There’s extra to Egypt than historical past. From the coral reefs of the Purple Sea to the desert landscapes that radiate out from the fertile strip of the Nile Valley, Egypt’s pure riches dazzle vacationers as a lot as its pyramids, painted tombs and towering temples.
Here is a information to the perfect nationwide parks in Egypt, from playgrounds for diving to distant desert escapes.
Ras Mohammed Nationwide Park
Finest nationwide park for divers
Ras Mohammed encompasses 480 sq km (185.3 sq miles), 70% of which is a marine atmosphere. On the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, this headland is famend as one of many world’s prime 10 dive locations. With a rainbow kaleidoscope of greater than 200 arduous and tender coral species, Ras Mohammed’s exceptional biodiversity units it aside.
Diving right here is akin to coming into an underwater backyard. In case you’re an skilled diver, the drift dive alongside the sheer coral wall of Shark Reef, buffeted by quick currents all the way in which, to the wreck of the Cypriot freighter Jolanda, which sunk on Jolanda Reef in 1980, is Ras Mohammed’s most thrilling expertise.
For the perfect marine life recognizing, don’t miss diving in Jackfish Alley. That is the Purple Sea’s largest fish-spawning floor, identified for the shoals of jackfish and blue-spotted stingrays that hang around amid the coral pinnacles of its 19m (62ft) deep plateau.
Visiting Ras Mohammed: The dive websites of Ras Mohammed are simply accessed by boat on day journeys from Sharm el-Sheikh or by way of liveaboard dive safaris starting from Hurghada or El Gouna. For a dive-centric keep in Sharm, Camel Dive has snug rooms and a extremely regarded dive middle that’s totally accessible to divers with disabilities, making this one of many prime locations on the town.
Getting round Egypt by Nile cruise, prepare or taxi
White Desert Nationwide Park
Finest nationwide parks for desert panorama
The chalk rock formations of White Desert Nationwide Park are considered one of Egypt’s most surreal landscapes. Sand-laden winds have buffeted the rocks right here over millennia, sculpting them right down to hillocks, spires and wacky-shaped outcrops that sprout out from a plain suffering from glittering pyrites (idiot’s gold) and tiny fossils.
At sundown, the white rocks are tinged with rose-pink hues within the dying gentle, and beneath a full moon they loom out of the darkness, taking over a ghostly glow. Tenting beneath the celebs surrounded by these rocky outcrops is the most well-liked technique to go to.
Many tour firms in Cairo supply White Desert excursions, however for dependable data of the native space, select a desert tour firm primarily based near the park in Bahariya Oasis or Farafra Oasis.
Visiting White Desert Nationwide Park: Though Farafra is nearer to the nationwide park (roughly 20km/12.4 miles southwest), most guests base themselves at Bahariya, about 160km (99 miles) north, because it’s nearer to Cairo and has extra services, lodging and tour decisions. Bahariya-based operators White Desert Tours and Western Desert Tours run a spread of day, in a single day and multi-day journeys in and across the White Desert.
St Katherine Protectorate
Finest park for hikers
On the coronary heart of the South Sinai desert, St Katherine Protectorate garnered its nationwide park standing each for its rugged, pure atmosphere – dwelling to Egypt’s highest peaks – and for its wealthy cultural and spiritual heritage. This 4250 sq km (1641 sq mile) reserve is prime to the beliefs of the three predominant monotheistic religions.
Mount Sinai (Gebel Mousa) is believed to be the positioning the place Moses obtained the Ten Commandments, and on the foot of the mountain is St Katherine’s Monastery, encased by 2m (6.5ft) thick fortifications constructed by Byzantine Emperor Justinian within the sixth century CE.
The positioning lays declare to what’s mentioned to be the unique “burning bush” – a Rubus sanctus (holy bramble) that the God of the Previous Testomony apparently used to ship his message to Moses.
Most guests to St Katherine Protectorate arrive on an in a single day tour from Sharm el-Sheikh, mountain climbing as much as the 2285m (7496ft) summit of Mount Sinai for dawn, earlier than taking a fast look contained in the monastery after descending. Nonetheless, the easiest way to discover the nationwide park is to remain within the village of St Katherine itself.
From right here, you may embark on summit hikes up 2637m (8651ft) Gebel Katerina, Egypt’s highest peak, and 2383m (7818ft) Gebel Abbas Basha, with the ruins of Abbas Pasha I’s unfinished palace on the mountaintop. Alternatively, trek out by wadis (valleys) and slim passes to spring-fed Bedouin gardens within the mountains.
Visiting St Katherine Protectorate: For lodging and mountain climbing applications round St Katherine Protectorate, Sheikh Mousa is a dependable native operator. The 220km (137-mile) Sinai Trail additionally runs by the protectorate.
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Wadi Al-Hittan
Finest for desert landscapes inside straightforward attain of Cairo
Drive out of the fertile basin of Al Fayoum, 122km (76 miles) southwest of Cairo, and head into the arid stone-pitted plains of the Western Desert’s japanese edge and also you’ll arrive at Unesco-listed Wadi Al-Hittan.
This desert valley is surrounded by low swoops of orange-hued dunes and marks the positioning the place the world’s richest cache of historical whale fossils was found. From the bones discovered right here, paleontologists have pieced collectively the evolutionary story of whales.
The skeletons of Basilosaurus and Dorudon whales uncovered at Wadi Al-Hittan date from the center Eocene Epoch (47.8 to 30 million years in the past) – a time when archaeoceti (historical whales) had already tailored to their new ocean-going atmosphere, however had but to shed the vestigial limbs from their former land-based life.
Take a look at the 18m (59ft) Basilosaurus skeleton on show within the Wadi Al-Hittan Fossil and Local weather Change Museum. Afterward, head out on one of many valley’s strolling trails to see the skeletons of extra historical whales, sea cows and different marine creatures, unearthed from beneath the sand.
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Wadi Gimal Protectorate
Finest park for distant desert adventures
The third-largest wadi (river valley) in Egypt, this protected space incorporates a 4770 sq km (1841 sq mile) swath of the Japanese Desert, and one other 2000 sq km (772 sq mile) of sea offshore. Set on the southern Purple Beach, the park’s acacia-dotted plains and craggy cliffs are rimmed by an amphitheater of rust-hued mountains. That is the ancestral territory of the nomadic Ababda tribe, a small variety of whom nonetheless stay in Wadi Gimal.
The protectorate’s shoreline is speckled with pure seashores such because the white sand lagoon of Sharm El Luli, the place day-trippers from Marsa Alam come to snorkel within the pale turquoise sea.
Divers might spot dugongs and inexperienced turtles within the seagrass round Wadi Gimal’s offshore islands. Fewer individuals head inland to discover Wadi Gimal’s desert, dwelling to gazelle and Nubian ibex, and the ruins of emerald mines from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.
Wadi Gimal was one of many historical world’s most essential sources of emeralds. The realm was so wealthy within the glowing inexperienced stones that the Romans known as it Mons Smaragdus (Emerald Mountain). Right now, the remnants of those mining settlements can nonetheless be seen at Nugrus and Sikait and the associated trading-post ruins at Geili and Appalonia.
Visiting Wadi Gimal Protectorate: Marsa Alam, round 45km (28 miles) north of the park entrance, is the primary base for exploring Wadi Gimal. This coastal hub has been significantly developed over the previous 20 years, with big-name resorts gobbling up the shoreline north and south of city, however there are nonetheless some nice locations for impartial vacationers to mattress down akin to Rayhana Guesthouse.
