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Historical Tourism

The pharos were very interested in the area due to the existence of Quarries & mines using it to build and ornament their tombs and temples. The wide roads at that time did help them to connect the Nile valley with the Red Sea coast improving & extending their trades with the African countries especially during the time of Queen Hatchebsout , the area was a famous port & a gateway to India and East Africa.. The area itself was also a popular stop for the trade route to the Red Sea

Quseir fortress

The Ottoman Sultan Selim the first, built This fortress in the 16th century to protect trade links with India & Africa . It was occupied by Napoleon and his troops in the 18th century fortifying it with cannons mounted high on the walls. They also added a new viewing platform but after few years the British forces waged a battle against the French ejecting them out of the fortress and adding a new gate to it .The importance of this fortress already decline after the inauguration of Suez Canal . Recently, restoration work on the fortress has been completed. Cannons are once again pointing seawards from their original gun ports. The viewing platform was also restored with the help of illustrations from the Description de l'Égypte that had been commissioned by Napoleon. The fortress now houses the new Visitor Center containing displays on local history, archaeology and culture of the surrounding region

Wadi Hammamat

Wadi Hammamat is located about half way between Qusier and Gift), famous today mostly for its pharaonic graffiti. More than 200 hieroglyphic tablets adorn the quarries of the renowned "bekhen" stone, which is actually made up of three distinct materials. The Romans constructed watch towers and wells at regular intervals along the routes of the Eastern Desert where caravans stopped. Old wells and the remains of the Romans can still be seen.
Many of the inscriptions are dedicated to the divinities of the East, with Min-Amon at their head, and belong to both travelers and the pioneers who quarried the stone. These were professionals who traveled the land looking for the best stone to use in sculptures and monuments, and were highly skilled engineers and artisans. The hieroglyphic inscriptions engraved in the ravine walls, are set in the south side of the wadi. There is a small Egyptian Antiquities building opposite the inscriptions.

This is the road used in antiquity by the merchants of Arabia to trade with the Egyptians. So popular was the trade route that by the time of the Roman occupation of Egypt the residence of Copts were more Arab then Egyptian. It was also part of the famous silk trade route with the Han Dynasty in China, and continued to be an important route for Islamic pilgrims traveling to Mecca.

Mons Claudianus

Mons Claudianus is at the foot of Jebel Fatira, located about 30 miles from Port Safaga just of the Qena road. This was a Roman Penal Colony of substance, where Quartzy diorite, a high quality granite, was mined as building materials for the Roman Empire. This black stone can still be seen in Rome in the portico of the Pantheon, in Hadrian's Villa, and public baths and in the columns and floor of the Temple of Venus. A temple begun by Hadrian but never finished is in ruins, but the staircase leading to it can still be seen. There is also a Roman camp, dwellings, workshops, stables and a dromos. The camp is surrounded by granite walls with rounded defense towers on the corners, to protect it from Bedouin attacks. There are hot springs today, which where used in a complex underground heating system for the sweating baths. The actual quarries are on the opposite side of the wadi. There are fragments of granite, with several ruined artifacts such as a broken column and column slab

Wadi Sikait

The largest emerald mining site in the Eastern Desert in ancient times, Wadi Sikait was one of the few sources of emeralds the Romans knew, and they called it Mons Smaragdus or Emerald Mountain . Sikait was a vibrant village, . Several large multiple window and two temples evoke village life meetings sa well as religious and administrative activities , Overlook on the terrace just west of the main entrance .meetings, as well as religious and administrative activities. The two temples have a long history. Believed to have been dug in Ptolemaic times and re-cut during the Roman period, archeologists are still working to learn more about this site.

Bir Umm Fawakhir

A little to the north of Wadi Hammamat in the central part of the Eastern Desert lies a Byzantin gold mining settlement from the fifth and sixth century known today as Bir Umm Fawakhir. Around 1,000 Coptic Christians lived in this town of some 200 buildings. The gold extracted from the surrounding mountains was washed and transported to the Nile Valley for refining. Bir Umm Fawakhir's largest mine extends horizontally approximately 100 meters into the mountain and is about two meters high. Today, you can visit the site and examine the neatly laid out buildings and the ancient inscriptions etched into granite boulders at the towns guard posts

The Aqua Door

This site is situated in Abu El Safa Valley – Elba protectorate & it contains inscriptions that refer to the early existence of the pharos in the eastern desert who came in search for gold and pernicious stones whereas the Aqua Door exemplifying the importance of that era at that time

The Temple of Seti I at Kanais

Located in Kanais, east of Edfu along the desert road to Marsa Alam, lies
a small rock-cut temple built by Seti I (1305-1290 BC). Unfortunately, you will only be able to view the entrance of the temple. The chamber inside the cliff, which has magnificent drawings of Seti I slashing at his enemies and offering a gift to the god Amun, is closed to the public to protect it against defacement. Not far from the temple there is an ancient well. Superb rock art from pre-dynastic times about 6000 years old up to the period of Seti I decorate the wadi's steep walls with rowing boats dancing goddesses, long-horned gazelles, fat hippos and hunting scenes. Closer to the main road are the remains of a Roman fort; an indication of how important this area was in ancient times