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Top Egyptian Tourist Attractions
The Top-Rated Attractions Saqqara (Sakkara) Pyramids: Egypt is famous with tourists because of its pyramids which were built between 2600 BC and 1500 BC and all are situated close to the Nile River. There are 80 pyramids.
Abu Simbel: This is an archaeological site comprising two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan. The twin temples were originally carved out of the mountainside during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC, as a lasting monument to himself and his queen Nefertari, to commemorate his alleged victory at the Battle of Kadesh, and to intimidate his Nubian neighbors. However, the complex was relocated in its entirety in the 1960s, on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above the Aswan dam reservoir. The relocation of the temples was necessary to avoid their being submerged during the creation of Lake Nasser, the massive artificial water reservoir formed after the building of the Aswan dam on the Nile River. Abu Simbel remains one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.
Luxor Temple: This is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the East bank of the River Nile in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was founded in 1400 BC. Known in the Egyptian language as ipet resyt, or "the Southern Harem", the temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Chons and was built during the New Kingdom, the focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-isut) to stay there for a while, with his consort Mut, in a celebration of fertility – whence its name. The Siwa Oasis or Siwah: This is an oasis in Egypt, located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert, nearly 50 km East of the Libyan border, and 560 km from Cairo. The Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's isolated settlements, with 23,000 people, mostly ethnic Berbers. Agriculture is the main activity, mostly dates and olives, supplemented by handicrafts. Sharm el Sheikh: This is a city situated on the Southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in Janub Sina', Egypt, on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai. Sharm el-Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt's Southern Sinai province, which includes the smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba as well as the mountainous interior, Saint Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai. Nubia Museum in Aswan: It is designed to house the fantastic collection items unearthed from the archaeological excavations during the Nubia Campaign. The museum is built on a hill on the road heading South from Aswan before the turnoff to the Unfinished Obelisk. The facility sits amid gardens that feature antiquities, a waterway representing the River Nile, a cave fitted out with pre-historic wall carvings, and a Nubian house. The museum displays thousands of antiquities that would have been lost under the waters of Lake Nasser had not a major international effort salavaged them during the 1960s and '70s. Also among the highlights are scenes of Nubian life demonstrated with a range of life-size displays. The Valley of the Kings: This is a valley in Egypt where for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom (the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt). The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley (where the majority of the royal tombs situated) and West Valley. There are 62 tombs in the valley. Alexandria: This is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the largest seaport that serves about 80% of all of Egypt's imports and exports. Alexandria is also a very important tourist resort. Alexandria extends about 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean sea in North-Central Egypt. It is home to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria), and is an important industrial centre because of its natural gas and oil pipelines from Suez. Alexandria was also an important trading post between Europe and Asia, because it profited from the easy overland connection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
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