Due to its unique geographic position in the center of the world, they used to call it the bridge between the old world and the new world, as all the ships going from Europe to India and the eastern Asia had to pass by Egypt. So for hundreds of years Egypt played a vital role in the world trade movement.
And since almost 7,000 years, Egypt has known a number of various civilizations on its land, starting with the famous Pharaonic period then the ancient Greek and Ptolemic period, the Roman, the Koptic and the Islamic period.
Most of tourists visit Egypt with the purpose of seeing Pharaonic monuments and especially the pyramids (one of the world's seven wonders). Those huge three buildings specifically built to be a cemetery for the three famous kings (Keops, Khafra and Monkara), that people remember for eternity.
Actually, it took them 10 years and a huge number of people to build the biggest one (Keops pyramid).
In fact, there's seven pyramids in Egypt and not only three.
The three famous pyramids are situated in Guiza city, then there's a fourth one in SAKKARA area that is a bit near to the three Giza pyramids, which was built for the king Jessar by his famous engineer.
There's also a fifth one in a place called Dahshour in Cairo, and the other two pyramids are in some place at the borders of Cairo.
But, most of the other richest pharaonic sites are situated in southern Egypt, as the capital of Egypt in most of the pharaonic periods was in the south, in a city called "TIBA".
Southern Egypt is considered the richest are in pharaonic sites ,it contains most of the temples, museums and cemeteries such as the valley of kings and queens where most of the Pharaonic kings and queens were buried with all of their wealth and treasures.
There's also the temple of "Feila" that I personally like the most and consider the best of pharaonic sites in Egypt, which is situated in an island in the middle of the river Nile in Aswan city.
When I had the chance to visit it only last year, I found it extremely fascinating, especially since I could attend the sound and light show at 10 pm in a charming full moon night.
We took a boat in the Nile until we reached the island where there's nothing on it but that temple. It felt like a fairytale or even a legend, and I really felt like I was in the period of pharaohs with all its charm & beauty. Even the Nile in that very southern part of Egypt had a different beauty, a different charm.
In fact, the Nile gets much wider and its water gets much clearer every time it gets closer to its source that's why it looks a bit different in southern Egypt. I truly guess that we're blessed to have the longer river in the world all across our country, as it has prevented us from many famines and disasters.
As Herodotus -- the famous Greek philosopher and history teller -- has said that the Nile has offered Egypt to the Egyptians.
Thousands of years ago, the pharaohs have known the great and major importance of the Nile, especially to an agricultural country as Egypt, they were considering it a symbol of wealth & luck. They even had a god representing the Nile, "HABI".
Then, if we get a bit to the north we'd find one of the oldest Egyptian cities called "MENYA". Menya will be a great example for a peaceful and effective dialogue of cultures, as we can find in the same city pharaonic, Koptic and Islamic monuments, reflecting the spirit of tolerance and understanding that we're having in Egypt in general.
The same spirit that you can easily see among Egyptians, as people from different cultures, religions and beliefs are living in harmony togethe, just for the simple reason of being all Egyptians.
The word "clash" has been newly introduced to our lives all of a sudden by some mentally sick people, like a piece of dust that has been thrown in the purest water that had remained pure all along the years.
And although the pharaohs have left us rich and beautiful sites but Egypt has a lot more to visit other than the pyramids and pharaonic sites. I truly believe that tourists must see some popular places in Cairo such as Alhussein, AlAzhar, Alghoria and the citadel area, which are considered parts of the Islamic period in Egypt reflecting the beauty of the Islamic architecture and art that we can view in the mosques and ancient houses in these areas.
They used to call Cairo the city of the thousand "Minaret" - a tower attached to a mosque from which the muezzin issues the call to prayer - so if we go to the top of any ancient house in Alhussein area you'd find a huge number of minarets, with beautiful views from up there.
Finally, you have to come by yourself to visit Egypt as it's so hard to describe in one article.
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