Overland routes through Egypt: transit points, cities and geographical projects

If the adoption of Islam in Africa was largely a result of trade networks, it should be added that Egypt has always held a key position in this geographical scene as an overland route. The Nile/Red Sea Corridor as a physical feature is possessing a degree of cultural homogeneity expressed in urban context. While much scholarly work has been devoted to “cultural encounters” in the Mediterranean ports, much remains to be said about Upper Egypt and the Red Sea, at the heart of the Islamic world, where cities were and still ports for pilgrimage and trading cross via the Red Sea to Arabia. Non-Muslim ships were allowed to stop only at Quseir harbour, connected by a caravan route to the Nile that was the way to travel northwards and reach the river ports. After Napoleon Expedition (1798), in Mohamed Ali’s rule a number of large-scale geographical project (fairy route and several proposals of Canal construction) were undertaken to establish the “overland route” across the Delta. In particular, we shall focus on a number of cities (Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Quseir), trying to identify the correspondences between transit point along the trade routes and the related urban structure. This topic lies in the possible effects of the New Canal de Suez Project on the cities’ present status and the economic trade connection. Based on previous and on-going research (note S. Boca, M. Al Gammal), our contribution aims at clarifying how the geography of settlement in Egypt is deeply linked to the trade networks mentioned above and transit points.