Egypt

BEST HOTELS DEALS

•	Instant confirmation on your reservation
•	All reservations go straight to respective hotel, with no third-party involves.
•	All details of your information are secured by the hotel
•	All special rates and availability are fully maintained by the hotel
•	Changing or cancelling reservation is hassle free

HOT PICKS - PASTRY PARIS

One of the great take-out snacks of Paris, the financier is a rich, moist tea-cake with a chewy outer crust., made with copious amounts of melted brown butter mixed with finely ...

Egypt

Cities Info

In the fifth century BC Herodotus wrote that 'nowhere are there so many marvellous things' as in Egypt, 'nor in the world besides are to be seen so many things of unspeakable greatness' - and not too much has changed.

Since long before the birth of Christ, travellers have been drawn to this extraordinary country and its pyramids, Sphinx, ancient Luxor and River Nile. It's not just the Pharaonic monuments either - it's the legacy of the Greeks and Romans, the churches and monasteries of the early Christians, and the overwhelming profusion of art and architecture accumulated from centuries of successive Islamic dynasties.

Modern Egypt is an amalgam of these legacies and more, juxtaposed with the often incongruous influences of the 20th and 21st centuries. Mud-brick villages stand beside millennia-old ruins surrounded by buildings of steel and glass. Bedouins live in goatskin tents and farmers till the earth with the simple tools of their ancestors. Some townsfolk dress in long flowing robes, others in Levis and Reeboks, and city traffic competes with donkey-drawn carts and wandering goats. Nowhere are these contrasts played out so colourfully as in Cairo, a massive city thronged with people and ringing to the sound of car horns, ghetto-blasters and muezzins summoning the faithful to prayer. Egypt isn't all chaos and clatter, however. It's also a diver's dream dip, a trek across the sands on a camel or a long lazy punt down the Nile.

Country Fact

EGYPT Map

Country Fact*:

Full country name: Arab Republic of Egypt
Area: 1,001,449 sq km (622,272 sq mi)
Population: 19,913,144
Capital city: Cairo
People: Berbers, Bedouins and Nubians
Language: Arabic
Religion: 94% Islam, 6% Christian
Government: Republic
Business Hours: Business hour ; Banks and Goverment Office open at 08.00 - 15.30 Sunday to Thursday and Shops 09.00 - 21.00 Monday to Saturday.Friday is the usual rest day, but many shops close on Sundays instead. During Ramadan, shops usually close for a few hours in the afternoon
Major industries: Oil & gas, metals, tourism, agriculture (especially cotton) and Suez Canal revenues
Major trading partners: USA, EU, Middle East
Internet Domain:.eg
International Dialing Code: +20

Event

Calendar of Events*:

January:
7th - Coptic Christmas Day
21th Grand Feast
February:
Islamic New Year
11-12th - Grand Feast
March:
5th - Islamic New Year
April:
21th - Mouloud (Birth of the Prophet)
25th - Sinai Liberation Day
May:
1st - Labour Day
13th - Birth of the Prophet Muhammad
June:
18th - Evacuation Day
July:
23rd - Revolution Day
September:
11th - New Year (Coptic)
October:
6th - Armed Forces Day
24th - Suez Victory Day
November:
Bairam Feast (End of Ramadan)

* Information is subject to change. For further update, please check these websites:www.news.bbc.co.uk, www.cia.gov, www.earthcalendar.net

Major Tourist Cities

CAIRO

Cairo isn't a gentle city. Home to more than 16 million Egyptians, Arabs, Africans and sundry other international hangers-on, the 'Mother of the World' is an all-out assault on the senses. Some days the most unambitious stroll around town can leave you with the same sort of feeling you might get after a sadistically vigorous massage: tender, unsteady on your feet and stingingly sweaty, but also strangely satisfied. Chaotic, noisy, polluted, totally unpredictable and seething with humanity, the sheer intensity of the city seduces some people but turns others off. In any event it's quite unlike any other place on earth. Life is what this city is about and, to paraphrase a cliché, only a person who's tired of life itself could fail to see the charm of Cairo.

The city doesn't have the resources for graceful boulevards and cobbled squares and the kind of dolled-up, prettified buildings that cry out to be photographed and stuck in an album. Historic buildings are buried in age-old quarters of the city that have yet to be tamed and made tourist-friendly in the way that they have in places such as Istanbul or Jerusalem. The high population density and lack of room to move throws up startling juxtapositions: mud-brick houses and towering modern office buildings, flashy cars and donkey-drawn carts. Cairenes see nothing strange in this. They aren't driven by the Western obsession to update and upgrade, possibly because they live in such close proximity to millennia of history (the Pyramids are visible from the upper storeys of buildings all over the city). The resulting pervasive sense of timelessness is one of the city's great charms.


Local Travel Agent(s):

	Solara Travel
	Address: 254 El Malek Fisal St. Pyramids , Giza Cairo Egypt Phone: +20 2 3841556, Fax: +20 2 3841546
	Tanis Tours
	Address: 9, Mariette St. Tahrir SQ. Egypt Cairo Phone: +20 122119190, Fax: +20 25747500
	South Sinai Travel
	Address: 79 Merghany Street, 8th Floor, Cairo Egypt Phone: +20 2 4187310
	Cali International Travel
	Address : 6, Hussein Kamal St., Dokki, Cairo Egypt Phone : +20 2 7606903, Fax: +20 2 7601365
	Capstone Travel S.A.E
	Address: A26 Hesham Labib St. Nasr City, Cairo. 11471 Egypt Phone : +20 2 2711062, Fax: +20 2 2711063

Cairo City Map

Population: 16.5 million
Area: 214 sq km (82.6 sq mi)
Country: Egypt
Main language: Egyptian Arabic
Time: GMT/UTC +2
Telephone Area Code: 020