Safaga
Coordinates: 26 ° 44 ' N , 33 ° 56' E
Safaga ( Arabic سفاجا Safādschā , Egyptian-Arabic Safāgā ) is an Egyptian port on the Red Sea and is 60 km south of Hurghada .
The place extends along a strip of desert between sea and mountains.
History of the port
One of the oldest ports in the Red Sea is located here . It was set up as a base for trade and exploration in the Red Sea under the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Sahure . With the conquest of Egypt in 1882 , the British also recognized the strategic importance of Safaga, which was reinforced by the discovery of rich phosphate mines in the nearby mountains. Its importance increased from 1911 onwards due to extensive (extensive) mining due to massive investments by Italian business people.
During the Second World War , the port was used by the Allies . A relic from this period is a wreck that was sunk in 1944 during German air raids. Larger ships can also call at the port with a draft of 25 to 34 m. Today it is the main base of the Egyptian Navy for patrols in the southeast of the country. It also serves as a starting point for pilgrimages ( Hajj ) to Saudi Arabia ( Mecca ), the export of aluminum and the import of wheat. Accordingly, the place is dominated by a transshipment and industrial complex and apart from a few outlying resorts has no special sights to offer to tourists.
tourism
If you continue on the bypass around the actual place, you will arrive at the meeting point for the convoys prescribed for tourists in the Nile Valley .
The black sand beaches have natural radioactive isotopes of uranium , thorium and potassium . The tourist magazine Red Sea Bulletin writes " ..in harmless Concentrations .. " (10/11 2005, p 71) and recommends that the salt- and mineral-rich sand against psoriasis ( psoriasis ), bronchitis , rheumatism and various allergies. It is reported that the pharaonic queen Hatshepsut has already attended cures every year.
In and around the place there are some luxury resorts like Soma Bay , Makadi Bay , Kalawy Bay and al-Qusair , which are frequented by divers , surfers , golfers and bathers. There are several coral reefs off the coast - like off Hurghada - and the wreck of the Salem Express , which are approached by several diving centers .
archeology
The port of the old pharaoh empire is already 4000 years old. In 2006, researchers from the Universities of Boston and Naples found remains of ropes and planks in five caves on the Red Sea south of the Egyptian city of Safaga, which were used to load boats; also remains of a box with the inscription Wunder des Land Punt with the incompletely preserved name of Amenemhet III. , which the antiquities administration in Cairo evaluates as further evidence that the Egyptians also had sea trade with punt at the time of the pharaohs.
More recent research results from 2006 confirm that the ancient Egyptians built ships 700 years earlier than previously thought, namely ocean-going ships for the Red Sea, not for use on the Nile. Some parts were made of the resin-rich cedar wood of Lebanon because of its durability . Some researchers want to identify Safaga with the ancient port of Myos Hormos .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ dpa January 2006
- ↑ Kathryn A. Bard, Rodolfo Fattovich (ed.): Harbor of the Pharaohs to the Land of Punt. Archaeological investigations at Mersa, Wadi Gawasis, Egypt 2001-2005. Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale". Napoli 2007, ISBN 88-95044-11-8 .
- ↑ Seafaring 4,000 years ago. In: Adventure archeology. Edition 02/06, Spectrum of Science, Heidelberg 2006, p. 11, ISSN 1612-9954 .