Egypt Guide
The Nile Valley
Assyut
ASSYUT (pronounced "As-yoot") was the first part of Middle Egypt to become a no-go zone for tourists in the 1990s, as local Islamic militants targeted foreigners as well as the security forces in their war against the state. The city endured nearly a decade of curfews and arrests as the conflict spread south before fizzling out, leaving Assyut with an overwhelming police presence and the mother of bad reputations. So it's not surprising that citizens – and the Christian population especially – rejoiced at apparitions of the Virgin Mary that occurred (so people swear) in 2000 and 2005, in the form of a light above two churches. Another cause for optimism is the upturn in the economy and the success of the city's football team Cement Assyut, sponsored by the cement factory across the river. Residents are more ambivalent about the fame of Assyut-born sex bomb Ruby – whose pop-videos make Britney Spears look like a nun – and local Mafioso Izzat Hanafi. Volatile, god-fearing, polluted and decrepit, Assyut is Naples on the Nile or Palermo with chadors.
Aside from the atmospheric bazaar and a Governorate Festival (April 18) commemorating the defeat of French forces by local villagers in 1799 – marked by folklore shows and a flotilla of boats on the Nile – the only reasons to come here are a couple of monasteries and tombs within the governorate. As in Minya, supervision by the police can be off-putting – though in Assyut they're weirdly inconsistent, giving you a motorcycle escort one time and totally ignoring you the next.
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