Marsa Alam is located in the southern part of Egypt's Red Sea.Many modern guides to Marsa Alam describe it as a fishing village on Egypt's Red Sea coast 130 km (82mi) south of El Quesir, 3 hours 30 minutes from Aswan Airport and 4 Hours 30 minutes from Luxor Airport However, with a new international airport, a number of other planed tourism projects and many new hotels, it is rapidly becoming much more than a fishing village.
Today, Marsa Alam remains a fairly small tourist town, but considerable development is currently in progress. The airport is actually part of a larger development project designed to create a state of the art resort area in Port Ghaleb, including both a 1,000 berth marina and port, with a dock-side harbor, yacht club and spa, along with a highly animated town center and a corniche around the marina area. On the corniche will be shops, galleries, boutiques, restaurants and bistros, nightclubs, discos and a casino. In addition, there will be a conference center and festival hall, along with a combined desert and links golf course
The private marina will not only be the largest in the Middle East, but an international sea-gateway for yachts to visit Egypt. Even conservative estimates indicate that some 4,000 hotel rooms will be available in and around Marsa Alam.
Only a short time ago, it would seem that most of the accommodations here were tent camps, many new, fine hotels have been built. The primary reason to visit the mainland Red Sea community is for the serenity and quiet, private beaches,snorkeling and diving. This whole coast line is one huge reef of exceptional quality with new dive sites being discovered all the time. Dive sites such as Elphinstone (famous for its hammerheads!) and Dolphin Reef, previously only accessible to southern Red Sea liveaboards, can now be dived by day boats from Marsa Alam. Also, only recently opened to divers here, is access to the famous St Johns Reef. To quote one diver just starting out on the first dive on a trip to Marsa Alam, "Oh my, it's clear! deep. deep blue, and fish so many, what's that? a Lionfish, a Parrotfish, A Triggerfish, A Blue Spotted Ray....it's warm, its blue and it's beautiful". It should also be noted that a nature reserve stretches from here to Gebel Elba in the south.
Marsa Alam sits on the T-junction between the Red Sea coast road and the road from Edfu which sits on the Nile river about 230km (142mi) inland. This road, which was probably originally built by Ptolemy II in the Greek period, passes through some historic landscape where the ancient Egyptians mined much of their gold. Several gold mining operations are known. While this road in ancient times was used for the gold mining trade, archaeologists believe its main use was as a trade route between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea where an important ancient port was located. Just off this road are found two areas, called Wadi Barmiya, and about about 30 kilometers further into the mountains. Wadi Baramiya extends into another larger Wadi named Miya, where a temple was built by, among others, Seti I. Both areas were probably gold mining communities.
In addition, a wealth of rock inscriptions from as early as the predynastic period may also be found along this route near Marsa Alam. Here, the smooth rock faces were an ideal canvas for ancient graffiti, which dates from the earliest times right up until the present. The ancient graffiti depicts animals, including giraffes and cattle, but also includes hunting scenes, such as an ostrich hunt with dogs. Unfortunately, with the expansion of this road, many if not all of these inscriptions will be soon lost. Explore the area before these treasures disappear.
