Richardson Dan - The Rough guide to Egypt 2013

This Rough Guide to Egypt is one of a new generation of informative and easy-to-use travel-guide eBooks thatguarantees you make the most of your trip. An essential tool for pre-trip planning, it also makes a great travelcompanion when youre on the road.

From the fills you in on history, Islam, Egyptian music and books.

Detailed area maps can be found both at the relevantpoint in the guide and in the ,accessible from the table of contents for easy reference.Depending on your hardware, you will be able to double-tap on the maps to see larger-scale versions fill your screen. Some of our more detailed maps have been split in two so you can zoom in on the each half individually. Use of the screen-lock function on your device is recommended for viewing enlarged maps.

Throughout the guide, weve flagged up our favourite places- a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric caf, a special restaurant - with the author pick icon . You can select your own favourites and create a personalized itinerary by bookmarking the sights, venues and activities that are of interest, giving you the quickest possible access to everything youll need for your time away.

Egypt is the oldest tourist destination on earth. Ancient Greeks andRomans started the trend, coming to goggle at the cyclopean scale of the Pyramidsand the Colossi of Thebes. During colonial times, Napoleon and the British lootedEgypts treasures to fill their national museums, sparking off a trickle of GrandTourists that eventually became a flood of travellers, taken on Nile cruises andEgyptological lectures by the enterprising Thomas Cook. Today, the attractions ofthe country are not only the monuments of the Nile Valley and the souks, mosques andmadrassas of Islamic Cairo, but also fantastic coral reefs and tropical fish, dunes,ancient fortresses, monasteries and prehistoric rock art.

The land itself is a freak of nature, its lifeblood the River Nile. From theSudanese border to the shores of the Mediterranean, the Nile Valley and its Deltaare flanked by arid wastes, the latter as empty as the former are teeming withpeople. This stark duality between fertility and desolation is fundamental toEgypts character and has shaped its development since prehistoric times, impartingcontinuity to diverse cultures and peoples over seven millennia. It is a sense ofpermanence and timelessness that is buttressed by religion, which pervades every aspect of life. Although the pagan cults ofancient Egypt are as moribund as its legacy of mummies and temples, their ancientfertility rites and processions of boats still hold their place in the celebrationsof Islam and Christianity.

The result is a multi-layered culture, which seems toaccord equal respect to ancient and modern. The peasants of the Nile and the Bedouintribes of the desert live much as their ancestors did a thousand years ago. Othercommunities include the Nubians of the far south, and the Coptic Christians, whotrace their ancestry back to pharaonic times. What unites them is a love of theirhomeland, extended family ties, dignity, warmth and hospitality towards strangers.Though most visitors are drawn to Egypt by its monuments, the enduring memory islikely to be of its people and their way of life.