EGYPT: Visit Hurghada But Avoid Arguing With Drivers, Microbus Travel Is Not Good For Women,

Hurghada is a resort town on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt. It is a city in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt. It is one of the country's main tourist centres located on the Red Sea coast.

Hurghada was once a fairly small and unimposing fishing village, located next to the Red Sea and boasting a number of superb beaches.

Today, the resort of Hurghada is almost unrecognizable from its past life and has grown to become the most visited tourist destination in the whole of Egypt, with more than 100 different hotels, many of which line the shoreline.

Famous for its superb diving opportunities, Hurghada is especially appealing to those with little experience of scuba diving, who come to marvel at the underwater reefs and awesome marine life.

Tourism is now a huge part of Hurghada and each year, many tourists choose to combine their holiday here with visits to other prominent locations along the Nile Valley, including the relatively nearby city of Luxor.

Holiday resorts and hotels provide aquatic sport facilities for windsurfers, kitesurfers, yachtsmen, scuba divers and snorkelers. Hurghada is known for its watersports activities, nightlife and warm weather.

Daily temperature hovers round 30 °C (86 °F) most of the year, during July and August temperatures reach over 40 °C (104 °F). Many Europeans head to Hurghada for their regular Holidays, specially during the Winter season and spend their Christmas and New Year holidays in the city.

Tourism from Russia dropped drastically after the Metrojet Flight 9268 plane crash in November 2015.

Hurghada stretches for about 36 kilometres (22 mi) along the seashore, and it does not reach far into the surrounding desert. The resort is a destination for Egyptian tourists from Cairo, the Delta and Upper Egypt, as well as package holiday tourists from Europe.

Today Hurghada counts 248,000 inhabitants and is divided into:

- El Ahia and El Helal, the northern part.

- El Dahar or Downtown is the old part.

- Sekalla is the city center.

- El Kawsar is the modern part.

- El Memsha or Village road is pedestrian road stretching over 4 km.

Along the El Mamsha you find many of Hurghada's new hotels, restaurants and shops. Most of the newest and biggest hotel resorts locates in the area between Mamsha to Sahl Hasheesh or Village road.

After Sahl Hasheesh you find Makadi Bay with it hotels. Dahar is the oldest part of the town, where the town's traditional bazaar, the post office and the long-distance bus stations, Go Bus and Upper Egypt Bus are situated.

Busiest area is it's city center known as Sakala, which is spread along Sheraton Road. There are some hotels, shops and restauants along Sheraton Road.

The city is served by the Hurghada International Airport with scheduled passenger traffic connecting to Cairo and directly with several cities in Europe. A new terminal was opened in 2015 to accommodate rising traffic.

Hurghada has a subtropical-desert climate, with mild-warm winters and hot to very hot summers. Temperatures in the period December–January–February are warm, but in the evenings temperature may drop from average 20 Celsius degrees to 10.

November, March and April are comfortably warm. May and October are hot and the period from June to September is very hot. The average annual temperature of the sea is 24 °C (75 °F), ranging from 21 °C (70 °F) in February and March to 28 °C (82 °F) in August.

The highest temperature recorded occurred on June 12, 2013 and was 46 °C (115 °F), while the lowest record temperature was recorded on February 2, 1993 and was 0 °C (32 °F).

El Qoseir is one of the Egyptian gateways, and one of the oldest cities on the western coast of the Red Sea. In the past it was known by various names, such as Thagho in the pharonic period, Leucos Limen or white port in Greek in the Hellenistic and Ptolemaic period, and Portus Albus in the Roman period.

In the Islamic period it was given the name El Qoseir, which means a small palace or fortress.

Located between Hurghada and Marsa Alam, El Quseir used to be an important port. Many people traveled from there to the land of Punt to buy ivory, leather and incense. During the Ottoman and the Islamic periods, Egyptians and Muslims from North Africa traveled from El Quseir as pilgrims to Mecca.

It was also the only port importing coffee from Yemen. During the French occupation of Egypt, El Qoseir was the arrival point for Arabs and Muslims from Hegaz coming to fight beside the Mamalic against the French army.

The most important sites in El Qoseir are the fort and the water reservoir. The water reservoir was El Qoseir's only source of drinking water 100 years ago.

El Qoseir El Adima is another important site as well. It was the old Roman port where hundreds of amphora and old pottery artifacts were found.

Even the police station is located at a historical site. There are now many bazaars here, as well as cafes, coffee shops and restaurants offering sea food. There are several 300-year-old buildings here: the Ottoman fort and the old mosques El Farran, El Qenawi and El Senousi.

Makadi Bay is a Tourist Resort located 30 km south of Hurghada dedicated only to hotels, shops and clubs. There's no settlements with locals. Place features good sandy beach. Surprisingly, the local delicacy is camel marinaded in Buckfast.

Sharm El Naga is a village, around 40 km (25 mi) south of Hurghada. Its beach contains a beautiful reef cliff.

Soma Bay is a tourist resort situated 45 km (28 mi) south of Hurghada, with various hotels including Palm Royale Soma Bay, La Residence des Cascades, Robinson Club, Sheraton,Kempinski & Caribbean World Resort Soma Bay.

El Gouna is a privately owned luxury hotel town, about 25 km north of Hurghada. Quiet and clean, the town consists of several islands separated by channels and connected by bridges.

Besides 14 hotels and 3 marinas, there are also 2200 private villas and apartments, while many more are under construction. It is promoted by some as Egypt's Venice. It is built on 10 km of beachfront and has unique and diverse architecture.

El Gouna provides diving and watersports centers, horse stables, go-karting, shopping arcades, bazaars, a wide selection of restaurants and bars, night clubs, an internet cafe, four bank branches, many automated teller machines (ATMs), two pharmacies, the El Gouna international school, El Gouna national school, a nursery, a private hospital.

There are three marinas, a library, an airport, one of several casinos on the Red Sea coast, a private radio station, a post office, a museum, real estate offices and an 18-hole golf course designed by Gene Bates with a unique aqua driving range.

El Mahmya is a tourist beachfront camp on the protected Giftun island, 45 minutes by boat from Hurghada.

Although a town in its own right, Hurgada’s current major industry is foreign and domestic tourism, owing to its dramatic landscape, year-round dry and temperate climate and long stretches of natural beaches.

Its waters are clear and calm for most of the year and have become popular for various water-sports, particularly recreational scuba diving and snorkelling.

Dive sites around Abu Ramada Island, Fanadir, Giftun Kebir, and Giftun Soraya are popular. Tourists also visit shipwrecks such as the El Mina or the Rosalie Moller.

The beach at Hurghada is not secluded, out to Sigala the beach is then followed by coastal holiday villages and then desert.

In a 2016 attack and again in a 2017 attack foreign tourists at Hurghada's beach resorts were targeted by terrorists attacks.

Most major airlines in Europe and the Middle East can fly you straight to Hurghada International Airport without having to stop in Cairo. Prices depend on the time of the booking and the airline. As you enter the airport building, you will see a big sign saying Visa 25USD.

You will be ushered towards a stand where you must buy the visa for 25 Euro (over 30USD). You can easily avoid this by going to the National Bank Of Egypt stand in the same hall and presenting your passport, along with exactly 25 US dollars, to the attendant.

He will give you the visa and you will be done in half the time, for half the price.

If you are in Cairo, you can also fly to Hurghada on Egypt Air Express a subsidiary of Egypt Air or Nile Air, which is now servicing domestic locations in Egypt. Prices vary: 400-900 Egyptian pounds depending on the season and how early you book your tickets.

From Sharm el-Sheikh you can fly with Egypt Air for about 450-550 LE, the trip takes about 1 hour.

From Cairo, trip takes about 7 hours, depending on the operator. Good operators are Super Jet and Go Bus; avoid MCV Co. Prices range from 50 to 150LE for a one way ticket and buses will leave about every hour.

From Alexandria, 2 daily buses. One is operated by Upper Egypt and leaves at 18:30, arriving in Hurghada around 4:30 the next morning. This is not ideal as you will find the city asleep and it is very hard to get a taxi this early.

The second bus, operated by Super Jet, will leave around 20:30 and arrive around 6:30 in the morning. Prices are around 90-100LE for a one way trip.

From Luxor, about 4-5h by Super Jet bus or longer by Upper Egypt. Super Jet runs twice daily and Upper Egypt has more frequent buses.

From Aswan, 2 daily buses, both operated by Upper Egypt. The first one leaves at 15:30, the second leaves at 17:30. The trip takes at least 8 hours, meaning you will arrive in Hurghada after midnight. Prices are around 50-55LE.

There is no normal public transport in Hurghada. White mini vans the Toyota Hiace locally called micro bus have established routes. Locals are the main users, but it is quite easy to use them.

It costs about 1-2 Egyptian pounds, and they stop wherever needed and go wherever you want except 1-2 neighbourhoods. Ask the driver for destination before getting in.

Microbus travel is not recommended for the young women.

Taxi drivers in Hurghada have astonishing talent for spotting tourists from far, far away; look at the approaching car and it will stop for you at a cost.

Before stepping in, find out if driver speaks any English, and show the wanted destination on the map. There are only few streets with names, so the destination is specified with nearby places, a hotel for example.

Discuss and agree the total price but not per person with the driver: remember the price varies from 10 to 25 Egyptian pounds. Do not travel with the meter on, drivers can control it. After the driver agrees on a price, jump in. Get out in front of the hotel.

The method to avoiding confrontation with the drivers is to have correct amount of money you agreed at first. Pass the money on at the destination, get out and walk away; avoid arguing with drivers.

Most taxi drivers are honest people trying to make a living by getting tourists and locals from one place to another. Very few are thieves, targeting tourists to steal money.

If you have only a 50LE or 100LE note, mention this to the driver before you get in. Ask him if he has change, then ask him again. He might have to stop somewhere at a shop to have the note changed. As you hand him the note, say for example; I give you 100 pound, you give me 80 pound.

This will prevent the taxi driver from quickly changing the note and accusing you of giving him only 10LE. If this should happen, weigh your chances.

You are unlikely to get your money back, and when surrounded by many taxi drivers, you might get yourself into more trouble. Cut your losses and take another taxi.

When you want to drive by night, you should take care, mostly as woman. You should take better an serios taxi service. There are a few very well, where the driver speak also english. And there is also a german taxi company in hurghada, MyDriver chauffeur service.

Uber and Careem both have presences in Hurghada. They are reasonably priced and convenient, sparing you the incessant haggling required for taxi rides.

However, some locations e.g. the bus station within Hurghada have been blocked on Uber. You will see a message that Uber does not operate in this location. Simply walk about 2-3 blocks/5 minutes away from the building avoiding the taxi touts along the way , and you will be able to use Uber again.

Hurghada has a variety of activities for those who enjoy the sea and the beach. Activities include scuba-diving, snorkeling, windsurfing, parasailing, and jetskis. You can also ride a glass boat which is a boat with a glass bottom where you can see the amazing coral reefs and underwater scenery.

The main reason to visit Hurghada is the Red Sea, which is excellent for diving or snorkeling. See incredible coral reefs and hundreds of varieties of tropical fish just 10 m from the beach.

Again, either your hotel will have dive escorts on site, or it can arrange a scuba diving expedition with guides. Scuba diving (2 dives) cost between 50-65 USD. The divers are locals and are excellent in handling beginners.

In late March, the water may be a bit cold, so a wetsuit might be necessary. It might also be windy in late March and just as likely may not be. You may want to check if your resort hotel provides windscreens on the beach.

For a desert adventure, you can also ride motorbikes or beach buggies into the desert.

Hurghada is an ideal point for trips by bus to Cairo and Luxor. The road between Hurghada and Luxor take around 3.5 hours. the road between Hurghada And Cairo take around 6 hours.

Hurghada offers many activities not to be found anywhere else on Earth: quad-biking hundreds of miles into the Sahara desert for tea with a Bedoin tribe, then camel-riding across Biblical plains to see remote and ancient wonders.

Diving and snorkeling around a vibrant and colourful coral reef; boat trips to the unpopulated Big and Little Gifton islands; swimming in the warm sea; good shopping; excellent and varied cuisine from across the world, etc.

If you were to choose to stay in your hotel complex for the duration of your break, you would miss out on much more than you bargained for.

Those new to Egypt will find karkaday - a drink made from an infusion of hibiscus, served hot or cold and reputed to have many health benefits and chi a local version of tea, usually served in a glass offered everywhere.

Both are delicious and will usually come replete with a smoke on a sheesha pipe, known in the West as a hookah. Sheeshas are used for smoking molasses tobacco in various flavours, with the smoke passing through water before inhalation through a long tube attached to the bowl.

Although they may resemble a device used to smoke illicit substances in the west like bang, sheesha is completely legal.

Cruise across the Red Sea to the uninhabited island of Giftun surrounded by magical coral gardens. Enjoy a lazy day on the white sand or swim amongst the coral reefs. This great day trip is hard to skip when you are in Hurghada.

In the evening, you can go for a walk in the promenade area for some traditional cafes, shopping, or dining. There is a bowling and family entertainment centre close by as well as a few malls and restaurants.

Night life usually begins quite late, and you can find some clubs in close proximity to the promenade.

Hurghada Grand Aquarium, Village Road, After Magawish Hotel. Aquarium and Mini Zoo.

Nautilus Pearl, Hurghada Marina. 8 am - 10 pm. Luxury Catamaran with underwater viewing stations, restaurant, bar with wifi, Sun Deck, Jacuzzi, Cocktail deck, snorkeling. Sailing Daily.

Tornado Marine Fleet, Hurghada Marina. 24 hrs. Luxury liveaboard fleet offering cruises for divers and non divers on board an award winning fleet. Catering for groups and individuals. Multilingual guides.

You can buy many souvenirs from the shops that are spread inside the main town at Sekalla high street and along the beach areas. Also the old down town el Dahar has a wide selection of bazaars with cheaper prices than Sekalla.

First, remember to haggle, haggle and haggle everywhere except in restaurants and drugstores. You should be able to get 75% off from the price that seller asks at first. This might vary with different products, so remember to check a few shops for appropriate prices.

There are souvenir shops that have fixed prices, mostly in the New Hurghada area. There is no reason to be happy with the fixed price, since some times it's more expensive than in other shops. At famous stores like 'Cleopatra' you can find souvenirs, shirts, woodwork, and silver.

For brand-names and higher-quality products, head down to New Marina and Sheraton Road where you can find Adidas, Timberland, Dockers and Levi's as well as a traditional bazaar or Souq in Arabic.

Often the clothes are counterfeit knockoffs; though you will notice that any shop may post famous trademarks on its banner and yet sell fake clothes.

In perfumes, most are oil-based and rarely can you find natural or organic perfumes. Be wary when the sellers attempt to entice you into the shop, for they will often invite you to drink something like tea.

Or, if they feel you are rich, they will offer Cola for while they are demonstrating perfumes. One should politely refuse the refreshments because, if you drink, you have to buy from them.

Hurghada offers a variety of cuisine, including fast food, western restaurants, oriental food, and many others.

You can find KFC, McDonald's, and the local fast food chain GAD.

Where Sherry Street branches from Sheraton Street, you can get chicken meal in Brost eldik for 14LE, popular among backpackers and young people.

Right across from Princess Palace Hotel, near Hard Rock Cafe, you will find the bar/restaurant Triple X. Though the name may sound a little strange, the atmosphere in this place is very friendly. It is a family-run place and often will you find more staff than clients.

But delicious and cheap food, cold beers served in clean, cold glasses and helpful, multilingual staff make this place the perfect hangout for many loyal customers. 50cl of Stella costs 10LE; chicken sandwich with fries costs 25LE.

Also, they have free WiFi for their customers,just ask for the password, it changes 2 or 3 times every day.

Alcoholic drinks can usually be found in bars or hotels. Hurghada has a very western atmosphere so it is much easier to drink than in other areas of Egypt.

Nonalcoholic drinks include conventional drinks like canned drinks, sodas, or juice, as well famous Egyptian drinks such as sahlab, karkadeh, mirinda, yansoon, gansabeel, irfa, and many others.

Over the years, Hurghada has developed a bubbling reputation for its cosmopolitan nightlife scene, alongside the many bars within the new Hurghada Marina, Papas Bar has two venues one inside the marina, the other next-door to the Shedwan Hotel in downtown Dahr.

The world-renown Hed Kandi Beach Bar; still the world's first and only Kandi beach bar.

There are many bars, nightclubs and discos in Hurghada. Almost every hotel comes equip with its own disco, and then you can find the only beachside Ministry of Sound venue, coupled with the world's first Hed Kandi Beach Bar.

Other nightlife leaders in the city include Hard Rock Cafe, Little Budha, Calypso Disco, the new R&B Club, and throughout the summer months you can find the popular Voodoo parties every Wednesday within the Grand Hotel Resorts.

Global leaders in dance music, Ministry of Sound Beach Club, operate a varied daily schedule ranging from disco grooves, through to R&B/hiphop and house/techno.

There are also many other discos and late-night bars dotted around the city, generally speaking ask your guest relations or tour guide to recommend you a venue suited best to you.

There's famous Czech pub PRAHA at the end of Sheraton St.

A general rule when taking a taxi at a night club is to agree on a price before you even touch the car and give the correct amount. Taxi drivers will try to steal money from you and you will not be able to retrieve it once it is in their hands.

Dana Beach Resort, Sahl Hasheesh Road, Hurghada, Egypt. This 5-star Hurghada resort offers private beachfront resort on the Red Sea. Amenities include a lagoon-style outdoor pool, dive center and piano bar. All rooms feature an outdoor balcony.

Beach Albatros Resort, Safaga Road, P.O. Box 110, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is a 5-minute walk from the beach. Located directly on the beach, this 4-star resort features an Aqua Park with 3 outdoor swimming pools and spacious rooms with a balcony. It includes a spa and a diving center.

Lillyland Beach Club Resort, KM 17 200 Hurghada - Safaga Rd, Red Sea Governorate, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is a 10-minute walk from the beach. Lillyland Beach Club Resort is on the coast of the Red Sea and 12 miles south of Hurghada International Airport. It features a spa, an outdoor pool, and a private beach area.

Giftun Azur Resort, Village Road, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is a 4-minute walk from the beach. Nestled among lush gardens with palm trees, Giftun Azur Resort features 7 restaurants and 7 bars. It has outdoor pools, and spacious rooms with sea, pool or garden views.

Amwaj Blue Beach Resort & Spa, Abu Soma Bay, Hurghada, Egypt. Amwaj Blue Beach Resort & Spa offers luxury accommodations with Red Sea views and a private beach. There are 2 pools set within gardens, as well as a spa and fitness center.

AMC Royal Hotel, El Ahyaa Area, Hurghada, Egypt. Right on the beach, AMC Royal Hotel is in Alahyaa District in Hurgahda. It features a private beach and a vast range of water activities including scuba diving and snorkeling.

Imperial Shams Abu Soma, Km 9 Safaga Road, Soma Bay, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is 2 minutes walk from the beach. In the beautiful Soma Bay, this 5-star resort features a private, sandy beach and a large, outdoor pool. A balcony and satellite TV are offered in all rooms.

Albatros Aqua Park Resort, Safaga Road, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is a 5-minute walk from the beach. This hotel is situated in Hurghada and is a 10-minute drive from Hurghada International Airport.

It features a large pool with waterslides, a heated swimming pool and a hot tub. Guests can enjoy free access to Aqua Park as well free access for children Aqua Park at Sea World Resort.

Bel Air Azur Resort for adults Only, El Cornich Road, Sekala, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is 2 minutes walk from the beach. This all-inclusive beach hotel is located along the Red Sea, just 1.9 miles from the centre of Hurghada. It features 800 m² of freshwater pools, and rooms with balcony and free minibar.

Grand Seas Resort HostMark, KM 14 - Hurghada - Safaga Road, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is 2 minutes walk from the beach. Featuring outdoor pool and a sit-down restaurant, the Grand Seas Resort HostMark is in Hurghada. Wi-Fi access is available for a fee.

Eiffel Hotel Hurghada, Sheraton Street, Beside Marina Al Yokhoot, Hurghada, Egypt. This property is 1 minute walk from the beach. Featuring a private beach, Eiffel Hotel offers air-conditioned rooms with a balcony overlooking the Red Sea.

Its outdoor pool is surrounded by sun-lounge chairs and has a pool bar. Free Wi-Fi is available in public areas.

Eagles Resort, Airport way in the Magawish area. New Resort right on Red Sea coast just 10 minutes away from Hurghada Airport. Hotel consist from just 72 suits with separate living rooms and will give you pleasant relaxing atmosphere during vocation. from 23$.

A little internet searching will throw up some private self catering accommodation that is usually owned by Europeans as a holiday home, which gives much more independence than staying in a resort hotel and is potentially much cheaper.

Hurghada Acorn is a reputable provider of self catering accommodation in Hurghada and the surrounding areas, to suit all budgets, and has been established since 2008.

They are a husband and wife team, and are regularly contacted by travelers for help, even if they are not their own guests, they try to make themselves available for assistance.

Budget hotels catering to Egyptian travellers with rooms at 50LE can be found near the Upper Egypt bus station.

Hurghada Center is a big complex, offering over 400 living spaces of different sizes. Ask the taxi for Center Libya, the complex is still property of the Libyan government and known by everyone in Hurghada by this name and ask one of the security guards to take you to the reception.

A 2 person studio will be 125LE per night. They also have special rates for long term rent. Taxi ride from the airport costs 30LE, to McDonald's on Sheraton Road 10LE and to Hard Rock Cafe 15 or 20LE.

Sonesta Pharoah Beach Resort, Safaga Road, Hurghada Egypt.

Sunrise Holidays Resort, Coronation Road, Hurghada Egypt.

Sunrise Chrystal Bay Resort, Hurghada Egypt.

Sea Star Blue Rivage, Hurghada Egypt.

Giftun Beach, Hurghada Egypt.

The Oberoi in Hurghada is 5-star deluxe hotel.

Steigenberger Makadi Hotel is nestled on the picturesque shores of Hurghada and in the heart of the magnificent Makadi Golf Course and the entire Madinat Makadi resort.

Madinat Makadi is 617 acres of new and thriving holiday Egypt destination with an impressive variety of five-star hotels, family resorts and deluxe accommodation that provides something for everyone.

The wonders of antiquity, the magnificent Red Sea with its stunning beaches, majestic desert and mountains and Souk Makadi shopping complex.

Jaz Bluemarine is situated in Hurghada, with its own private beach, outstanding natural beauty and mesmerizing marine life. The long stretching coastline, Mediterranean climate and coral reef islands provide a perfect backdrop to the perfect five-star Egypt escape.

Hurghada Clinic. Medical clinic with doctors who can speak English and Polish. International travel insurances are accepted.

El Gouna Hospital. An integrated professional medical service provider across the Red Sea since 1998. Different & professional management for multiple-trauma patients through its highly-qualified medical crew in different departments including neurosurgery, general & thoracic surgery, orthopedic & vascular surgery.

Endoscopic surgeries: gynecology, orthopedic, general surgery, urosurgery, stone removal and destruction. There are stuff who speak English, French Russian and German. Often international insurances are accepted.

Senzo Mall is a new shopping mall, about a 10 minute taxi ride from town, on the airport road. It has a large Spinneys Hypermarket and many other shops, fast-food outlets and a 5-screen cinema as well as a moderate-sized kids' play area.

You can take a bus to El Gouna which departs every 15 minutes from El Dahar Square opposite the Egypt Telecom building. A 45-minute ride costs 5LE for one way if you told him that you are living in el gouna if you are a tourist they will charge you 10LE

Buses leave for many destinations from the Old Town bus station. Eighty percent of them run on schedule; the others may face many hours' delays.
Be there at least one hour before the scheduled departure. Having a local fix your ticket might be a good way to avoid a lot of frustration, whilst saving money.

Buses leave for Quseer and Marsa Alam 3 times a day, Luxor 3 times, Cairo each 1 hour, there's no direct buses to Sharm El Sheikh you must go to Cairo or Suez that about the GOV buses.

But for most safety, reasonable price and comfortable buses go to Zahran bus station you can find more than 4 private companies you can use SuperJet it cost 80LE to Cairo and 100LE to Alexandria 45Le to Luxor.

To go Aswan you can use StarJet.

There are long-distance taxis leaving from the station in El Hegaz Street. Just contact the people standing at the entrance who ask for your destination. The taxis are used a lot by the locals and are quite cheap. One can reach most bigger cities in Egypt from this station.

To get to the station, take the bus 4 or 7 to El Hegaz Bus Station.

Be aware that shared taxi are not comfortable and if you are with a woman don't go there as you may be ripped off there by the drivers.

If you want to travel more comfortable, there are flights offered by Egyptair connecting Hurghada with Cairo and other cities.


Tourism Observer

EGYPT: Archaeologists Find 3,500 Year Old Rock Art In Egypt

Egypt says archaeologists have unearthed 3,500-year-old rock art depicting bulls, donkeys and sheep in the Eastern Desert.

The Antiquities Ministry said Wednesday the discovery in the Wadi Umm Tineidba, by an Egyptian-American mission from Yale University, includes at least three concentrations of rock art.

Mission chief John Coleman Darnielen says the discovery provides evidence for the continuity and interaction of artistic styles of the Eastern Desert and Nile Valley.

The oldest of the panels is thought to date to the Predynastic period, between 3500 and 3100 B.C.

The team also found an ancient well, burial tumuli, and a previously unrecorded settlement dating to the Late Roman period.

One of the burial tumuli contained the remains of a woman who had been buried with a strand of carnelian beads and shells from the Red Sea.

To read about another recent discovery in Egypt, go to Honoring Osiris.

Egypt hopes such discoveries will encourage tourism as it struggles to revive its economy after years of unrest.


Tourism Observer

SOUTH SUDAN: Nuer People, Rainbow Is Necklace Of God. Woman Not Allowed To Remarry Because She Is Still The Wife Of Her Dead Husband

The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group primarily inhabiting the Nile Valley.

They are concentrated in South Sudan, with some also found in southwestern Ethiopia.

They speak the Nuer language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family.

As one of the largest ethnic groups in southern Sudan, the Nuer people are pastoralist who herd cattle for a living. The cattle of the Nuer people serve as companions and a lifestyle.

The Nuer are a cattle raising people devoted to their herds, although milk and meat must be supplemented by the cultivation of millet and the spearing of fish.

Because the land is flooded for part of the year and parched for the rest of it, they spend the rainy season in permanent villages built on the higher ground and the dry season in riverside camps.

Politically, the Nuer form a cluster of autonomous communities, within which there is little unity and much feuding; homicides are settled by payments of cattle effected through the mediation of a priest.

The basic social group is the patrilineal lineage. Groups of lineages are organized into clans. The members of a clan have in their territory a slightly privileged status, although they form a minority of its population.

The majority belong to other clans or are descendants of the neighbouring Dinka, large numbers of whom have been subdued by the Nuer and incorporated into their society. In each community the men are divided into six age sets.

Marriage, which is polygynous, is marked by the giving of cattle by the bridegroom’s people to the bride’s kin.

Because it is held that every man must have at least one male heir, it is the custom for a man’s kin, should he die unmarried, to marry a wife to his name and beget children by her, a custom known as ghost marriage.

The Nuer pray and sacrifice to a spirit associated with the sky but also thought to be ubiquitous, like the air.

This spirit is conceived of as a single creative spirit in relation to mankind as a whole, but it is also figured in different representations in relation to different social groups, such as clans, lineages, and age sets, and it may then be symbolized by material forms, often animals or plants.

However, they refer to themselves as Nath. The Nuer people have historically been under-counted as a result of the semi-nomadic lifestyle in which the community engages, as well as a lack of proper national census information about the community.

In addition, the Nuer also have a culture of counting only older members of the family.

For example, the Nuer believes that counting the number of children one have could result to misfortune and the community prefer to report fewer number of children when in fact they have many children.

The nature of relations among the various southern Sudanese tribes was greatly affected in the 19th century by the intrusion of the British.

Some ethnic groups made their accommodation with the colonizers and others did not, in effect pitting one southern ethnic group against another in the context of foreign rule.

For example, some sections of the Dinka supported colonial rule which was resisted by the Nuer.

The Dinka treated the resisting Nuer as hostile, and hostility developed between the two groups as a result of their differing relationships to the British.

There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups.

There are suggestions that neither the Nuer nor the Dinka are intrusive and that the Nuer are actually Dinka. They argue that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars.

In 2006, the Nuer were the tribe that resisted disarmament most strongly.

Members of the Nuer White Army, a group of armed youths often autonomous of tribal elders' authority, refused to lay down their weapons, which led SPLA soldiers to confiscate Nuer cattle, destroying their economy.

The White Army was finally put down in mid-2006, though a successor organisation self-styling itself as a White Army formed in 2011 to fight the Murle tribe, as well as the Dinka and UNMISS.

Cattle have historically been of the highest symbolic, religious and economic value among the Nuer.

Among Nuer people, the difference between people and cattle were continually underplayed. Cattle are particularly important in their role as bride wealth, where they are given by a husband's lineage to his wife's lineage.

It is this exchange of cattle which ensures that the children will be considered to belong to the husband's lineage and to his line of descent.

The classical Nuer institution of ghost marriage, in which a man can father children after his death, is based on this ability of cattle exchanges to define relations of kinship and descent.

In their turn, cattle given over to the wife's patrilineage enable the male children of that patrilineage to marry, and thereby ensure the continuity of her patrilineage.

A barren woman can even take a wife of her own, whose children obviously biologically fathered by men from outside unions, then become members of her patrilineage, and she is legally and culturally their father.

This allowing her to participate in reproduction in a metaphorical sense.

The life of the Nuer people primarily depends on cattle which has shaped them into being a pastoralist group, but sometimes they are known to resort to horticulture as well.

If they weren't threatened by the numerous diseases cattle could catch then they would solely rely on pastoralism.

Due to the seasons of harsh weather, the Nuer move around time after time to ensure that their primary source of living is safe.

They tend to travel when heavy seasons of rainfall come to protect the cattle from getting hoof disease, or when there is a scarcity of resources for the cattle.

They depend on the herds for their very existence. Cattle are the thread that runs through Nuer institutions, language, rites of passage, politics, economy, and allegiances.

If they didn't have cattle most of their traditions or other characteristics shaped by cattle in their culture would be altered.

Cattle is their primary resource that can be utilized in more than one way. They are able to structure their entire culture around cattle and still have what they need.

Times before development the Nuer used every single piece of cattle to their advantage. Cattle helped evolve the Nuer culture into what it may be today.

It has shaped the daily duties of the Nuer as they are seen to dedicate themselves to protecting and ensuring safety to the cattle. One can see their true dedication for cattle in times of bad health.

For example, each month they place their faces into the ass of their cattle blowing air to relieve or keep them from constipation.

Cattle are no good to the Nuer if they are constipated because they are restricted from producing primary resources that families need to survive.

The importance of cattle in Nuer life and thought is further exemplified in personal names. They structure the names of their children off of biological features of the cattle themselves.

All of the Nuer raw materials come from these cattle things such as drums, rugs, clothing, spears, shields, containers, and leather goods. There isn’t one single part of the cattle that the Nuer throw away.

As they have purpose for ritual intent, churning cheese and even to cleanse the body. Even daily essentials found in common cultures like toothpaste and mouthwash are created with the cattle’s dung and urine.

They even use the cattle's dung for everyday use. What they do is gather the dung that the cattle have extracted overnight and put them in big abundant piles.

Once they have them in piles they chop the dung into smaller pieces and leaves it out to hardened. From there they use it for whatever resource they may need like containers, toothpaste, or even to protect the cattle themselves.

They protect the cattle by feeding the dung to the fire allowing it to produce more smoke keeping insects away from cattle to prevent them from catching a disease.

The Nuer people never eat cattle just because they want to. Cattle are very sacred to them, therefore when they do eat cattle they honor its ghost. They typically just eat the cattle that is up in age on dying because of sickness.

But even if they do so, they all gather together performing rituals dances or songs before and after they slaughter the cattle.

Never do they just kill cattle for the fun of it. Never do Nuer slaughter animals solely because the desire to eat meat.

There is the danger of the ox’s spirit visiting a curse on any individual who would slaughter it without ritual intent, aiming only to use it for food.

Any animal that dies of natural causes is eaten. Many times it may not even just be cattle that they consume, it could be any animal they have scavenged upon that has died because of natural causes.

There are a few other food sources that are available for the Nuer to consume. The Nuer diet primarily consists of fish and millet. Their staple crop is millet. Millet is formally consumed as porridge or beer.

The Nuer turn to this staple product in seasons of rainfall when they move their cattle up to higher ground. They might also turn to millet when the cattle are performing well enough to support their family.

Kinship dynamic is different with the Nuer. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered blood relatives or kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin.

To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them.

There is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage.

Nuer girls usually marry at 17 or 18. If a young girl gets engaged at an early age, the wedding and consummation ceremonies are essentially delayed.

Women generally give birth to their first children when they are mature enough to bear them. As long as a girl marries a man with cattle, she is able to freely choose her husband.

Her parents may choose a spouse for her, but they must ask for her consent.

Cattle are an important aspect in their way of life; virtually all matters involve cattle- conflicts are usually about cattle, and cattle are used to pay fines for offenses as well as bridewealth in marriages.

Nuers even take the name of their favourite oxen or cows, and greet each other with their cattle names. Cattle also mean prestige and wealth. It also acts as a mediator to the divine, as we would see in the ceremonial rites of Nuer marriages.

Cattle not only provide companionship, food and economic security, but also a cultural identity for the Nuer. Cattle also plays important role in rites in their marriages.

Bridewealth is a significant feature in Nuers’ marriage practices. It is an exchange that brings a woman and her children into the descent of her husband.

The Nuer has certain marriage prohibitions that revolve around the matters of kinship. A man and woman who stand on a relationship based on kin is hence forbidden to have sex or marry.

If marriage takes place, it would be considered incest, or rual. Rual refers to both incest and misfortune brought about it, shaped by their religious beliefs.

Syphilis or other diseases, drowning, or any form of violent deaths are seen as a consequence or retribution followed by incest. Some misfortunes could be avoided through cattle sacrifices.

Nuers have to follow the rule of exogamy: a man cannot marry a woman of the same clan and the same lineage. This means, a man and woman who are considered close cognate are also not allowed to marry.

As long as a relationship cam be traced between a man and woman through either father or mother, up to six generations, marriage is not allowed to happen.

When a Dinka boy is adopted by a Nuer, he used be regarded as part of the clan, and normally would not be allowed to marry a girl in the clan he is adopted.

A man may not also be allowed to take a woman that is kin to the wife, like her sister or any of those in her clan.

Because a man and woman is only fully married when the woman has a child and comes to live with her husband’s people, this means that the relation is tied through the child.

The sister is also considered to be the mother of the child. Besides that, a man may not marry to the daughter of his age mate, a member of his age set.

This is because age-mates shed blood together during their initiation process and gives them a kind of kinship. The daughter one’s age-mate is also one’s daughter, and hence it would be considered incest.

One alternative marriage type is same sex marriage. Women in Nuer culture can marry each other, with one being the father of the children of the wife.

The father is referred to the pater. A third person, the genitor, is required to impregnate the wife. He could be a friend, neighbor or kinsman of the pater, and would help around in the home for tasks which are deemed unfit for women as well.

For the marriage to become official, the pater has to pay a bridewealth to the wife, as would happen if a man were to marry a woman.

Additionally, the pater would also receive bridewealth if any of her daughters were to marry. While this was not uncommon, the underlying motivation is still to carry on the family name.

A woman who marries as a pater is usually barren, and for this reason is regarded like a man. In addition, because a barren woman usually practices as a magician or diviner, she acquires more cattle and hence is rich and could have several wives.

Another alternative marriage arrangement is ghost marriage. A woman would be chosen to marry a family member of the dead man, and the offspring of these two would be thought of as belonging to the deceased.

This lies in the belief that a man who died without male heirs would leave behind an angry spirit to trouble the family. The woman marries to his name so that the children would carry his line.

The deceased is the legal husband of the woman whose name is used in paying for bridewealth. The main idea here is the continuity of the lineage.

For the Nuer, once married, the bond between them stays even after death. While polygyny is practiced in the Nuer society, a woman is expected to stay loyal to her husband, where relation with other man is seen as adultery.

Hence if one’s husband died, the woman is not allowed to remarry because she is still the wife of her dead husband. Brother of the deceased would then step in as a substitute for the dead man.

Because married women traditionally do not have significant wealth, this way she would be able to keep her wealth and power, though there is no living husband. She is seen as a widow who takes care of her husband’s wealth and children.

The alternative marriage arrangements for the Nuers are shaped by the patrilineal nature of the society.

Because men tend to have much more wealth than women, they have the means to have more wives and even pass down their wealth to future generation even he is not married when he is alive.

Having a family is one of the ultimate goals for traditional Nuer youths. The idea of marriage has been ingrained even through childhood.

Adults are open about sexual life with their children, and children familiarise themselves with marriage through role-playing of marriage ceremonies, conducting bridewealth negotiations and pretending having a conjugal life.

Carrying out domestic work also helps to reinforce the idea of family and commitment. Boys are initiated around the age of 16, after which they would go to dances to woo girls.

Girls in their 12 or 13 would begin to have relations with initiated boys.

Dances serve as an important medium where couples meet and court after that. It allows youths from different clans and villages to meet each other.

During the dances the men would charm the girls with their fine dancing and display of spearmanship and duelling with the club.

Marriage for the Nuer is made up of payment of bridewealth and by the performance of certain ceremonial rites.

These two aspects are necessary and indeed reinforce each other. The chief ceremonies in Nuer marriages include the betrothal or larcieng, the wedding or ngut and the consummation or mut.

The negotiations of bridewealth, or cattle talk or riet ghok starts when the boy comes to consult the girl’s and ask kins for approval.

After several cattle discussions and the girl’s people are satisfied, they would tell the bridegroom that he can bring the ghok lipa, the cattle of betrothal, on a certain day.

During the betrothal ceremony three to ten heads of cattle are transferred to the bride’s family. At this phase, marriage is provisionally agreed upon both families. The celebration would be usually be attended by neighbours.

The dance in weddings attract crowds to come, although the union do not directly concern them. Families and kin of the bride and groom are more involved in prolonged discussions about bridewealth, sacrifices and other rites

The wedding ceremony or ngut takes place some weeks later, during the windy season, and meanwhile there are further discussions about bridewealth not only in the home of her bride’s father but also in the home of her senior maternal uncle or father’s brother-in-law, who is also responsible for the negotiations.

In the meantime, bridegroom and girl is considered man and wife, and he is respected as son-in-law. Occasionally visits the girl with his friends, but they are carefully observed by bride’s family.

The final cattle talk happens during the ngut. The wedding also consists of calling of the ghosts of ancestors, the wedding dance and sacrifice of the cattle.

There would be chantings to invoke the ghosts of ancestors to look upon the cattle of the bridewealth. This is to make the ghosts witnesses of the union.

In the evening or the following morning, a wedding ox provided by the bride’s father is sacrificed and distributed. This sacrifice is important to ward off evil and contamination, according to Nuer’s religious beliefs.

The consummation or mut concludes the marriage. Before the couple is allowed to consummate, half of the bridewealth have to be transferred.This ceremony makes the couple husband and wife.

After which, the husband can claim compensation if adultery happens, while the bride is prevented form going to evening dances. Important rites in this ceremony include the sacrifice of an ox, lustration and shaving of the bride’s head.

Because the union is seen complete only after the birth of the first child, the wife would only be brought to her husband’s home after that, where she would be accepted as kin.

Again this feature is important in Nuer marriage because infertility could cause the marriage to be dissolved and so the wife is pressured to have a child within one to two years.

The payment of bridewealth is to be completed before the woman moves into her husband's clan.

Bridewealth makes up an important aspect in Nuer marriages. Bridewealth serves several functions. It is basically an exchange whereby the girl is transferred to the male’s lineage and her family receives the cattle.

It also means that children born out of that union belongs to the husband’s descent. In addition, bridewealth is a way to develop relationship between two families.

It is different from dowry such that bridewealth is not given for the bride alone but also distributed among her kins.

Because marriage is a long process for the Nuer, bridewealth payments can be seen as a way to develop social relations among people with no kinship ties i.e. between families of the bride and bridegroom.

Each payment gives stability to the union and security to both parties.

Kinship along the Nuer is very important to them, they refer to their blood relatives as gol. Kinship within the Nuer is formed off of one’s neighbors or their entire culture.

Kinship obligations include caring for the children of one’s kin and neighbors. The network of kinship ties which links members of local communities is brought about by the operation of exogamous rules, often stated in terms of cattle.

This is never thought to be the sole responsibility of the child’s parents. Cattle are judged by how much milk they can produce which is a necessity in their culture. If possible they create the excess of milk into cheese.

But if a family’s herd cannot produce the amount of milk a family needs then they turn to other around them to give them what they need.

It’s seen as their responsibility to step in and help the family since it’s not really their fault on how much their cattle can produce.

The entire Nuer society is basically watching after each other, for example, hhen one household has a surplus, it is shared with neighbors. Amassing wealth is not an aim.

Although a man who owns a large herd of cattle may be envied, his possession of numerous animals does not garner him any special privilege or treatment.

In this tribe there is no special treatment for how one is treated because of their abundance in cattle. Just because one might have more cattle than another doesn't mean they have a higher prestige.

If one might have more than enough to provide for themselves then they also provide that to other kin that are in need, as it is a part of their role in kinship.

The Nuer believe that God is the spirit of the sky or the spirit who is in the sky - Kuoth Nhial or God in Heaven the creator, but Nuers believe in the coming of God through rain, lightning and thunder, and that the rainbow is the necklace of God.

The sun and the moon as well as other material entities are also manifestation or sign of God, who after all is a spirit.

The spirits of the air above are believed to be the most powerful of the lesser spirits, while there are also spirits associated with clan spears names such as WiW, a spirit of war, associated with thunder.

Nuers believe that when a man or a woman dies, the flesh, the life and the soul separate. The flesh is committed to the earth, while the breath or life goes back to God or Kuoth.

The soul that signifies the human individuality and personality remains alive as a shadow or a reflection, and departs together with the ox sacrificed, to the place of the ghosts.

In the 1940s, missionaries began to attempt to evangelize the Nuer. The book of Genesis was translated and published in 1954, with the whole New Testament following in 1968.

By the 1970s, there were nearly 200 Nuer congregations established. However, only around 1% of Nuer identify as Christian.

Nuer placed strict limits on the convertibility of money and cattle in order to preserve the special status of cattle as objects of bride wealth exchange and as mediators to the divine.

She also found that as a result of endemic warfare with the Sudanese state, guns had acquired much of the symbolic and ritual importance previously held by cattle.

The people speak the Nuer language / Thoknath which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language phylum.

Though their geographical proximity with their Dinka's neighbors, the two people speak completely different languages and are unable to understand each other.

The Nuer receive facial markings called gaar as part of their initiation into adulthood. The pattern of Nuer scarification varies within specific subgroups.

The most common initiation pattern among males consists of six parallel horizontal lines which are cut across the forehead with a razor, often with a dip in the lines above the nose.

Dotted patterns are also common especially among the Bul Nuer and among females.

The Nuer adopted the practice of circumcision as part of the process of assimilation other ethnic groups.

The Nuer are not historically known to circumcise, but on rare occasions, may participate as part of ritual in their belief systems.

For instance, The Nuer occasionally perform circumcisions to cleanse people who have engaged in the act of incest.

Typical foods eaten by the Nuer tribe include beef, goat, cow's milk, mangos, and sorghum in one of three forms: ko̱p which is finely ground, handled until balled and boiled.

Walwal ground, lightly balled and boiled to a solid porridge, and injera, a large, pancake like yeast-risen flatbread.

In the early 1990s about 25,000 African refugees were resettled in the United States throughout different locations such as South Dakota, Tennessee and Minnesota.

In particular, 4,288 refugees from Sudan were resettled among 36 different states between 1990 and 1997 with the highest number in Texas at 17 percent of the refugee population from Sudan.

The Nuer refugees in the United States and those in Africa continue to observe their social obligations to one another.

They use different means ranging from letters to new technologically advanced communication methods in order to stay connected to their families in Africa.

Nuer in the United States provide assistance for family members’ paperwork to help their migration process to the United States. Furthermore, Nuer in the United States observe family obligations by sending money for those still in Africa.

Some important Nuer politicians are Both Diu who was the first Nuer and South Sudan Politician from 1947 and followed by Gai Tut in Military is Bol Nyawan who fought against the Khartoum government in Bentiiu, he was killed in 1985 by the current president of Sudan.

Commander Ruai and Leah Diu Deng were responsible for the attack that forced Chevron to suspend activities in the oil field around 1982.

Nyada meaning daughter, all females begin with Nya which means of. It is the standard prefix used for female names. Gat, meaning son of, is a common prefix for male names.

Children are commonly given names to mark historical events e.g Domaac meaning bullet, or Mac meaning fire or gun.

These are given to a child born during times of war or from another man in the name of the deceased father who legally married the mother.

Nhial means rain, and is a common name for males.

Many Nuer have been exposed to missionaries and carry a Christian first name. Their second name is a given name and always in Nuer.

The father's given name follows the child's given name, which is then followed by the grandfather's name, and so on. Many Nuer can easily recount ten generations of paternal lineage because they carry those names themselves.

When a Nuer comes to the Western world, which wants a first and last name, it is their custom to give their name as their first name followed by their father's name as their middle name and their grandfather's name as their last name.

After the civil war, the Nuer began accepting cash currency into their economy, changing the dynamics of their cattle and how they were viewed.

Each type of cattle is titled according to how they are acquired such as the cattle of money or purchased with cash currency and the cattle of girls/daughters or bridewealth.

Most Nuer people are named after their cattle. The boys usually chose the name of their favorite cattle based on the form and color of the ox.

The girls are named after the cows that they milk. Sometimes the cow names are passed down.

Oil exploration and drilling began in 1975 and 1976 by companies such as Chevron. In 1979 the first oil production took place in the southern regions of Darfur.

In the early 1980s when the North-South war was happening, Chevron was interested in the reserves in the south.

In 1984 guerrillas of SPLA the Sudan People’s Liberation Army attacked the drilling site of the north at Bentiu. In return, Chevron cleared Nuer and Dinka people in the oil fields area to ensure security for their operations.

The Nuer-Dinka struggle in oil fields continued in late 1990s into the early 2000s. The struggle for oil production was not only manifested in North-South fight, but also in Nuer-Dinka and many internal conflicts among Nuer.

As part of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 50 percent of net revenues of southern oil fields were given to the government of southern Sudan as a solution to one of the sources of decades of civil conflict.



Tourism Observer

Nubian People Of The Nile,Lebanese Singer Haifa Wehbe Called Nubian Black People In Egypt "monkeys"

Nubians are an ethnolinguistic group indigenous to present-day Sudan and southern Egypt who originate from the early inhabitants of the central Nile valley, believed to be one of the earliest cradles of civilisation.

Nubian people have an ancient history predating dynastic Egypt. They speak the Nubian languages, which belong to the Nilo-Saharan language family.

In the pre-dynastic period, early Neolithic settlements have been found in the central Nubian region dating back to 7000 BCE, with Wadi Halfa believed to be the oldest settlement in the central Nile valley.During the dynastic period, parts of Nubia such as Ta-Seti,the first nome or administrative region of ancient Egypt were continuously a part of ancient Egypt throughout the dynastic era.

Other parts of Nubia, particularly Southern or Upper Nubia, were at times a part of ancient Pharaonic Egypt and at other times a rival state representing parts of the Empire of Meroe or the Kushite Kingdom. However, at the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, all of Nubia was united with ancient Egypt, or Kemet, extending down to modern day Khartoum.

Towards the end of the dynastic era, Upper Nubia broke off from Egypt proper. During that time, the Nubians founded a dynasty that ruled Upper and Lower Egypt during the 8th century BCE. As warriors, the ancient Nubians were famous for their skill and precision with the bow.

Today, people of Nubian descent primarily live in southern Egypt, especially in the Aswan area, and in northern Sudan, particularly in the region between the city of Wadi Halfa on the Egyptian-Sudanese border and Al Dabbah. Additionally, several groups known as the Hill Nubians live in the northern Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state, Sudan.

The main Nubian groups from north to south are the Halfaweyen, Sikut, Mahas and Dongola.

The term Nubia means gold or Nubians was first used by the Romans to describe the area of Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan.However, throughout history various parts of Nubia were known by different names, including Ta-Seti, Kush, Meroe, and biblical Ethiopia.Although Egypt and Nubia have a shared pre-dynastic and pharaonic history, the two histories diverge with the fall of Ancient Egypt and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332BC.

At this point, the area of land between the 1st and the 6th cataract of the Nile became known as Nubia. Egypt was conquered first by the Greeks and then the Romans. During this time period, however, the Kushites formed the kingdom of Meroe, which was ruled by a series of legendary Candaces or Queens.

Mythically, the Candace of Meroe was able to intimidate Alexander the Great into retreat with a great army of elephants, while historically documents suggest that the Nubian's defeated the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, resulting in a favorable peace treaty for Meroe.The kingdom of Meroe also defeated the Persians, and later Christian Nubia defeated the invading Arab armies on three different occasions resulting in the 600 year peace treaty of Baqt, the longest lasting treaty in history.

The fall of the kingdom of Christian Nubia occurred in the early 1500s resulting in full Islamization and reunification with Egypt under the Ottoman Empire, the Muhammad Ali dynasty, and British colonial rule. After the 1956 independence of Sudan from Egypt, Nubia and the Nubian people became divided between Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan.

Modern Nubians speak the Nubian language, an Eastern Sudanic language that is part of the Nilo-Saharan phylum.

The Old Nubian language is attested from the 8th century, and is the oldest recorded language of Africa outside of the Afro-Asiatic group. It was the language of the Noba nomads who occupied the Nile between the First and Third Cataracts and also of the Makorae nomads who occupied the land between the Third and Fourth Cataracts, following the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush sometime in the 4th century AD.

The Makorae were a separate tribe who eventually conquered or inherited the lands of the Noba: they established a Byzantine-influenced state called the Kingdom of Makuria, which administered the Noba lands separately as the eparchy of Nobadia. Nobadia was converted to Miaphysitism by the Orthodox priest Julian and Bishop Longinus of Constantinople, and thereafter received its bishops from the Pope of Alexandria.

The origin of the name Nubia or Nubian is still in contest. Many believe it is based on the ancient Egyptian noun, nebu, meaning gold. Another etymology claims that it originates with the name of a distinct group of people, the Noubai, living in the area that would become known as Nubia. Others refer to Nubians as Kushites, a reference to the Kush, the territory known as Nubia as it was called by Ancient Egyptians.

Though it appears the people of Kush did not speak what is today considered the Nubian language, they are referred to as Nubians since they inhabited the area known as Nubia.

In addition, mystery still surrounds the native language of Kush with some scholars believing the Kushites spoke an Afro-Asiatic language, which would make it rather distinct from the Nilo-Saharan Nubian language.Finally, some believe the term Nubian may originate with the Greek historian Strabo, who referred to the Nubas people.

The earliest history of ancient Nubia comes from the Paleolithic Era of 300,000 years ago. By around 6000 BCE, the Nubians had developed an agricultural economy. The Nubians began using a system of writing relatively late in their history, when they adopted the Egyptian system.

Ancient Nubian history is categorized according to the following periods:

- A-group culture (3700-2800 BCE)

- C-group culture (2300-1600 BCE)

- Kingdom of Kerma (2500-1500 BCE)

- Nubian contemporaries of Egyptian New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE)

- Kingdom of Napata and Egypt's Nubian dynasty XXV (1000-653 BCE)

- Kingdom of Napata (1000-275 BCE)

- Kingdom of Meroe (275 BCE-300/350 CE)

- Kingdom of Makuria (340-1317 CE)

- Kingdom of Nobatia (350–650 CE)

- Kingdom of Alodia (600s–1504 CE)

Nubia consisted of four regions with varied agriculture and landscapes. The Nile river and its valley were found in the north and central parts of Nubia, allowing farming using irrigation. The western Sudan had a mixture of peasant agriculture and nomadism. Eastern Sudan had primarily nomadism, with a few areas of irrigation and agriculture.

Finally, there was the fertile pastoral region of the south, where Nubia's larger agricultural communities were located.

Nubia was dominated by kings from clans that controlled the gold mines. Trade in exotic goods from other parts of Africa (ivory, animal skins) passed to Egypt through Nubia.

The descendants of the ancient Nubians still inhabit the general area of what was ancient Nubia. Today, they live in what is called the former Old Nubia, which is mainly in modern Egypt. Nubians have been resettled in large numbers,an estimated 50,000 people away from southern Egypt since the 1960s, when the Aswan High Dam was built on the Nile, flooding ancestral lands.

Some resettled Nubians continue working as farmers on resettlement farms whose landowners live elsewhere; most work in Egypt's cities. Whereas Arabic was once only learned by Nubian men who travelled for work, it is increasingly being learned by Nubian women who have access to school, radio and television. Nubian women are working outside the home in increasing numbers.

In the 1973 Arab–Israeli War Egypt employed Nubian people as codetalkers.

Nubians have developed a common identity, which has been celebrated in poetry, novels, music and storytelling.

Nubians in modern Sudan include the Danaqla around Dongola Reach, the Mahas from the Third Cataract to Wadi Halfa, and the Sikurta around Aswan. These Nubians write using their own script. They also practice scarification: Mahas men and women have three scars on each cheek, while the Danaqla wear these scars on their temples.

Now younger generations appear to be abandoning this custom.

Nubia's ancient cultural development was influenced by its geography. It is sometimes divided into Upper Nubia and Lower Nubia. Upper Nubia was where the ancient Kingdom of Napata,the Kush was located. Lower Nubia has been called the corridor to Africa, where there was contact and cultural exchange between Nubians, Egyptians, Greeks, Assyrians, Romans, and Arabs.

Lower Nubia was also where the Kingdom of Meroe flourished. The languages spoken by modern Nubians are based on ancient Sudanic dialects. From north to south, they are: Kenuz, Fadicha (Matoki), Sukkot, Mahas, Danagla.

Kerma, Nepata and Meroe were Nubia's largest population centres. The rich agricultural lands of Nubia supported these cities. Ancient Egyptian rulers sought control of Nubia's wealth, including gold, and the important trade routes within its territories.Nubia's trade links with Egypt led to Egypt's domination over Nubia during the New Kingdom period.

The emergence of the Kingdom of Meroe in the 8th century BCE led to Egypt being under the control of Nubian rulers for a century, although they preserved many Egyptian cultural traditions.Nubian kings were considered pious scholars and patrons of the arts, copying ancient Egyptian texts and even restoring some Egyptian cultural practices.

After this, Egypt's influence declined greatly. Meroe became the centre of power for Nubia and cultural links with sub-Saharan Africa gained greater influence.

Today, Nubians practice Islam. To a certain degree, Nubian religious practices involve a syncretism of Islam and traditional folk beliefs.In ancient times, Nubians practiced a mixture of traditional religion and Egyptian religion. Prior to the spread of Islam, many Nubians practiced Christianity.

Ancient Nepata was an important religious centre in Nubia. It was the location of Gebel Barkal, a massive sandstone hill resembling a rearing cobra in the eyes of the ancient inhabitants. Egyptian priests declared it to be the home of the ancient deity Amun, further enhancing Nepata as an ancient religious site.

This was the case for both Egyptians and Nubians. Egyptian and Nubian deities alike were worshipped in Nubia for 2500 years, even while Nubia was under the control of the New Kingdom of Egypt.Nubian kings and queens were buried near Gebel Barkal, in pyramids as the Egyptian pharaohs were. Nubian pyramids were built at Gebel Barkal, at Nuri,across the Nile from Gebel Barkal, at El Kerru, and at Merroe, south of Gebel Barkal.

Modern Nubian architecture in Sudan is distinctive, and typically features a large courtyard surrounded by a high wall. A large, ornately decorated gate, preferably facing the Nile, dominates the property. Brightly colored stucco is often decorated with symbols connected with the family inside, or popular motifs such as geometric patterns, palm trees, or the evil eye that wards away bad luck.

Nubians invented the Nubian vault, a type of curved surface forming a vaulted structure.

The Northern Sudanese are of mixed Afro-Arab ancestry, genetics studies seem to suggest that modern day Nubians of Southern Egyptians and Northern Sudanese are the descendants of the Ancient Nubians, Ancient Upper Egyptians and Ancient Lower Egyptians, showing the closest genetic affinity to their non-Nubian modern Egyptian counterparts.

In fact, the North African component of the modern Nubian gene pool is believed to pre-date the Arab migration into North Africa, extending back to the proto-berber (North African) inhabitants of Ancient Lower Egypt.Unlike the rest of Egypt, the region known as Nubia defeated or withstood invasions from the Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Arabs, resulting in preservation of the indigenous population.

In addition, Nubian society is known for being insular and disapproving of intermarriage with non-Nubian Egyptians/Sudanese, which historically also limited mixing.

Importantly, the Nubians are not to be confused with the Nubi people also sometimes referred to as Nubians, estimated at 100,000-200,000, who live in Kenya and Uganda. The Nubi are descendants of soldiers conscripted by the British during the colonial era, and they are originally from modern day South Sudan and the Darfur region.In contrast, the Nubians are indigenous to only Egypt & Northern Sudan.

Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe released an album containing lyrics calling Nubian black people in Egypt "monkeys". Outraged Egyptian Nubians filed a lawsuit and claimed that it inspired an increase in racism against Nubians in public, including schools.

Anwar Sadat, third President of Egypt, faced insults of not looking Egyptian enough and Nasser's black poodle.

Some Prominent Nubians

- Mo Ibrahim, Sudanese-British mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire

- Alara of Nubia, founder of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt

- Taharqa, Pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth dynasty

- Amanitore, Kandake (queen) of the Kingdom of Kush centered on Meroe

- Gaafar Nimeiry, Former Sudanese president

- Anwar Sadat, The third President of Egypt, first Muslim Nobel prize laureate

- Mohammed Wardi, Sudanese Nubian singer, considered as the greatest Sudanese artist to have ever lived.

- Mohamed Mounir, Singer, the Prince

- Hamza El Din, Singer and musicologist

- Ramey Dawoud, Hiphop artist and actor

- Khalil Kalfat, Literary critic, political and economic thinker and writer

- Abdallah Khalil, Ex-Sudanese Prime Minister, co-founder of the White Flag League, co-Founder and ex-general secretary of the Umma Party

- Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman, Egyptian Field Marshal and statesman, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, de facto head of state of Egypt

- Ibrahim Ahmad, Prominent Sudanese politician, first Sudanese head of the University of Khartoum, first Secretary of Treasury, the first chairman of the Bank of Sudan, co-founder of Umma party, Author and negotiator of the Sudanese Declaration of Independence.

- Sheikh Arbab Al Aqaed, Prominent Sufi scholar, founder of Sudanese capital Khartoum

- Abdel Rahim Hussein, Former Sudanese defense minister, Current governor of Khartoum state

- Muhammad Ahmad, 19th century Sufi sheikh and self-proclaimed Mahdi

- Jamal Abu Seif, Founder of Itihad, the first politically active group in the Sudan and predecessor of the White Flag League

- Abdu Dahab Hassanein, Founder of the Sudanese Communist Party

- Osama Abdul Latif, a Sudanese businessman, chairman of DAL Group

- Mohammed Tawfeg, ex-Minister of Exterior, ex-Minister of the Media

- Idris Ali, Egyptian novelist and short story writer

- Ibrahim Awad, Sudanese musician

- Shikabala, Egyptian footballer who currently plays for Egyptian club Zamalek



Tourism Observer

EGYPT: Egypt Tourist Authority Attracts Arab Travellers

The Egypt Tourism Authority, ETA, has unveiled a new campaign entitled “This is Egypt” (#thisisegypt), to launch a major regional campaign to drive growth in the tourism sector. In a change from previous ETA campaigns, #thisisegypt will be digitally-led, focusing on peer-to-peer advocacy and underpinned by digital media spend, whilst traditional advertising methods will form a secondary promotional level.


Targeting the Arab traveller from the Middle East region, the campaign will harness the power of digital media in a region where internet penetration is 5.8 per cent higher, at 48.1 per cent, than the world average and social media sites, such as Facebook, play a significant role in 88 per cent of internet users’ daily lives.


“The #thisisegypt campaign is a powerful movement which we know will resonate with the wider region as it was created initially by the Egyptian people themselves,” said Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, Hisham Zaazou. “We are at a pivotal point in terms of tourism development in the country and the new campaign and branding demonstrates our commitment in attracting travellers from our sister Arab countries to discover our beautiful country.

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The campaign focuses on personalising the Egyptian experience by encouraging the wider Arab audience to consider the variety of holiday which can be enjoyed in Egypt from a vibrant city break in Alexandria or Cairo to luxury beach getaway in Hurghada or Sharm Al Shaikh. The campaign will highlight past-times which particularly resonate with an Arabic audience from shopping and dining to enjoying luxury accommodation and exciting nightlife.


The campaign will highlight Egypt’s touristic destinations into four main geographic attractions: the Nile Valley, the Red Sea Riviera, the White Mediterranean and the Western Desert. The four destinations will be promoted across different audiences and seasons based on each of the targeted markets’ unique attraction points.


The hashtag, #thisisegypt, originally began as a grass-roots movement developed by Egyptians, but now will be adopted and refined by the ETA to boost tourism by portraying an experiential and authentic image of the country to the world.
The three-year campaign will focus on attracting and engaging diverse audiences, with a focus on millennials who are driven by personal experience, passion and adventure.

Recent studies have shown that millennials take a higher number of trips annually compared to other age groups, driven by the aforementioned factors. Millennials also have the highest level of influence in their respective communities, which indirectly affects the travel decisions of their peers — upon which this campaign heavily relies.