El Quseir Holidays

El Quseir consists of unspoiled sandy beaches lapped by the most beautiful sea you've ever seen. It was once one of Egypt’s most important trading hubs, but today it is a tranquil destination that is almost entirely undiscovered.

Shore diving is the norm here, and a number of pristine dive sites are accessible by jeep, truck, or sometimes boat. There are up to 30 dive sites within easy reach of the centre, including Sharm Fugani, Ras Mahaleg and Erg Malek. You’ll enjoy exploring coral covered pinnacles on the sandy slopes, as well as navigating and exploring the labyrinth of coral gardens. Glide through narrow passages and blind alleys into the territory of the crocodile fish, moray eels, sea snakes, lionfish, porcupine fish and blue spotted stingrays. You may even find the elusive white tip or guitar sharks taking cover.

Nearby is Wadi Hammamat, which has hundreds of rock inscriptions; some of which date back to 4000 BC. Known for the production of the Bekheny Stone, a beautiful, green ornamental rock, which was actively quarried from Pharaonic until Roman times to make bowls, statues and sarcophagi, many of which have been found in the Pyramids, graves and temples of those periods.

A little to the north of Wadi Hammamat, in the central part of the Eastern Desert, lies Bir Umm Fawakhir, a gold mining settlement from the fifth and sixth century. At one time, about 1,000 Coptic Christians lived in this town, extracting gold from the surrounding mountains, which was then transported to the Nile Valley for refining.