Al-Quseir reborn

By Ahmed Sami
Keeping it humble: the Red Sea coastal city of Al-Quseir maintains a relaxed and small-town feel -- but for how long? photo: Ayman Ibrahim
Ever since Hurghada hit the big time, developers and sun-worshippers alike have been looking for the next plot of golden sand and pristine waters on the Red Sea's eastern shores where a dusty little sea town can be transformed into a glittering seaside paradise. For those of you who mourn the Hurghada of yore, when it was a short strip of hotels and nothing but desert beyond, this is your lucky day. My last trip down the Red Sea coast brought me to the once unquestionably dull town of Al-Quseir, a place still obscure enough to assure a quiet visit and yet developed enough to assure the well-heeled traveller a comfortable stay.
Though still somewhat unremarkable, Al-Quseir has come a long way from its stint as a major industrial town, when it was equated with phosphate mines. Ten years ago, Al-Quseir was still a remote southern area with precious little draw for the traveller, but in the mid-1990s, I started to hear about its becoming a destination for diving. The luxury resorts moved in, the fishermen moved out and the rest is obvious. The phosphate mine is now closed and most of the locals have switched over from fishing into tourism-related jobs. There are even plans to set up a hotel management institute where the mines used to be. Like Hurghada, many local inhabitants have seen their salaries triple with the tourist boom; but also like Hurghada, luxury hotels and package tourists have brought a higher -- and costlier -- standard of living. That said, Al-Quseir's nascent tourist industry is a year-round affair and many local workers have been lured by the steady income.
Situated roughly 140 kilometres south of Hurghada and some 85 kilometres from Port Safaga, Al-Quseir was a well-known city in ancient times, where traders and pilgrims elbowed their way through crowds of foreigners and locals. Queen Hatshepsut launched her campaign to the legendary "Land of Punt" (believed to be either modern-day Somalia or Yemen) from here, and reliefs of the journey are memorialised on the walls of her mortuary temple at Deir Al-Bahari. Expeditions returned loaded with exotic wares and there are some Pharaonic inscriptions along the Wadi Al-Hammamat road that runs from Al-Quseir to Qift -- the earliest known route across the Eastern Desert. A major port under Ottoman rule, the town was best known in modern times as a way station for pilgrims making the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. French writer Gustave Flaubert came through here in the mid-nineteenth century, when the city was in the last legs of its heyday, but today, if you hear anything about Al-Quseir it will be as one of the top diving spots in Egypt.
Having come into the Red Sea rush later in the game, Al-Quseir has had the benefit of being able to avoid mistakes made in other resort towns -- namely haphazard development and environmentally dangerous practices. The stunning coral reefs -- the area's prize attraction -- are well preserved and strict procedures have been instituted to keep it that way. In places like Hurghada, where the emphasis can be on boosting profits, large groups of divers are not discouraged. In Al-Quseir, diving is restricted to a limited number of divers, thus reducing the stress on the underwater environment.
Hotels have taken up the cause of environmental awareness -- a necessary step if the plan is to succeed. At the Mövenpick Hotel -- the first luxury hotel to set up shop in Al-Quseir -- General Manager Cypert Schwartz recalled the difficulties in setting up an environmentally-friendly, yet profitable tourist centre in such a remote area. The government did its part, by opening up the highway and restoring some of the tourist sites, "but there's still a lot of work to be done," Schwartz noted, "and till now there's a problem in getting materials and supplies." As for the precious coral reefs, Schwartz explained that protection is essential. It can take a hundred years to regenerate even one centimetre of damaged coral, and more often then not, just bumping up against a small patch of coral can wreak havoc on the delicate reef. "We implemented many programmes to teach the staff to think environmentally, and educate them on how to preserve the corals," Schwartz explained.
In keeping with a new trend towards careful urban planning, the Mövenpick was designed so as not to interrupt the aesthetic beauty of the skyline, using instead a Nubian-inspired style of low, sloping domes. In addition, city planners have ensured that all resort projects (17 are already on their way) will have plenty of beach space and sandy shores. Poor planning in the past resulted in some hotels only having reefs offshore; guests are forced to either swim in the pool or use another beach. Finally, the city council has said that there will be plenty of space set aside for public beaches, but similar claims in places like Hurghada and Sinai have been conveniently forgotten by prospering developers.
In addition to the Mövenpick, there are the Flamingo Beach resort, the Utopia Beach club, the Mangrove Bay resort and the Fanadir, all of which have diving centres. The Utopia also has windsurfing facilities. But Al-Quseir is not only a seaside resort -- it has a long history and local officials are trying to ensure the city's heritage isn't lost in the drive to build and rebuild at the expense of some of the town's distinctive architecture. Old buildings built in the classic French and British styles, with large terraces and wooden balconies, need to be protected from being sold and demolished. Mohamed Amin, head of Al-Quseir's city council, explained that an association has been set up to do just that. The association will also work with a team of archaeologists from Southampton University investigating historic sites from the Roman and Mameluke eras, Amin explained. The sites are all located in Al-Quseir Al-Qadim (Old Al-Quseir), just outside of the new city.
The name Al-Quseir in Arabic translates as a "smaller version" of a palace, and could derive from the esteemed position the city held as a strategic port. Ottoman sultans saw the city as key for trading, but also recognised the need to protect it from outside invaders. The Ottoman fortress built at Al-Quseir was a military stronghold and later housed French troops trying to cut off supplies coming from the Arabian peninsula to Mameluke leaders. The fortress has recently been renovated and is expected to open shortly. The fortress and the Farran Mosque are the city's main tourist sites, along with a now defunct 19th-century quarantine hospital, where pilgrims were detained.
But these days people are coming to Al-Quseir for the beaches and the waters and tourism officials are eager to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. "If we are going to increase tourism to this city, the Ministry of Interior is going to have to open the road to Luxor through Wadi Al-Hammamat and Qift," said Amin, explaining that at present, tourists are not allowed to travel this road. Instead, they have to take another road from Safaga and wait for a convoy to take them through -- a precaution intended to safeguard tourists, but in practice only forces them to wait for hours to continue their journey. Alternately, the airport that has been built at Marsa Alam, approximately 65 kilometres away, will provide easy access to Al-Quseir. The airport is expected to open next year.
While wandering the shores, I noticed an older-looking man emerging from the water in full diving regalia. We got to chatting, and I learned that 59-year-old Dieter Seiler was an avid diver from Germany. It was his eighth visit to Al-Quseir in three years. In Germany, he explained, there are few diving sites and no coral, and it is far too cold in the winter to dive. Seiler raved about the year-round diving conditions, the pristine reefs, and the convenience of having diving centres and reefs right on the shores. "I don't need to take a ship to go diving, and my wife can relax at the hotel without waiting a long time until the dive is over," he said, adding that the night dives were particularly exquisite. "Diving here is very safe," he remarked, reporting almost immediately after that he had seen shark and barracuda fish, but that they don't attack. Safe indeed!
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