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A bit about Egypt
There have been more words written about Egypt than there are grains of sand in the desert. The ancient Greeks were mystified by it, as were the Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Turks and various other conquerors who followed. Napoleon loved it, as did the British when they took it off him. Rommel tried to take it off them, but he caught Herpes, and so eventually the Egyptians got it back.
Egypt is an ideal destination for the independent backpacker. There's more history lying around here than anywhere else on Earth. From the 8000 year old paleolithic settlements, which were among mankind's first tentative steps towards getting along, through the great pyramids and temples of ancient times, the arabic citadels and mosques, and eventually to the battlefields of El Alamein, the Suez Crisis and the Six Day War, there's enough history there to satisfy everybody. There's also camels, deserts and oases in abundance to keep the Lawrences among you happy. Or if you're more of a Jacques Cousteau, or a Freak Brother, there's reef and reefers aplenty along the Red Sea coast. If you want noise and colour, there's Cairo, a city of 18 million people, and if you want peace and quiet, well, there's everywhere outside Cairo!
There are few countries as well set up to cater for tourists and backpackers as Egypt. The public transport is relatively comfortable, cheap and reliable, even the smallest villages usually have some cheap accomodation. The recent decline in tourist numbers means that prices have fallen while availability has risen.
A series of major terrorist attacks aimed at tourists in the late 1990's devastated the Egyptian tourist industry. The Government responded with equal measures of force and concession, and an informal armistice has held since 1997. The tourist industry had just started to recover from those events when the resumption of the Palestinian Intifada in 2000 stemmed the flow of young Israelis who habitually partied along the Gulf of Aqaba, and the events of September 11th 2001 didn't help much either.
All this has left the Egyptian tourism trade (and those who work in it) in a sorry state. The tourists will, no doubt, come back in numbers one day, but until they do, there are a lot of empty fellucas.
The authorities are therefore understandably protective of the few intrepid backpackers who do choose to wander around away from the tourist centres. It's not unusual in some areas for every backpacker to have their own armed escort provided, and probably a few plain-clothes police following you around too. It may be disconcerting to see so many heavily armed police everywhere, but it's also nice to know they care about you so much.
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