EL-Ain EL-Sokhna: The Arabic for “hot spring” was named after the nearby Sulphur springs. It is also an ideal site for fishing and water sports. Ain El Sokhna is about 140 km east of Cairo, just an hour away by car. It offers Cairenes recreational time, handy respite from the city’s fast paced life.

The area is 40 km south of the port of Suez and is administratively part of the Suez Governorate. Its territory extends along the Red Sea shoreline for about 60 km from the southern borders of Ras El Adebbya in the north to Ras El Zaafarana in the south.

Close enough to Cairo for a day trip, this popular weekend resort has fine beaches and coves, coral reefs, fishing and water sports.

This is not just a destination for people wanting a suntan and a week at the beach. It is also a place where you can indulge in history. There is ample evidence that the area had its place in history. It includes a famous group of the world’s oldest monasteries west of Zafarana on the road to Kuraymat.

The most celebrated ones are those of St. Anthony (c. 251 -356), the founding father of monasticism, and St. Paul, which were built more than 16 centuries ago. Rituals followed inside the monasteries today have hardly changed in hundreds of years.

A group of historians also believe the northern part of the Mount of Galala El Bahareya was the point from which Moses and the Israelites crossed in their exodus from Egypt’s mainland into the Sinai Peninsula. They cite in their claims the fact that the bottom of the Gulf of Suez at this point is elevated.