Marsa Alam is a port and resort located on the Red Sea in the southeast of Egypt. It is 700 kilometers away from Cairo and 280 kilometers away from Hurghada.
This popular resort is located 135 km south of Al-Qusseir and 270 km south of Hurghada and is connected to Edfu by a 289 Km long desert road. Due to the proximity of Luxor and the shrine of Abu AI-Hassan AI-Shazli and its wonderful beaches, it has become a big tourist center.
Marsa Alam transformed from being just a small fishing village to become a famous sea resort and a center for diving and sea trips. The shore contains amazing coral reefs and diving spots. Marsa Alam also has an airport located 60 kilometers north of the city and can serve more than 50,000 passengers, which added to the huge development that the city went through. Flights from different European countries, especially Italy, come straight to Marsa Alam international airport with hundreds of tourists who chose Marsa Alam to spend their vacation. Unlike more commercial cities like Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, the beauty of Marsa Alam is still untouched with the harmful effects of modernization.
Marsa Alam mainly consists of two villages: Bernice, a small city located 178 kilometers north of Al Qausier, which is famous for therapeutic tourism and the village of Abu El Hassan Al Shazly which has a famous Islamic center and doesn’t really have anything for Western tourists.
The plan for the city of Marsa Alam indicates that by the year 2020, it will have 60,000 people and provide more than 17,000 jobs. The Egyptian government has given special attention to Marsa Alam during the last few years for many reasons. The first reason is that the city has the most remarkable diving and snorkeling spots in Egypt. The second reason is the weather in Marsa Alam, which is moderate all year long especially in the beginning of the winter when you can swim in the sea while other people in other cities suffer from the cold weather. The third reason is that Marsa Alam is located near the Nile Valley and near Luxor in particular which makes it possible for tourists who visit Luxor to come to Marsa Alam and vice versa.
Marsa Alam also has significant economic importance as it hosts many of the key gold and marble mines in Egypt. Additionally, there is the Marsa Alam seaport that was expanded considerably over the last few years.
The Egyptian government has also discovered some monuments near Marsa Alam. The supreme council of antiquates was able to uncover a whole ancient town that goes back to the new Pharaonic kingdom. This is in addition to the gold mines in Wadi Baheria that have been used since the time of the ancient pharaohs.