The ultimate destination: Over the millennia

Traversed since ancient times, Egypt is a country that defies description. People around the world have always been magnetically drawn to Egypt. Six million people visited the country in 2003 -- the world's largest open-air museum straddling a narrow strip of land on the banks of the River Nile. Egypt is more than meets the eye -- pyramids and magnificent temples galore, endless golden beaches on the shores of the Red Sea and Mediterranean, a marvellous underwater world and rich marine life of multi-coloured coral reefs and some of the rarest species of fish and other sea creatures.

"There is no country which possesses so many wonders," was how Egypt was described in the ancient equivalent of The Lonely Planettravel guides. Herodotus, who took a tour of Egypt way back in 450BC, marvelled at this land of many wonders. Two and a half millennia later, they're still gawking in similar awe -- the sole difference being the number. Six million people visited Egypt in 2003 -- enjoying the same mix of varied attractions that Herodotus saw: ancient history, vibrant culture, unparallelled beauty and above all, friendly people. It is a land steeped in over 7,000 years of civilisation. Along the narrow line of the Nile, a splendid Pharaonic civilisation bloomed in Giza, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel. Other major civilisations succeeded: the Graeco-Roman, Coptic and Islamic leaving outstanding relics in Kom Ombo, Edfu, Alexandria and Cairo. But it's not all history and dust. Another grainy particle is abundant here as well. Egypt is endowed with thousands of kilometres of virgin beaches, golden sand stretching into crystal clear water, beneath which multi-coloured coral reefs and rare species of fish thrive. Sinai, Hurghada, Safaga, Qusseir and Marsa Alam on the Red Sea, and Alexandria, the northern coast and Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean make for an endless spectrum of sun and fun. Even the desert hides stupendous charm. Whether by jeep or camel back, safaris in oases like Dakhla, Kharga and Farafra, as well as the white and eastern deserts, have featured on travel itineraries forever.

Ancient tourism

The first tourists to the visit the historic sites of Egypt were Egyptians who wanted to visit the temples of their ancestors. These Egyptian "tourists" were often religious pilgrims.

Sadly, Egypt eventually succumbed to foreign rule -- first the Assyrians under the command of Assurbanipal, then the Persians under Cambyses and Alexander the Great who conquered Egypt in 332BC. Classical scholars and writers, too, began to visit the ancient Egyptian temples in ever-increasing numbers and marvelled at their beauty and magnificence.

Alexander built a brand new capital for the country on the Mediterranean and named the port-city Alexandria. After Alexander's death, one of his generals and a relative, Ptolemy, usurped the crown of Egypt. His descendants, the Ptolemies who subsequently ruled the country, adopted many aspects of Egyptian religion and life. The Ptolemies went native and dressed in Egyptian fashion. They also continued the tradition of visiting the ancient temples in the south of the country. There is an abundance of graffiti of Greek names on the walls of Egyptian temples as far south as Philae, Aswan. There are also letters arranging for accommodation with friends while attending religious ceremonies and festivals in Egypt.

At this time Egypt was regarded as a great centre of civilisation, of religion and of science. A number of well-known Greek scholars are purported to have spent time in Egypt. Socrates and Pythagoras -- who is believed to have spent 22 years of his life here -- visited Egypt in their quest for knowledge.

In Greek and Roman times, Classical writers documented these travels in Greek and Latin. Julius Caesar is said to have travelled to Luxor in 50BC and enjoyed a Nile trip with Cleopatra. But the emperors of Rome soon began stripping Egypt's ancient monuments, shipping the loot to Rome and other cities of the far-flung Roman Empire. They started a trend of plundering and tampering that unfortunately has lasted to the present day.

After the victory of Rome's Octavian over Egypt's Cleopatra in 30BC, Egypt became, not only a province of Rome, but also a personal fiefdom of the Roman emperors. Romans started to visit Egypt and settle in the country in ever-increasing numbers. Military and administrative functionaries from Rome visited important sites in Egypt and left a great deal of graffiti on the walls of the temples to record their visits.

By the turn of the first millennium, Egypt had became the hub of a number of Arab and Muslim medieval empires. Visitors from the Arab-speaking and Muslim worlds poured into the country from as far a field as Morocco and Mali, India and Iran. Medieval Arab writers, like their Greek predecessors, documented the wonders they saw during their visits to Egypt. The Arab chroniclers covered subjects as diverse as religion, social behaviour, politics and history. They scrupulously surveyed and recorded the ancient sites, bequeathing the name Al-Uqsor, The Palaces, to modern Luxor. The descriptions they made of Egypt's fauna and flora, are still relevant and the efforts they made to decipher the ancient scripts were admirable.

The next flood of visitors came as a result of European colonialism and expansion by the British. Mohamed Ali Pasha, the founder of modern Egypt, saw to it that a sea and overland route from London through Egypt to India was inaugurated in 1830. A mail route between London and India passing through Egypt was established. Soon tourists followed, leading the Egyptian ruler in 1845 to establish an agency, Maslahat Al-Murur (the Traffic Agency), to look after them.

An ever-increasing number of Europeans journeyed to Egypt for sightseeing in the wake of the Napoleonic or French Expedition to Egypt in 1798. Several 17th century scholars were sent to Egypt to search out coins, manuscripts and antiquities for their wealthy European patrons. They left written accounts of their journeys, which supplied firsthand information about Egypt.

Modern journeys

It is with the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) and shortly afterwards with the British occupation to Egypt in September 1882, that the beginnings of present day tourism started to emerge. Tourism was not actually recognised an "industry" in Egypt until the Thomas Cook company started organising trips down the Nile and popularising package tours to Egypt to enjoy the historical treasures and the winter sunshine.

A vast corpus of travel writings, supplemented by paintings survives from the 19th and early 20th century. These include diaries, letters and publications, many of which are in English. Some of the most famous travellers to Egypt at that time were Gustav Flaubert, British society hostess Lady Lucie Duff-Gordon and famed detective author Agatha Christie.

The British were essentially interested in large collectors' pieces. But it was La Description de L'Egypte, a collection of paintings, sketches and commentaries by Dominique Vivant Denon and some other artists describing Egypt's landscape, people, and culture, that left an indelible mark on Europe's impression of Egypt.

The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen in Luxor in 1922 by Howard Carter also caught the public imagination in Europe. The wonders of ancient Egypt electrified the world and consequently a deluge of wealthy tourists poured into the country.

This rich legacy of ancient heritage and modern tourism lives on in Egypt today. According to a report published recently by the Ministry of Tourism, Italians make up the largest number of contemporary visitors to Egypt, followed by Germans, Russians, the British, Israelis, Libyans, the French, and Saudi Arabians.

The Egyptian government and business community took stock. "Egyptian investors realised that if resorts were developed in these areas, they could be used all year round. They started to build hotels and tourist resorts," says Elhamy El- Zayyat, head of the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers. "We must not also forget that it was in the 1980s that Egypt received assistance to build the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC). This added conference tourism to our list of incentive tourism markets," as El-Zayyat points out. Besides the CICC, the majority of Egypt's five-star hotels have the capability of hosting conferences and banquets for groups of various sizes.

Today people visit Egypt and head for its fabled beaches, health spas and fantastic deserts with extraordinary and moonlike landscapes. Although deserts make up 95 per cent of Egypt's land mass, the country has no less than 10 deluxe golf courses, complete with accompanying luxurious world-class clubhouses and shopping malls, and surrounded by villas and mansions that have been developed in different tourist destinations such as the Red Sea, Sinai, Luxor and Cairo.

There was a drop in the number of tourists after 11 September, but record numbers of tourists have been arriving in Egypt in the past two years. In October alone, Egypt received 663,745 tourists -- an increase of 25.2 per cent over the same period last year. Tourism has become the top earner of foreign exchange, ahead of Egyptian workers' remittances, Suez Canal dues and industrial exports.

As a result of this tourist boom, the Egyptian government and private investors both have initiated many related projects in the last decade to improve the overall tourist experience in Egypt. New airports have been built, roads have been improved, and hotels and cruise boats have multiplied and expanded their guest capacities. While most of the new hotels and resorts have been established on the Red Sea and south Sinai, remote areas like Qusseir and Marsa Alam south of Hurghada on the Red Sea as well as the Kharga, Dakhla and Siwa oases in the Western Desert have initiated new projects aimed at attracting tourists.

According to Mamdouh El-Beltagui, minister of tourism, Egypt currently has 136,400 hotel rooms, 1,408 hotels and 1,241 tourist establishments. "This boom took place in areas that are short on all kinds of utilities. Investors themselves established both the infra-and superstructures of their projects; they paved the roads, installed electricity and telephone nets, established airports, schools, factories, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, commercial centres and workers to form a real comprehensive society," El-Beltagui adds.

It is this combination of ancient and modern, east and west, that has continued to draw visitors to Egypt since the beginning of time.

A history of tourism, or a tour of history? Some might mistakenly think that tourism is a new phenomenon in Egypt -- but clearly, since the dawn of history, Egypt has been attracting droves of travellers from every corner of the world.