Ismaïlia

Ismailia 

is a city in north-east Egypt. Known in Egypt as "The City of Beauty and Enchantment".

 Ismaïlia is situated on the west bank of the Suez Canal, it is the capital of the Ismailia Governorate

The city has a population (including surrounding rural areas) of approximately 750,000 inhabitants

It is located approximately half way between Port Said to the north and Suez to the south

The Canal widens at that point to include Lake Timsah, one of the Bitter Lakes linked by the Canal.

Ismaïlia was founded in 1863, during the construction of the Suez Canal, by Khedive Ismail the Magnificent, after whom the city is named. 

The head office of the Suez Canal Authority is located in Ismaïlia at the shore of Lake Timsah. It still has a large number of buildings dating from British and French involvement with the Canal. Most of these buildings are still used by Canal employees and officials.

Port Said

Port Said 
is a city that lies in north east of Egypt, extending about 30 kilometres (19 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea , north of the Suez Canal.

The city was established in 1859 during the building of the suez canal. The economic base of the city is Fishing and some industrie ssuch as chemicals and processed food . Port Said is also an important harbour for exports of Egyptian products like Cotton and Rice, also a fueling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. It is a Duty-Free port as well as a tourist resort especially during summer.

Port Said's twin city is Port Fouad , which lies on the eastern bank of the canal.

The cities are connected by free ferries running all through the day , and together they form a metropolitan area with over a million residents that extends both on the African and the Asian sides of the Suez Canal.

The name of Port Said first appeared in 1855, It was chosen by an International committee composed of England, France, Russia, Austria, Spain and Piedmont.

It is a compound name which composed of two parts: Port (marine harbour) and Said (the name of the ruler of Egypt at that time), who granted Ferdinand de Lesseps the concession to dig the Suez Canal.

Library of Alexandria

The Royal Library of Alexandria in Egypt  was the largest and most significant great library of the Ancient World. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic Dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the 3rd century BC until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC.

The library was conceived and opened either during the reign of Ptolemy I Soter (323–283 BC) or during the reign of his son Ptolemy II (283–246 BC)

Plutarch (AD 46–120) wrote that during his visit to Alexandria in 48 BC Julius Caesar accidentally burned the library down when he set fire to his own ships to frustrate Achillas' attempt to limit his ability to communicate by sea. After its destruction, scholars used a "daughter library" in a temple known as the Serapeum, located in another part of the city. Intended both as a commemoration and an emulation of the original, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina was inaugurated in 2002 near the site of the old library

In 2004, a Polish-Egyptian excavation team announced that they had discovered the remains of the Library of Alexandria

  

Pompey's Pillar Alexandria

Pompey's Pillar is a Roman triumphal column in Alexandria, Egypt, and the largest of its type constructed outside of the imperial capitals of Rome and Constantinople

The only known free-standing column in Roman Egypt which was not composed of drums, it is one of the largest ancient monoliths and one of the largest monolithic columns ever erected.

The monolithic column shaft measures 20.46 m in height with a diameter of 2.71 m at its base

 The weight of the single piece of red Aswan granite is estimated at 285 tons. The column is 26.85 m high including its base and capital.^[2] Other authors give slightly deviating dimensions.

Erroneously dated to the time of Pompey, the Corinthian column was actually built in 297 AD, commemorating the victory of Roman emperor Diocletian over an Alexandrinian revolt

Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa

The Catacombe of Kom el Shoqafa is a historical archaeological site located in Alexandria , Egypt, and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages.

The necropolis consists of a series of Alexandrian tombs, statues and archaeological objects of the Pharaonic funeral cult with Hellenistic and early Imperial Roman influences. Due to the time period, many of the features of the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa merge Roman, Greek and Egyptian cultural points; some statues are Egyptian in style, yet bear Roman clothes and hair style whilst other features share a similar style. A circular staircase, which was often used to transport deceased bodies down the middle of it, leads down into the tombs that were tunneled into the bedrock during the age of the Antonine emperors (2nd century AD). The facility was then used as a burial chamber from the 2nd century to the 4th century, before being rediscovered in 1900 when a donkey accidentally fell into the access shaft. To date, three sarcophagi have been found, along with other human and animal remains which were added later. It is believed that the catacombs were only intended for a single family, but it is unclear why the site was expanded in order to house numerous other individuals. The Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa is, according to some lists, also one of the seven medieval wonders of the world. One of the more gruesome features of the catacombs is the so called Hall of Caracalla. According to tradition, this is a mass burial chamber for the humans and animals massacred by order of the Emperor Caracalla

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Lighthouse of Alexandria, also known as the Pharos of Alexandria ( in Ancient Greek),

was a tower built between 280 and 247 BC on the island of Pharos at Alexandria, Egypt. Its purpose was to guide sailors into the harbour at night.

With a height variously estimated at somewhere between 393 and 450 ft , it was for many centuries among the tallest man-made structures on Earth. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Pharos was a small island just off the coast of Alexandria. It was supposedly inhabited by people who would destroy any ship that was wrecked off of its coast. To deter this problem, Ptolemy I had the lighthouse built. It was linked to the mainland by a man-made connection named the Heptastadion, which thus formed one side of the city's harbour. The tower erected there guided mariners at night, through its fire, as well as being a landmark by day. The lighthouse was completed in the 3rd century BC. After Alexander the Great died , Ptolemy Soter announced himself king in 305 BC, and commissioned its construction shortly thereafter. The building was finished during his son Ptolemy Philadelphos's reign. Strabo reported that Sostratus had a dedication inscribed in metal letters to the Saviour Gods.
 Constructed from large blocks of light-coloured  stone, the tower was made up of three stages: a lower square section with a central core, a middle octagonal section, and, at the top, a circular section. At its apex was positioned a mirror which reflected sunlight during the day; a fire was lit at night.
Extant Roman coins struck by the Alexandrian mint show that a statue of a triton was positioned on each of the building's four corners . A statue of Poseidon stood atop the tower during the Roman period.
 After the Muslims took over all of Egypt, the top of the Pharos supposedly became a mosque, as the beacon was no longer in working order. The Pharos remained this way until its destruction in the 14th century.
The lighthouse was badly damaged in the earthquake of 956, then again in 1303 and 1323. The two earthquakes in 1303 and 1323 damaged the lighthouse to the extent that the Arab traveler Ibn Battuta reported no longer being able to enter the ruin. Even the stubby remnant disappeared in 1480, when the then-Sultan of Egypt, Qaitbay, built a mediæval fort on the former location of the building using some of the fallen stone.

Alexandria

Alexandria 
known as the ( Pearl of the Mediterranean ) , was founded by Alexander the Great in 332BC as the capital for his Egyptian Kingdom.
It is the second-largest city of Egypt , extending about 32 km (20 mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea  in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving approximately 80% of Egypt's imports and exports.

Alexandria is also an important tourist resort . It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandria.

It is an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez.

It remained Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years, until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in 
AD 641, when a new capital was founded at Fustat.

 
Alexandria 
was known because of its Lighthouse of Alexandria , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. ,its library (the largest library in the ancient world); and the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa. . Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, which began in 1994, is revealing details of Alexandria both before the arrival of Alexander, when a city named Rhacotis existed there, and during thePtolemaic Dynasty.

   

Modern city 
Districts

Modern Alexandria is divided into six districts:

• al-Montaza District
• Sharak (Eastern Alexandria District
• Wassat (Central Alexandria) District
• al-Amriya District
• Agamy (Western Alexandria) District:
• al-Gomrok District

There are also two cities under the jurisdiction of the Alexandria governorate forming metropolitan Alexandria:

• Borg Al-Arab city
• New Borg Al-Arab city

 

Mosque of Amr ibn al-As

The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As , also called the Mosque of Amr, was originally built in 642 AD, as the center of the newly-founded capital of Egypt : Fustat .

The original structure was the first mosque ever built in Egypt, the first mosque on the continent of Africa.

he location for the mosque was the site of the tent of the commander of the conquering army, general Amr Ibn Al-as. One corner of the mosque contains the tomb of his son : Abd Allah.

Due to extensive reconstruction over the centuries, nothing of the original building remains, but the rebuilt Mosque is a prominent landmark , and can be seen in what today is known as Old Cairo.

Panorama view of the interior of the mosque

The Hanging Church

Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church also known as the Hanging Church (El Muallaqa) is one of the oldest churches in Egypt.

The Hanging (The Suspended) Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Babylon Fortress, the Roman fortress in Coptic Cairo , its nave is suspended over a passage.

The church is approached by 29 steps, early travelers to Cairo dubbed it : the Staircase Church

The land surface has risen by some 6 metres since the Roman period so that the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground, reducing the visual impact of the church's elevated position

 The entrance from the street is through iron gates under a pointed stone arch. The nineteenth century facade with twin bell towers is then seen beyond a narrow courtyard decorated with modern art biblical designs. Up the steps and through the entrance is a further small courtyard leading to the eleventh century outer porch.

The Church possibly the first built in Basilican style

By the 11th century AD, the church served as the Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria, which is historically based in Alexandria, Egypt. But as ruling powers moved away from Alexandria to Cairo after the Arab invasion of Egypt during Pope Christodolos's tenure, Cairo became the fixed and official residence of the Coptic Pope at the Hanging Church in Cairo in 1047.

Al-Nasir Muhammad Mosque

The Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qala'un Mosque is an early 14th century mosque at the Citadel in Cairo, Egypt. It was built by the Mamluk sultan Al-Nasr Muhammad in 1318 as the royal mosque of the Citadel, where the sultans of Cairo performed their Friday prayers.

The Sultan also built a religious complex in the center of the city, next to the one by his father Qalawun.

There are two minarets, both built entirely of stone, one at the northeast corner and one at the northwest portal right above the main entrance; the former is the higher of the two. The top of the latter is unique in Cairo in that it has a garlic-shaped bulb.

In the 1335 renovation, the mosque was heightened, its roof rebuilt and a dome of plastered wood covered with green tiles was added over the maqsura (prayer niche). For centuries the Qala'un Mosque was considered the most glamorous mosque in Cairo until the dome over the prayer niche collapsed in the sixteenth century and the high marble dado was carried off to Istanbul by the Ottoman conqueror Sultan Selim I. The present dome is modern, carried by granite columns taken from ancient Egyptian temples.

Cairo Citadel

The Salahdin Citadel in Cairo

is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo,Egypt.

The location is on Mokattam Hill near the center of Cairo.

The Citadel 
was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city. It is now a preserved historic site, with mosques and museums.

The Citadel was fortified by the Ayyubid ruler Salah El Din , between 1176 and 1183 CE, to protect it from the Crusaders.

Only a few years after defeating the Fatimid Caliphate , Saladin set out to build a wall that would surround both Cairo and Fustat. The Citadel would be the centerpiece of the wall. The efficacy of the Citadel's location is further demonstrated by the fact that it remained the heart of Egyptian government until the 19th century.

The citadel stopped being the seat of government when Egypt,s ruler : Khedive Ismael moved to his newly built Abdin Palace in the Ismailiya neighborhood in the 1860s

While the Citadel was completed in 1183-1184, the wall Saladin had envisioned was still under construction in 1238, long after his death.

To supply water to the Citadel, Saladin built the 280 feet (85 m) deep (Well of Joseph) , which can still be seen today.

Once water was raised from the well to the surface, it traveled to the Citadel on a series of aqueducts

The Citadel is sometimes referred to as Mohamed Ali Citadel,  because it contains the Mosque of Muhammed Ali Pasha Mosque, which was built between 1828 and 1848, perched on the summit of the Citadel.

 Jewel Palace
A deficiency in the castle next to Saladin Mosque of Muhammad Ali or Mohammed Ali Castle
The transformation of the Museum, was built primarily to house the wife of Muhammad Ali Pasha and it was established in 1814.
Muhammad Ali Pasha was keen to have this very palace of luxury and pomp, is subject to many of the large halls
Most notably the reception hall and a hall hours, which is the most beautiful in the palace.

The palace was marked by the highest decoration of the Ottoman art, whether wood or plaster boards.
Characterize the palace in color, drawings and engravings. And left the palace retains Bhzute until finally on to the Museum of Islamic heritage.

Pictures of Egyptian Museum

Amun

Egyptian Museum

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo,Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of Ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms.

The museum's Royal Mummy Room, containing 27 royal mummies from pharaonic times.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history.

It houses the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, and many treasures of King Tutankhamen.

The Egyptian government established the museum, built in 1835 near the Ezbekeyah Garden.

then moved to Boulaq in 1858, because the original building was getting to be too small to hold all of the artifacts 

In 1855, shortly after the artifacts were moved, Duke Maximilian of Austria was given all of the artifacts. He hired a French architect to design and construct a new museum for the antiquities. 

The new building was to be constructed on the bank of the Nile River in Boulaq. 

In 1878, after the museum has been completed for some time, it suffered some irreversible damage; a flood of the Nile River caused the antiquities to be relocated to another museum, in Giza. 

The artifacts remained there until 1902 when they were moved, for the last time, to the current museum in Tahrir Square.

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the museum was broken into, and two mummies were reportedly destroyed. Several artifacts were also shown to have been damaged

Nile River In Ancient Egypt

The longest river in the world, stretching for 6741 km from East Africa to the mediterranean, which is unquestionably the single most important element of the geography of both ancient and modern Egypt.

Without the waters and fertile flood-plain of the Nile, it is highly unlikely that Egyptian civilization would have developed in the deserts of north-eastern Africa.

The study of the topography and geology of the Nile valley has revealed a complex sequence of phases, whereby the river gradually changed its location and size over the course of millions of years.

Three rivers flowed into the Nile from the south:

the Blue Nile, the White Nile and the Atbarah.

The southern secrion of the Nile proper, between Aswan and Khanoum,was interrupted by six 'cataracts' each of which consists of a series of rapids produced by changes in the type of rock forming the river bed. This section of the Nile valley corresponds to the land of Nubia, conventionally divided into Lower Nubia (the nonhern hall), between the first and second cataracts, and Upper Nubia, between the second and sixth cataracts. The border between the modern states of Egypt and Sudan is located just to the north of the second cataract.

From the earliest times, the waters of the Nile, swollen by monsoon rains in Ethiopia, flooded over the surrounding valley every year between June and September - an event known as the inundation - and new layers of fertile soil were thus annually deposited on the flood-plain. From the early nineteenth century onwards, however, the Nile was subject to a series of dams and sluices, culminating in the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971. After more than a decade of rescue work, Lower Nubia was largely flooded by Lake asser. Since then, the Egyptian section of the Nile valley has ceased to be subject to the inundation, thus allowing thou­sands of acres of new land to be cultivated through irrigation schemes, as well as the production of electricity from a hydroelectric plant attached to the dam.

Menkaure’s pyramid complex

Menkaure’s pyramid complex consistes of a Valley Temple, a causeway, a mortuary temple, and the king’s pyramid. 

The Valley Temple contained several statues of Menkaure. During the 5th dynasty a smaller ante-temple was added on to the Valley temple. 

The Mortuary temple also yielded several statues of Menkaure. The king’s pyramid has three subsidiary or Queen’s pyramids. 

Of the four major monuments, only Menkaure's Pyramid is seen today without any of its original polished limestone casing

Khafre’s pyramid complex

Khafre’s pyramid complex consists of a Valley temple (sometimes referred to as the Sphinx temple), a causeway, a mortuary temple and the king’s pyramid. 

The Valley Temple yielded several statues of Khafre. Several were found in a well in the floor of the temple by Mariette in 1860. 

Others were found during successive excavations by Sieglin (1909–10), Junker, Reisner, and Hassan. 

Khafre’s complex contained five boat-pits and a subsidiary pyramid with a serdab. 

Khafre's Pyramid appears larger than the adjacent Khufu Pyramid by virtue of its more elevated location, and the steeper angle of inclination of its construction – it is, in fact, smaller in both height and volume. 

Khafre's Pyramid retains a prominent display of casing stones at its apex

Khufu’s pyramid complex

Khufu’s pyramid complex consists of a Valley Temple, now buried beneath the village of Nazlet el-Samman; basalt paving and nummulitic limestone walls have been found but the site has not been excavated.
The Valley Temple was connected to a causeway which was largely destroyed when the village was
constructed.
The Causeway led to the Mortuary Temple of Khufu.
From this temple only the basalt pavement remains. The mortuary temple was connected to the king’s pyramid.

The king’s pyramid has three smaller queen’s pyramids associated with it and five boat pits. 

The boat pits contain a ship, and the two pits on the south side of the pyramid still contained intact ships.
One of these ships has been restored and is on display.
Khufu's Pyramid maintains a limited collection of casing stones at its base.
These casing stones were made of fine white limestone quarried from the nearby Muqattam range

The Egyptian Pyramids

There are 138 pyramids discovered in egypt as of 2008 .Most were built as tombs for the pharaohs and their consorts during the old and middle kingdoms periods.

A single pyramid is built with 2,300,000 blocks , each weighing average of two and one-half tons.

The earliest known egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara , northwest of Memphis.

The earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser, which was built during the third dynasty.

The pyramid and its surrounding complex were designed by the architect Imhotep, and are generally considered to be the world,s oldest monumental structures constructed of  dressed masonry..

The estimate of the number of workers it took to build the pyramids have a wide range from a few thousand, twenty thousand, and up to 100,000.

The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza.

Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built

 

The Great Sphinx of Giza

Sphinx

It is a limestone statue with a Lion,s body and a human head, stands on the giza plateau , on the west bank of the nile,standing 73.5 metres, 6 metres wide and 20.22 m high

it is commonly believed to have been built by ancient egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign

(of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 Bc

The Great Pyramids Of Giza

The Great Pyramid of Giza 

is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the giza necropolis

It is the oldest of the seven wonders of the ancient world

Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty : 

Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu

Initially at 146.5 metres (480.6 ft), the Great Pyramid was the tallest man - made structure in the world for over 3,800 years

Major Attractions In Egypt

Saqqara

is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the  Necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian Capital : mEMPHIS.

Saqqara 
features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of mastabas (Arabic word meaning 'bench'). Located some 30 km (19 mi) south of modern-day Cairo

Saqqara covers an area of around 7 by 1.5 km

At Saqqara, the oldest complete stone building complex known in history was built: Djoser's step pyramid, built during the third dynasty

 Another 16 Egyptian kings built pyramids at Saqqara, which are now in various states of preservation or dilapidation

Memphis

 .. was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt

It is also beleived to be the site visited by Abraham to address the pharaoh of Egypt.
Its ruins are located near the town of Mit Rahina , south of Cairo.

 the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the  Old Kingdom , it remained an important city throughout ancient Mediterranean History.

Memphis 
was believed to be under the protection of the god Ptah, the patron of craftsmen

The ruins of the former capital today offer fragmented evidence of its magnificent past. They have been preserved, along with the pyramid complex at Giza, as a World Heritage Site since 1979. The site is open to the public as an open-air museum.

Major Attrctions In Egypt

The celebrated tourist attractions of Egypt are the millennia-old monuments Principal among them are the Pyramids and The Great Sphinx at Giza, The Cairo Museum and The Mohamed Ali Pasha Mosque at Cairo , Karnak Temple Complex at Luxor, Valley of the kings at Luxor , The High Dam at Aswan & The Abu Simbel Temples, south of Aswan

and the coastal area of Sinai Peninsula

Giza

  It is located on the west bank of the Nile River ,It is the third largest city in Egypt

 Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples

 .

The importance of tourism to Egypt and for the Egyptians

Tourism 
is the most important source of national income in egypt. The Egyptian people are used to the presence of tourists in their midst since antiquity.

More than 12.8 million tourists visited Egypt in 2008, providing revenues of nearly $11 billion. 
The sector employs about 12 percent of Egypt's workforce

.In 2000, there were about 5.5 million foreign tourist arrivals, with over 3.8 million from Europe, and receipts totaled more than $4.3 billion. In that year there were 113,611 rooms in hotels and 227,222 beds with a 73% occupancy rate.

 In 2002, the US government estimated the average daily cost of staying in Cairo to be about $167, around the same as other major cities in Egypt.