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| El Quseir |
When you head down the coast highway south from Hurghada and carry on for close to an hour or so, you will come to the town of El Quseir. At the centre of the town which continues to be relatively untouched by Egypt's growing holiday industry, is the Fort which dates back as far as 1571.
The Fort was initially built by Sultan Selim I at a time when Quseir was one of the most critical ports in The Red Sea. Together with being an important and vital link in trade routes, Quseir was also the departure point for Hajj pilgrims on their road to Mecca.
In 1799, the French army under the control of Napoleon took charge of the fort and they held out until finally the British made them to surrender it two years later. It was the start of a chain of events that saw the British overcome the French later in the year.
The British soon moved on and the subsequent years saw the Fort at El Quseir used as a base by Muhammad Ali Pasha in his wars against Arabia. In 1869, the Suez Canal was opening connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. For that reason, the strategic relevance of the fort was significantly reduced. It's working life came to an end in 1975 soon after numerous years service as a base of the Egyptian Coast Guard.
Nowadays, the Fort at El Quseir is a small tourist attraction for people taking a Red Sea holiday. The town itself does not get a large number of tourists and the one or two hotels at El Quseir are self contained resorts away from the centre. There is a small entrance fee to get into the Fort which features a number of exhibits sharing it is heritage in addition to a selection of items from the era once Italian investment came to Quseir from a phosphate company.
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