El Quseir, Egypt Hotels, Vacations, Tourism

EL-QUSEIR , 85km from Safaga, is likewise into phosphates extraction, but has fewer inhabitants and more appeal. In pharaonic times, it was from here that boats sailed to the "Land of Punt" (thought to be Yemen or Somalia), as depicted in reliefs within Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri. The Romans knew it as Leukos Limen (White Harbour), while under Arab rule El-Quseir was the largest port on the Red Sea until the tenth century, and remained a major transit point for pilgrims until the 1840s, when Flaubert caught its last flickers of exoticism. Crude pearl-fishers' pirogues resembling … more »