Zagazig: Egypt
Zagazig is a town of Lower Egypt, and is the capital of the province of Ash Sharqiyah.

As of 1999, its population was approximately 279,000. It is built on a branch of the Fresh Water or Ismailia canal, and on the Al-Mo’izz canal (the ancient Tanitic channel of the Nile river), and is 47 miles by rail North-Northeast of Cairo. Situated on the Delta in the midst of a fertile district, Zagazig is a great centre of the cotton and grain trade of Egypt. It has large cotton factories and the offices of numerous European merchants. About 3km southeast of the town are the ruins of Bubastis.

And it has Zagazig University, one of the largest universities in Egypt, with colleges in different fields of science and arts. Also there is a branch for Al Azhar University, the largest Islamic university in the world.

Tanta: Egypt
Tanta is a city of Egypt, capital of the Al Gharbiyah governorate in the Nile Delta and at an estimated 335,000 inhabitants, the largest city in the Delta. It is also noted as the residence and burial site of Ahmad al-Badawi, a 13-century Sufi who founded the Badawiyyah tarika.

Taba: Egypt
A small Egyptian village near the northern tip of the Gulf of Eilat, Taba is the location of Egypt’s busiest border crossing with neighboring Israel. Little more than a bus depot and a luxury hotel (complete with casino), Taba’s primary function is to serve travellers from Israel on their way to destinations in Egypt, and as a weekend getaway for Israelis to gamble and scuba-dive.

Never populated by more than a handful of Bedouins, Taba rates a minor historical footnote as the last portion of Sinai to be returned to Egypt under the terms of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

Taba was on the Egyptian side of the armistice line agreed to in 1949, and returned to Egypt when Israel withdrew from the Sinai in 1957. However, when Egypt and Israel were negotiating the exact position of the border in preparation for the peace treaty, Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906 and had therefore been in error in its two previous agreements. After a long dispute, the issue was submitted to an international commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian, and three outsiders. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt’s favor and Israel returned Taba to Egypt later that year.

As part of this subsequent agreement, Israeli travellers are permitted to visit Taba visa-free for up to 48 hours, making Taba a popular tourist destination.

On October 7, 2004, Taba’s Hilton hotel was hit by a bomb that killed 31 people (BBC), including Israeli vacationers. 24 days later, an inquiry by the Egyptian Interior Ministry into the bombings concluded that the perpetrators received no external help, but were aided by Bedouins on the peninsula. Al-Qaeda was not believed to have played any role.

Suez: Egypt
Suez is a port town (population ca. 460,000) in Egypt, located on the Gulf of Suez, near the mouth of the Suez Canal. The town was utterly destroyed and deserted following the Second Arab-Israeli War in 1967. It was rebuilt after the reopening of the canal in 1975.

Sharm el-Sheikh: Egypt
Sharm el-Sheikh is a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai. It is an approximate four hour drive to Ismailia and a three hour drive to Taba.

View from the Sheraton Sharm hotel

Sharm el-Sheikh’s major industry is foreign tourism. The calm and clear waters of the Red Sea provide an ideal location for various watersports, and particularly for recreational diving and snorkeling (which many consider to be among the best in the world). Major luxury hotels, such as The Ritz-Carlton and The Four Seasons, as well as franchises like Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock Cafe, and Buddha Bar, can be found in Sharm el-Sheikh. Ras Mohammed is the southern most tip and a national park which serves to protect this great area of wildlife. A number of large international hotels and noted restaurants have been constructed some 40 kilometers further northeast, as have a number of golf courses and other leisure facilities.

Sharm el-Sheikh serves hub the southern Sinai, including the smaller Dahab and Mount Sinai. The airport sees almost no scheduled flights, but many tour operators fly regularly to and from it, particularly to Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Port Said: Egypt
Port Said is a northeastern Egyptian city near the Suez Canal, with an approx. population of 500,000.

The economic base of Port Said is fishing and industries like chemicals, processed food, and cigarettes. Port Said is also an important harbour both for exports of Egyptian products like cotton and rice, but also a fuelling station for ships that pass through the Suez Canal. Port Said also thrives on being a duty-free port, as well as a summer resort for Egyptians.

Port Said is in many ways Egypt’s most beautiful city. There are numerous old houses with grand balconies on all floors, giving the city a distinct charm. Port Said’s twin city is Port Fouad, which lies on the eastern side of the canal. The two cities coexist, to the extent that there hardly is any town centre in Port Fouad. The cities are connected by free ferries running all through the day.

Noubarya: Egypt
Noubarya is a town in Egypt, approximately 100 miles north of Cairo.

The settlement was founded in 1987 as part of an irrigation scheme using water from the Nile.