Heritage of Egypt

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Egypt, covering an area of about 1,001,450 sq km , is famous for its ancient civilizations and also some of the earliest and most famous monuments of the world. For tourists coming to visit Egypt, there are innumerable places of interest which are capable of holding every tourist spellbound. Today, Egypt is broadly regarded as the main political and cultural centre of the Arab World and Middle East. The world famous World Heritage list in Egypt consists of the following: •  Abu Mena •  Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis •  Islamic Cairo •  Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur •  Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae •  Saint Catherine Area •  Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley) Abu Mena- Abu Mena is one of the oldest Christian sites in Egypt is about 45 km south-west of Alexandria. Its church, baptistry, basilicas, monasteries, houses, public buildings, streets, and workshops were all built over the tomb of the martyr Menas of Alexandria, who died in A.D. 296. The site was placed on the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) World Heritage List in 1979.

Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis- Located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the Nile River, this site was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. During the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms, Thebes, the city of the god Amon, was the capital of Egypt. With its temples and palaces at Karnak and Luxor, and the necropolises of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, Thebes is striking evidence to Egyptian civilization at its height. Islamic Cairo- A part of central Cairo and overlooked by the Cairo castle lies one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with its famous mosques, hammams, madrasas, and fountains. Reaching its golden age in the 14th century, it became the new centre of the Islamic world. Founded in the 10th century, it's frequently visited by tourists because of its high proportion of historically important. Islamic Cairo came under the World Heritage List in 1979. Memphis and its Necropolis– the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur- One of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World and the capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt it has some of the extraordinary funerary monuments, including rock tombs, temples, pyramids and ornate mastabas. These ancient sites in the Memphis area, Giza, plus those at Saqqara, Dahshur, Abu Ruwaysh, and Abusir, were collectively declared a World Heritage Site in 1979. Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae- Situated in the southern Egypt on the western bank of Lake Nasser about 290 km southwest of Aswan, this exceptional archaeological area contains magnificent monuments such as the Temples of Ramses II at Abu Simbel and the Sanctuary of Isis at Philae. An International Campaign was launched by the UNESCO in 1960 to 1980, to save the place from the rising waters of the Nile. Now it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the “Nubian Monuments”. Saint Catherine Area- Located on the Sinai Peninsula at the mouth of an inaccessible gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, is one of the oldest continuously running Christian monasteries of the world. This Orthodox Monastery stands at the foot of Mount Horeb, where the Old Testament records, Moses received the Tablets of the Law. The mountain valued by Muslims as Jebel Musa and the entire area is sacred to three world religions, the Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley)- Wadi Al-Hitan, Whale Valley, in the Western Desert is a Palaontological site in the Al Fayyum Governorate of Egypt. It was designated as UNESCO's World Heritage Site in July 2005 for its hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest whale forms, the archaeoceti. For more information on the heritage sites of Egypt, keep browsing 123independenceday.com