in the world compares to the scale and grandeur of the monuments that have survived from ancient Thebes.
The setting is breathtakingly beautiful, the Nile flowing between the modern city and west-bank necropolis, backed by the enigmatic Theban escarpment. Scattered across the landscape is an embarrassment of riches, from the temples of Karnak and Luxor in the east to the many tombs and temples on the west bank.

Thebes’ wealth and power, legendary in antiquity, began to lure Western travelers from the end of the 18th century. Depending on the political situation, today’s traveler might be alone at the sights or be surrounded by coachloads of tourists from around the world. Whichever it is, a little planning will help you get the most from the magic of Thebes.
The Ancient Ruins
The southern part of Thebes grew up around a beautiful temple dedicated to Amon, king of the gods, his consort Mut, and their son Khons. Commissioned by King Amenhotep III (Amenophis III; reigned 1390–53 BCE) of the late 18th dynasty, the temple was built close to the Nile River and parallel with the bank and is known today as the Temple of Luxor. An avenue of sphinxes connected it to the Great Temple of Amon at Karnak. The modern name Luxor (Arabic: Al-Uqṣur) means “The Palaces” or perhaps “The Forts,” from the Roman castra.
Luxor, together with other Theban sites—Karnak, the Valley of the Queens, and the Valley of the Kings—was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. Excavations and preservation efforts have been ongoing. In 1988 the Egyptian Antiquities Organization uncovered numerous 18th-dynasty statues at the court of Amenhotep III, and work to excavate and preserve the court continued through the following decades. In the 21st century a project began to excavate the avenue of sphinxes between the Temple of Luxor and the Great Temple of Amon at Karnak.

The contemporary city, a market town for the surrounding agricultural district, has grown north, south, and east of the temple. It has a number of churches, as a large proportion of the population is Christian, and mosques. There is also a railway station on the Cairo-Aswān railroad, an airport, and ferry service to the western bank. The Luxor Museum was opened in 1975. Numerous tourist facilities were built in the latter part of the 20th century.

there are special organized tours to discover the magic of luxor

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Main Tips About Cairo

Cairo is the capital of Egypt, and one of the largest cities in Africa. Cairo has stood for more than 1,000 years on the same site on the banks of the Nile, primarily on the eastern shore, Cairo is the gateway to the Nile delta, where the lower Nile separates into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. Area governorate, 83 square miles (214 square km). Pop. (2006) governorate, 7,786,640; (2005 est.) urban agglom., 11,128,000.
Landscape
City site
Cairo is fan-shaped, narrowest in the south, where the river valley is wedged between desert escarpments, and widest in the north, where the valley blends into the delta. Over the centuries the city expanded westward, as a receding river channel left land flood-free. In response to heightened demand, however, the city also has been elongated to the north and south and has developed an expanding annex on the Nile’s western shore.
Climate
Cairo has only two seasons: approximately eight months of summer and four months of winter. In the hottest of the summer months—June, July, and August—the average daily maximum temperature is 95 °F (35 °C), and the average daily minimum is 70 °F (21 °C). The summer temperature has reached as high as 117 °F (47 °C). During winter the strong Tropic of Cancer sun makes for warm, dry days, but nights are cool and humid, often freshened by breezes from the Nile. The average daily maximum temperature in January–February is 67 °F (19 °C), and the average daily minimum is 47 °F (8.5 °C).
People
Cairo’s population, once both ethnically and religiously diverse, is now predominantly Muslim. A significant number of Egyptian Christians, the majority of whom observe the Coptic Orthodox faith, continue to dominate certain districts in the city. Remnants of the old Italian, Greek, Syrian, and Sudanese communities are still found in some locations. Differences of status within the Egyptian population depend largely on one’s place of origin (many residents of Cairo were born in rural Egypt), class, and degree of modernity. About half of the city’s population live in the city proper, while half live in the suburbs.
Economy
Manufacturing
From its inception, Cairo’s economy has been based on governmental functions, commerce, trade, and industrial production. The modern productive sector has expanded dramatically since the middle of the 20th century. Since the 1952 revolution, large-scale industrialization has built upon previous developments in textiles (utilizing the long-staple cotton for which Egypt is famous) and food processing (which consists of canning and freezing the wide variety of fruits and vegetables grown in the fertile delta), as well as the processing of sugarcane grown in Upper Egypt. In addition to the production of iron and steel, consumer goods, particularly appliances, are manufactured in nearby factories.

Finance and other services
Cairo is the country’s primary center for economic production and financial control. It still contains many of Egypt’s important banks, hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, and cafés.
Transportation
Egypt’s extensive transportation network, laid out by the British, connects most of the country’s urban centers with the capital. Within metropolitan Cairo, the transportation network is made up of both formal and informal sectors. The Public Transport Authority runs a bus network, which was introduced in the 1950s. In addition, a far-reaching system of authorized, licensed cabs operate in the city. Informal transportation services include minibusses and taxis, which sprang up in the late 1970s and ’80s; these continue to predominate, particularly in areas that serve the expanding informal neighborhoods. The Cairo Metro, a citywide subway system, began service in 1987 and has since been significantly expanded.

Traffic congestion is a serious problem in Cairo, particularly as both imports and local assembly plants have provided greater access to automobiles. To combat congestion and pollution, the Egyptian government built a substantial number of bypass highways and overpasses. Donkey-drawn carts, though technically outlawed, are also a common sight on Cairo’s streets, operating among the city’s automobiles, minibusses, buses, streetcars, and trolleys.

there are special organized tours to discover the magic of cairo

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