The Old Fort In El Quseir
If you head along the coast road south from Hurghada and continue for approximately an hour, you will reach the town of El Quseir. At the heart of the town which is still relatively untouched by Egypt’s growing holiday industry, is the Fort which goes back as far as 16th century.
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.
At the end of the 18th century, the French army under the command of Napoleon took charge of the fort and they held it until the British forced them to surrender two years later. It kick offed of a series of events that saw the British overcome Napoleon’s forces in Egypt later in the year.
The British rapidly 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 began to operate linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. For that reason, the strategic importance of the fort was significantly reduced. It is working life ended in 1975 immediately after many 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.
The South Egyptian coast remains relatively undisturbed and El Quseir is an unspoilt Egyptian town which is worth seeing.