Egypt Guide
The Red Sea Coast and Eastern Desert
For 1250km, from Suez to the Sudanese border, turquoise waves lap rocky headlands and windswept beaches along a coastline separated from the Nile Valley by the arid hills and mountains of the Eastern Desert. As in Sinai, the region's infertility and sparse population belie its mineral wealth and strategic location, and there are further points in common in the wildlife, Bedouin nomads and long monastic tradition. Tourism, too, has developed along similar lines, with holiday villages proliferating along the coast, and dive boats ranging down the Red Sea as far south as Eritrea.
An entrepôt since ancient times, the Red Sea Coast was once a microcosm of half the world, as Muslim pilgrims from as far away as Central Asia sailed to Arabia from its ports. Though piracy and slavery ceased towards the end of the nineteenth century, smuggling still drew adventurers like Henri de Monfried long after the Suez Canal had sapped the vitality of the Red Sea ports. Decades later, the coastline assumed new significance with the discovery of oil and its vulnerability to Israeli commando raids, which led to large areas being mined – one reason why tourism didn't arrive until the 1980s. It's worth being aware that large areas of the coastline and many wadis are still mined, and that any area with barbed-wire fencing (however rusty) is suspect. Never wander off public beaches or into the desert without a guide.
Highlights
1 Red Sea monasteries Deep in the desert, St Paul's and St Anthony's were the world's first monasteries.
2 Mersa Alam Camps and hotels here give access to some of the best, least-visited and most southerly dive sites in Egypt.