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Quseir is still a typical, quiet Red Sea town,
but this is changing as the area is being developed for tourism. The older
houses are built of coral with ample installations casting shade:
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Being an almost exclusively Muslim society,
located on one of the traditional routes to Mecca, there are many places
in Quseir where one is encouraged to remember God:
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Objective of visit:
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Shopping for food, water and accommodation
during the various projects in the Eastern Desert and
participating in the preservation project of the Ottoman fort in the center
of town. |
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Date of visit:
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Passing through every summer and every
winter between 1994 and 2002, involved in the town itself during the spring
and summer of 1998. |
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Fellow visitors:
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Willeke Wendrich, Steve Sidebotham,
Michael Mallinson and various members of the Quseir Fort Preservation Project
and the Berenike Project. |
| Results: |
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A small exhibition, on the Eastern Desert
and its ancient and modern inhabitants, in the Ottoman fort in the centre
of town (see also al-Ahram Weekly,
15-21 August 2002; 599: p. 22). |
| Approximate
position and date of the site: |
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Quseir is located on the Red Sea coast,
approximately 150 km. south of Hurghada and 130 km. north of Marsa Alam.
The town is at the end of the ancient route from the Nile trough Wadi Hammamat
and must have been a port since time immemorial, although the site of the
Pharaonic harbour remains unknown. In Roman times the town was called Myos
Hormos and located a bit to the north. Later, the town turned into a port
for the pilgrimage to Mecca and a fort was built which was restored by the
French in 1799. Even more recently the town obtained a beacon for ships
traveling through the Suez-canal while the harbour was used for the export
of phosphates. |
| Short description
of the site: |
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The center of town is dominated by the
large Ottoman fort and a quarantine area for pilgrims returning from Mecca.
Surrounding these landmarks are the older houses of Quseir, built of coral
in a style which is typical for the Red Sea coast (cf. Suakin). On the coast
itself are the loading installations for the ships collecting the phosphates
mined in the Eastern Desert next to a place where small fishing vessels are
beached and build. North of this is a quarter with houses where the European
proprietors of the mining installations used to live until these changed
into Egyptian hands. On the outskirts of the town, modern concrete buildings
are being built while the center of town is quickly taken over by more tourist
oriented enterprises. |
| Additional
remarks: |
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This work would not have been possible
without the support of the Berenike Project,
the American Research Center in Egypt, Mallison
Architects as well as many individuals. |
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