Egypt
Things to Do:
LUXOR Visit the world's largest cities open-air museum of Luxor includes familiarity with grand Karnak temple, Luxor temple, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut (which shows the annual opera "Aida"), the famous Valley of the Kings, where pharaohs built the Theban cliffs in their tombs of the Valley Queens, where not only the wives bury the pharaohs, but died early Egyptian princes. CAIRO comfortable air-conditioned bus and video over six hours will take you to the largest city in Africa - Cairo. The program usually includes a visit to familiarity with the panorama of the city, visiting the Egyptian Museum, the famous pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, Papyrus museum, Perfume Factory, jewelry markets and fairs of leather. JEEP SAFARI, SAFARI-MOTO race around the dunes on a jeep or a motorcycle through the desert to meet the Bedouin on a camel ride and learn how to extract the water in the sands. You will see the sunset of the grand majesty of desert mountains, enjoy a meal by candlelight and hear uncanny silence of the desert and will be fascinated by star-studded night sky. Submarines and AKVASKOP Akvaskopy - a special surface ships with underwater capsule for 10 passengers. They have two huge, full-length, inside, located at a depth of 3.5-4 meters. During the walk you will see the famous coral reefs - turquoise, gold, crimson, pink, and the extraordinary inhabitants of these waters. The submarine "Sinbad" down to a depth of 25 meters. Through the portholes on either side, you can enjoy the magnificent spectacle of the underwater world of the Red Sea. Cruise on the Nile Cruise on the Nile - one of the most fascinating tourist destinations. Today, the services of tourists -250 luxury ship, more than 100 of them, floating five-star hotels with restaurants, bars, discos, shops and swimming pools. Along the banks of the Nile are the most famous monuments of ancient Egyptian civilization. Some of the most famous - the temples of Luxor and Karnak, located on the left bank of the Nile. Today, the Karnak complex of temples can be seen, built from the XX century. BC by the end of the 1st millennium BC Luxor temple, dedicated, and as complex at Karnak, Amun-Re, Mut and Khonsu, and still amazes the traveler a unique elegance and grandeur of its colonnades royal colossi. You will have the opportunity to see firsthand the uniqueness and elegance of the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Pharaohs. On the way to Aswan you will see the Temple of Edfu and the Temple of Kom Ombo. Edfu temple built by the Greeks even when, shortly before the onset of a new era, but its architecture has absorbed the best traditions of the ancient Egyptian architecture. Beautifully situated on a hill temple of Kom Ombo, built by the Ptolemies and the Romans. He was dedicated to God at the same time krokodilogolovomu Sebek and god Horus the Elder with head of a falcon. In this journey you will explore the Aswan High Dam, unfinished obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut and the Temple File. At first glance, the Aswan Dam is striking grandeur of conception. The dam was erected 11 years to block the river using a quantity of sand, clay, stone, cement, and that from it we could build the pyramids of Cheops 17. CORAL ISLANDS, FISHING morning takes away your pleasure boat for an hour and it reaches the coral reefs. Issued to all fins, tubes and masks, and you are greeted by an amazing picture of the underwater world of the Red Sea. Diving into the crystal water column, you will see countless flocks of tropical fish: silvery sardine, tuna, mackerel, bonito bright blue. Time flies quickly, and now dinner, cooked right on the ship, waiting for hungry tourists. After the rest returned to the ship to shore.
In the north of Egypt, as well as the Red Sea resorts are hot and dry summer in the delta of the Nile River and the Mediterranean coast-wet. The air temperature at the Red Sea resorts in Cairo from May to September 35-40 C, the temperature of water in the Red Sea in this period is usually 26-28 C. In Hurghada summer heat is much easier because of the constant sea breeze, so the flow of tourists in this city is not diminished neither winter nor letom.Vesna and autumn are very short. Within 50 days (khamsin) between March and mid-May occur periodically sandstorms. But they do not reach the Red Sea, where the famous Egyptian resorts. Mountains effectively protect them from unwanted intrusion. Winter in Egypt is mild, with warm sunny days and cool nights sometimes
Polity and Languages
Egypt - a presidential republic! President Hosni Mubarak has been holding the secular politics and popular among the people (he was a military pilot and graduated from military school in the USSR). In Egypt, a parliament, multiparty system, the trade unions. The main items of revenue are Egypt, taxes, tourism and the Suez Canal and industry. Egypt produces and sells electricity, fertilizers building materials, weapons, movies, products, light industry, agriculture, and of course the famous Egyptian cotton. The Egyptian dialect of Arabic, in educated circles English is widely spoken and french.
History:
Ancient peoples of Egypt appear to us as bearers of the highest civilization, arriving as if from another world. For six thousand years ago, at a time when people of the earth has hardly left the Stone Age, creating a culture more or less the same level for all regions of the world, the Egyptians appear mature enough and ready to quickly overcome the barriers of human possibilities, as if by their life experiences in another, extraordinarily developed, world. So on earth, moistened by Neil began a unique and unrepeatable experience for several centuries had developed rapidly, creating works of art and science of great value (for the whole future of mankind), beyond the time frame. Construction of the Cheops pyramid in an era when no knowledge of iron and wheels, still remains an enigma. Our surprise increases even more when we learn that even before the buildings of the Great Pyramids Egyptians have technology that can adjust the water level in the lands flooded Nile for thousands of miles, and turn the swamp or the same in the new desert paradise on Earth! Considering the pace of development of other nations, some of whom remained at the Neolithic era to the present day practice, we understand that residents of "Planet Egypt" ahead of the history of our world for about two thousand years. Moreover, they have given impetus to such power that he felt after five thousand years. Funds used in these immense achievements - this is water and fire, that is, Nile and the Sun. The gun is not given, but forged, energized by ancient peoples, the destruction brought by water and fire, they converted to force, and fertilizing the land of Egypt all my life. The man worked with Isis and Osiris to recreate life in order to give the ground an image of paradise, the paradise of the earth, is reunited with in heaven. Egypt - not the Promised Land: the land, created by man, day after day, year after year, work upgrading without end, where the creation is mixed with the image of the Creator. There is no sharp distinction between gods and men: there the gods dwell among mortals, and their faces - they are the same people's faces or images of animals around them on earth and in heaven, their hands are invisible and infinite, as infinite rays of the sun. Each piece of land of Egypt - the water and the universal, cosmic fire, death and resurrection, the essence of human nature and divine. Neil and Sun imps two rings without borders, enclosing the entire universe (this world and hereafter), imps of the road on which the new man with a "planet Egypt" looking for meaning and purpose of his eternal journey. Those of us men of the twentieth century after Christ, who else can feel again the delicate balance between high water and high fire, will understand the meaning of sailing in a boat under sail in Upper Egypt. And perhaps they will find again the invisible bridge connecting the sources of our history, once again felt the deep emotions experienced by our ancestors, when five thousand years ago they listened to the song, rising above the Nile with the advent of the new year: "Come the water of life, which stems from the sky, the water of life come bubbling out of the ground. Heaven and earth tremble burns from the parish of Great Deity. Mountains west and east yawns, Great Deity possessed the body of Egypt. "
Holidays and days vyhodnyae:
New Year - January 1, Sinai Liberation Day - 25 April Labour Day - May 1, the Islamic New Year, Ras al-Sana al-Higriyya Anniversary of the Revolution 1952 - July 23, Birth of the Prophet (Mulid-oh-Nabi) is celebrated in honor of the Prophet Muhammad . Armed Forces Day - October 6.
Customs regulations
Personal belongings may be imported into the country and out of the country without customs declaration. Be declared cameras (cameras and accessories in the declaration are not required). Allowed to export from the country goods valued at up to 200 Egyptian pounds. Visitors over the age of 20 years can bring along up to 1 liter of spirits and 2 liters of beer, over 15 years - 200 cigarettes or 50 cigars. The export of antiquities from Egypt, corals and other marine flora and fauna (even picked up on the shore). In case of violation of this prohibition You will be fined $ 1,000. For the importation of drugs into Egypt provides severe penalties
Money, currency exchange
Currency - Egyptian Pound, it is divided into 100 piastres. Banknotes - 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 pound, piastres in coins: 25, 20, 10, 5, and in notes 50, 25. Exchange points are located in each hotel.
Transport:
The most convenient and inexpensive mode of transport - a taxi. The price with the driver is better to agree in advance.
Shopping:
No definite hours of shopping there. In winter, the shops are open from 9:00 to 20:00 with a lunch break, at least from 12:00 to 14:00. Supermarkets are usually open longer. In the summer lunch break, usually lasts from 14:00 to 16:00. Many shops are closed only at 21:00-22:00. Banks are open daily, except Fridays and Saturdays, from 8:30 to 15:30. Branches in major hotels sometimes work around the clock. Mail is open from Sunday to Thursday from 8:00 to 15:00, public institutions - every day except Friday, from 8:00 to 14:00
Useful phone numbers
Local calls can be made from pay phones, which many in large cities, or from post offices, where there are preferential rates for international calls to countries in Europe. Call to Ukraine and the CIS can operate directly from a hotel room (the cost of a call about 20 pounds per minute). You can call from the hotel lobby, where there are special rooms with telephones (13 pounds per minute) or buy a phone card that can be used in specially equipped pay phone (in this case, the lowest rate). To make a call to Ukraine dial 0038 + area code + phone number.
Tips:
Integral part of life in Egypt - tipping or baksheesh for minor services. Maids in the hotel decided to give up to 10 pounds a week, porters and reception 1-2 pounds, cleaners in toilets - 50 piastres. In the restaurant to leave 10% of the bill. Do not offer tips to those who by their profession, according to their social status is with you as an equal.
Religion
Most of Egypt's population are Sunni Muslims. About 15% - Christians - cont. (The word "Copt" is translated into Russian as "Egyptian"). The Coptic Orthodox Church rather markedly different from the Russian, not only features a theological doctrine, but also the architecture of church buildings, the statute, order, service, clothing of priests. The most revered saint - St. George. Islam - the youngest world religion. Islam recognizes the Bible, the Gospel, all the biblical prophets and Jesus Christ. Muslims believe and worship the same God the One to whom Jews and Christians pray. Itself an Arabic word "Allah" is translated into Russian by the words "One God". This Muslim must know and follow the five pillars of Islam: - recognize that there is a God but one God and Muhammad - the Messenger of the One God. "Shahada" - to make five times prayer. "Sala" - to observe the fast of Ramadan. "Siyam" - to make at least once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. "Hajj" - to pay part of their income community. "Zakat"