MAP 1 - SATELLITE MAP OF EL QUSEIR TOWN AREA AND THROUGH ROUTES - 2013.

MAP 2 - SATELLITE MAP OF EL QUSEIR OLD TOWN AND HARBOUR
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A HISTORY OF "KOSEIR" (EL QUSEIR) BY CARL B. KLUNZINGER (1878)
(From: Carl B. Klunzinger, Upper Egypt: Its People and Products, Scribner, Armstrong & Co. New York, 1878, pp. 271-277.)
Annotations added to the original text are in blue italics.
The Turkish conqueror of Egypt, Sultan Selim III (Ottoman Sultan 1789-1807), appears to have been the first who again directed the route for trade and pilgrims to the Egyptian coast: at least he built a small fortress, the modern Koseir (El Quseir), principally for protection against the Bedouins, erecting others of the same kind also on the east coast (Arabian coast), in Moilah (Moelh Fort at Al Muwailih) and Wudj (Al Wajh) for example. But no inhabited town arose under the protection of this fortress, Kosier being only a periodical trading place. The road through the desert (from the Nile Valley to El Quseir) was so dangerous, on account of the plundering Bedouins, that only large caravans could venture to pass through it. The merchants attached themselves to the pilgrim caravans, and crossed the sea with the pilgrims as well in going as in coming; the Arabic merchants, chiefly belonging to Yemba (now Yanbu - Saudi Arabia), at this time transacted their business in Koseir, and then returned home. There were only a few houses standing inhabited by people from Yemba. In this condition, the place was found by the French on their conquest of Egypt; as a point of strategic importance they kept it garrisoned during the three years (1798-1801) that they possessed Egypt; and cannon and mortars still remain ornamented with the Jacobin cap and republican inscriptions of the year III.

Koseir first became a permanent settlement of importance under Mohammed Ali (De facto ruler of Egypt 1805-1848), and under the favour of this pasha soon rose to a flourishing position. The fact of its having a comparatively good harbour, at least for smaller vessels, in a situation that could be reached from the Nile Valley more easily and in a shorter time than any other port, and enjoying a climate celebrated as being temperate and healthy, appeared to justify the selection, notwithstanding the want of fresh water. The viceroy was, as he still is, bound by treaty to pay a portion of his annual tribute to the Porte in the form of deliveries of grain for Arabia, with which the (Ottoman) Sultan on his part, had to supply the Turkish soldiers and officials there, the chiefs of the Bedouins, who would not allow the caravans to pass unmolested through their territories unless on this condition, and the sherifs or descendants of the Prophet. These deliveries, called "dachire" (the annual provision for the Holy Cities Mecca and Medina), consisted of about 180,000 ardeb (approx 36 million litres) annually - wheat, barley, beans, lentils, and also oil, biscuits and the like. Koseir was selected as the place where these were to be collected. At that time, when there was no railway, Suez (today Egypt's most important Red Sea port) was as difficult to reach fron the fertile regions as Koseir; from it a long and dangerous sea voyage had first to be made to the Arabian ports of Yemba and Jeddah, and the corn of Upper Egypt (closer to El Quseir) was better and cheaper than that of the Delta (closer to Suez). The distance by sea from Koseir was considerably shorter, and through the energetic measures of the viceroy, who had effected treaties with the Bedouins, the desert route had been rendered quite safe.
The hope of deriving a large profit from the transport of this grain as well as from the then flourishing private trade, and from the passage annually of a large number of pilgrims to Meccah, as well as certain privileges granted to the place (freedom from military service and direct taxation), soon attracted a multitude of people both from the neighbouring valley of the Nile and from the Hedjaz, especially Yemba. Thus in a short time (in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century) Koseir acquired a settled population of 6,000 to 8,000 souls. It obtained the title of "bander," meaning pretty much the same as "good town" or "good trading town," and had a governor of its own (Muhafiz) of the rank of a bey, who was directly dependant on the central government at Cairo, as those other seaports, Alexandria for example, still are. Correspondence with the central government was partly carried on by messengers mounted on dromedaries, who set out at least once a week, and, taking the most direct route, traversed the desert in five days, partly by a system of towers and semaphores running through the Nile Valley to Cairo.
At this time there were in Koseir about sixty persons employed by the government, including besides the governor, a port-captain, a doctor, two superintendents of police and customs, three overseers for the grain store (shuna), nine Coptic clerks, eighteen soldiers, with two corporals, for the fort, hospital-superintendent and male attendants, custom-house officers &c. Every month these received as pay sixty four purses (one purse=500 piastres=about £5,) the governor alone claiming sixteen purses. Extensive public buildings rose for the government, the customs and the grain depot. The citadel was repaired and additions made to it, a quay faced with stone and a wooden mole projecting into the harbour were built. The inhabitants on their side filled up a portion of the beach and built houses, mosques and the bazaar.
The prosperity of the place increased to an unusual degree; almost all the trade between Egypt and Arabia went through Koseir, every year there passed about 30,000 pilgrims (12,000 going to Meccah, 18,000 returning), and among them many men of rank and wealth from the whole Mohammedan (sic) world. Numerous inns served for the reception of these pilgrims, though the greater number of them encamped in the open air or in tents; all around the town a still larger town of tens was pitched. The passage of this multitude of people, who could leave Koseir only by ship or camel, occupied nearly nine months of the year. If it is considered also that every day several hundreds, nay thousands of camels arrived from the Nile valley, that another hundred or two hundred or two brought water from the mountains and were quartered in the neighbourhood, and also that the Ababdeh settlement outside the town numbered about 200 persons, a conception may be formed of how busy a scene the town and environs must have been.
Entertainment and amusement were also provided for; there were thirty coffee houses, three spirit shops, and more than fifty dancing girls, who inhabited a special quarter of the town. At that time, too, the overland route for the English to India passed through Koseir, and twice a month Anglo-Egyptian steamers entered the harbour and brought numerous European travellers who, from Koseir to Keneh (Qena) in the Nile Valley, rode on camels, or perhaps (especially the ladies), had themselves carried this distance in palaquins, a journey of four or five days. For these steamers, a coal depot was formed. An English, a French, An Austrian and a Persian Consul - all natives of the country - looked after the interests of the travellers belonging to the country represented by each.
Hundreds of vessels entered the harbour every month; for the transport of contributions of grain, and perhaps also for certain warlike purposes, the Egyptian government itself possessed seven large three masted vessels of European build, of from 4,000 to 7,000 Ardeb burden, with European captains and officers, as well as eleven one-masted vessels of Arabic build; but even these were not sufficient, and had to be always supplemented by many ships hired from private persons.
Under Abbas Pasha ( ruled Egypt 1848 to 1854 ), and up to the beginning of the government of Said ( Muhammad Sa'id ruled Egypt 1854 to 1863 ), Koseir still continued to flourish. An English company undertook to lay a submarine telegraph to India, and in the Red Sea it was run along the west coast. At Suez, Koseir, Suakin, Massowa and Aden stations were established, with four or five Europeans attached to each. After steamers had become less common at Koseir, in consequence of the establishment of the overland route to India by way of Suez, they were again often seen, being partly engaged in the laying of the cable, partly in bringing supplies for the employees, who were allowed to want for nothing belonging to English comfort. These well-paid individuals also spent their money freely and brought no little life into the town - a subject spoken of long after. While these Englishmen were staying at Koseir, the massacre of Christians at Jeddah (on the other side of the Red Sea in Arabia) took place in 1858. A war steamer sent by the English for the purposes of observation and giving its security to its subjects created a panic, but in peaceful Koseir there was nothing to avenge. The telegraph soon began to cease to work; when a thorough inspection of it was made, the cable was found to be damaged throughout; the coral rocks had chafed it; and after scarcely two years the telegraph was entirely given up.
The severest blow, however, and one from which it has not yet recovered, was received by Koseir in the same year (1858) - the railway between Cairo and Suez was completed. By this means the traffic, including the pilgrims, was almost entirely removed to Suez, for which Said Pasha ( Muhammad Sa'id ) had as great a favour as Mohammed Pasha ( Mohammed Ali ) had had for Koseir; all kinds of advantages were granted for it, the Meccah pilgrims must go by way of Suez to make the (railway) line pay, and the dachire was managed at Suez. It thus happened that Koseir was deserted by the greater number of its inhabitants almost at once, and it sunk more quickly than it had risen.
Koseir only retained the grain trade with the Hedjaz ( the western portion of the Arabian peninsula then under Ottoman rule ), which, however, was of some importance, and sufficient to prolong the life of the town. The profit from the pilgrims became rather negative than positive, as with the exception of a few persons from Upper Egypt it was generally none but begging pilgrims that took this route, over the whole of which they could beg. The number of the government employees was greatly diminished, that of the inhabitants sank to 1,500, whole streets were deserted and fell into ruins. But still more blows fell. The year 1864 was a year of scarcity, and in order to some degree to lessen this the export of grain was strictly prohibited by an edict of Ismail Pasha ( ruled Egypt 1863 to 1867 ). For the town, this was a mortal injury. The prohibition was so sudden and unexpected that a large quantity of grain had already been stored up. A deputation of merchants to the government received the answer that of the 11,000 ardeb of grain found to be in the town 8,000 might be exported, as the corn could not be taken back again to the Nile Valley, 3,000 were to remain in the place in order to support the inhabitants for six months.
After the year of scarcity the trade again went on, but no longer as formerly. The prices of grain, like the prices in Egypt generally, were no longer so low as formerly, and the costs of transport and customs dues made them still higher for the opposite coast. Hitherto, Father Nile had almost exclusively supplied arid Arabia with corn; but now the Euphrates and Tigris, even the Indus and Volga, began a dangerous rivalry. By the steamers, which, since the opening of the Suez canal, traverse the Red Sea in great and increasing numbers, grain can now be brought to the Arabian sea-ports from the distant but cheap countries on the above-named fertile streams at a lower rate than is possible for the Egyptians. Occasionally, in years of extraordinary abundance, or when high prices rule in these countries, a short period of improvement is again induced, but after those injuries formerly received mainly at the hands of the government, the town is now in the condition of a sick person wasting away through some internal complaint; it can neither live nor die, but every year becomes worse and weaker, and will hardly as such last more than half a score years.
The government has, to be sure, given it a strengthening medicine by causing the dachire to be again exported from Koseir, after finding that the Suez route was too expensive; but the contribution now amounts to only 24,000 ardeb, far from sufficient to bring about any improvement. The remaining trade, exclusive of the grain trade, is also too insignificant to keep up the town; and while the sources of income are drying up, taxes are enormously increasing; provisions, being generally brought from a distance, are usually higher (in cost) than in the Nile Valley, to which must be added the cost of water, amount to a considerable household from 1s 6d to 6 shillings a day. At present, therefore, everybody is now leaving his native town, formerly so dear, and the population can now scarcely amount to more than 800.
The history of the town of Koseir, as we received it from the mouths of natives, we have given in some detail, partly because it is not uninteresting in itself, partly because it shows what an ephemeral existence the waterless sea-ports on the Red Sea have and always had. Even Suez is not secure against a blow to its prosperity, in spite of its canal. Some time ago the project was brought forward of bringing the traffic which passes Egypt through the canal, and brings nothing to the country, more into the country itself, and on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea a good harbour which could easily be provided with fresh water was sought for. The harbour was then to be connected by a railway with another railway to be constructed in the Nile Valley, and it was hoped that at least a portion of the trade with India would be attracted to this quicker route, much in the same way as the route to Egypt via Brindisi (southern Italy) is often preferred to that via Marseilles (France) or Trieste (northern Italy). All these advantages, it was believed, were to be found in the good harbour of the anciently celebrated town of Berenice (70 miles south of Marsa Alam), but the project was quite given up.
Perhaps recourse may once more be had to the unfortunate town of Koseir, which, though it neither has yet a good harbour nor yet fresh water, possesses the advantage of being near the Nile Valley, of being connected to this via a road along which a road might easily be constructed. A good harbour would be found at Shurum, 18 or 19 miles further south, and the want of water might be remedied by cisterns.

View from El Quseir Fort's high viewing tower looking towards the sea.
PORTRAIT OF THE TOWN, ITS POPULATION AND MARKETS ETC. C. 1870
(From Karl B. Klunzinger - Upper Egypt: Its People and Products, Scribner, Armstrong & Co. New York, 1878, pp. 277-281. )
The picture of our sea-port town essentially resembles that which we have already drawn of a provincial town of Upper Egypt ( see Chap 1. ), but many Arabic elements from the Hedjaz also present themselves. Here also the houses are generally of one story and built of sun-dried bricks, and they stand in straight rows, the streets being remarkably clean. A few handsome government buildings of stone, some mosques and sheik-cupolas, rise above the other houses, and the whole is commanded by a citadel occupying a considerable area, but of no use for modern warfare. On Sundays and feast days many flags are hoisted. In the foreground, lies the bay with the shipping, in the back-ground rise picturesquely the mountains of the desert.
THE POPULATION
The population, as in other sea-ports, is remarkable for the diversity of races it exhibits, while here also there is a still more striking diversity of colours. The chief body consists of the free proud offspring of sacred Arabia, who for the sake of gain have bowed themselves under the rigorous spectre of Egypt, and have accustomed themselves to behave like the submissive slaves of the land of the Pharaohs. These "Yembauiyeh" or Bedouins as they like to be called, still continue to look proudly down upon the Fellahin. They love to clothe themselves in bright and gay-coloured attire instead of the blue blouse of the Fellah; round their heads they wear a bright-coloured cloth which hangs down over their shoulders behind; their naked feet carry thick sandals. These Yembauiyeh are generally connected with the shipping, especially as owners, captains and sailors. The Egyptians are more important numerically; they are the petty traders, artisans and porters, though many are also excellent sailors, or have become merchants and ship-owners. The greater number have come from Upper Egypt, only the younger having been born in the place. There are also a number of Copts among them. Of genuine Turks there are only the governor and a few officials; the half-dozen soldiers in garrison are of Turkish descent, but have been born in the place and are quite Arabified.
The negro slaves form an essential constituent in the population, acting mostly as sailors. To these are to be added - besides the deep-brown Upper Egyptians - the almost black Ababdeh (Ababda - an ethnic group inhabiting eastern Egypt and the Sudan), so that the prevailing shade of colour among the people of this place is very dusky. In keeping with the etiquette of the neighbouring holy land, the women here are more strict than elsewhere in closely veiling themselves. When ladies of position arrive by sea they are not put ashore until late at night, and also when they come from the desert they choose the night for their arrival if possible. Men whose business takes them to both shores of the sea alternately like to keep a legitimate wife on each side.
THE MARKETS
In the town we have a bazaar in which the retail dealers, in their primitive booths, sell the products of three quarters of the globe, and the Red Sea to boot, such a coffee, frankincense, pepper, ginger, rice, tobacco for the hookah, crushed dates in skins, cocoa-nuts, fancy wooden boxes, and textile fabrics from the East; oil, sugar, rice, dried dates, tobacco, pipe-bowls, camel travelling-bags, shoes, wooden utensils and fruits from the Nile Valley; textile fabrics, cigar paper, lucifer-matches, tapers, tin, metal plates, and porcelain dishes from Europe; plaited-leather thongs, leather pouches, confectionery, bread and biscuit as industrial products of the town itself; and, lastly, dried fish, dried molluscs, the opercula of the molluscs, cuttle-fish bones, porcelain shells (Cypraea), shells of the pearl mussel, and other shells from the sea. Here too, the broker runs up and down the market with all kinds of auction-wares; clothing, amber mouth-pieces for pipes, carpets, chairs, goats, sheep, asses and camels. Large objects for auction, such as boxes, trunks, and other furniture, are exposed in other parts of the market-place, and if they cannot be sold they remain all night under the charge of the night-watchman that sleep there.
In the fish market the strange forms and brilliant colouring of the Red Sea fish are exhibited as they hang in bunches by means of a cord of alfa grass drawn through their gill-openings; the large-ones lie on straw-mats waiting till they are cut up with the hatchet and sold in pieces, while the parts that are not eaten, such as the entrails, gills and ovaries, are flung to the cats, multitudes of which always collect here. In the fruit-market the parched inhabitants struggle for the fresh fruits and vegetables which the camel-drivers bring from the Nile Valley, and are prevented from plundering only by the switch of a police-soldier. The cargo is generally sold to the retail dealer that offers most, after the doctor, who has been summoned for the purpose, or his agents, as overseers of the markets, have passed the goods as not being injurious to health, this being soon managed if a few first-fruits for their families, either gratis or at a low price. Any objections on the part of the police or the "sheik of the vegetables" are also removed in this manner.
Many citizens, however, in their longing for green food, set out very early and go a long distance to meet the expected camels, getting their wants supplied on the spot. In the cattle-market are exhibited various varieties of sheep descended from the fat-tailed breed; the brown-wooled shaggy headed Nile sheep, the lean sheep of the Ababdeh, and the long-legged, smooth-haired Arab sheep, transported from Arabia by sea, besides the goats of these regions, all of them with large ears. A portion of them are immediately slaughtered on the beach, which is employed as a slaughter-house, by a tranverse cut across the throat, in the name of God the all-merciful, according to the rules of the Koran, sea water being plentifully poured over them; others are previously kept and fed in the yards of the corn-dealers, in order to give milk and produce progeny. The latter object is promoted by the public he-goat, who has the market place allotted to him as his home; here he remains day and night in the midst of the numerous consorts provided for him, and forms an essential feature in the scene. From the sellers of the high-priced drinking water, who set their commodity before them in casks, compassionate souls buy for him the delicious refreshment; but his food he procures for himself, penetrating into the court-yards of the corn-dealers, plundering the baskets of children that sell bread, or biting unnoticed a hole in a skin containing dates. He even contrives to find entrance into the government grain warehouse by means of his commanding warehouse and stately horns.
The wood-market is provided by the Ababdeh with the excellent wood of the acacia and other trees of the desert, as well as with wood charcoal, and by ships with same articles from the opposite shore (Arabia), or with shora-wood. A very cheap fuel, and one in general use, is also brought hither by the Bedouins, viz, balls of camels' dung in sacks, collected on the caravan road; they also occasionally bring all kinds of desert plants as fodder for cattle. At other times, the cattle kept in the town receive the bran arising from the grinding of grain, barley, among the grain-dealers only wheat, and always beans, without which they do not thrive; the latter take the place that oats occupy in other regions.
ITS WATER SUPPLIES
The peculiarity of our town is the water market. Every morning arrives a stately water caravan with a supply for the wants of the citizen from the springs and wells of the desert. The better springs are from 8 to 10 leagues distant (24 to 30 miles or 39 to 48 km distant). Each camel carries six tanned goatskins, which are always rubbed with oil after being used in order to keep them from cracking with the heat from the sun on the up journey.... The water is brought partly by Bedouins, partly by inhabitants of the town itself, who make that their special trade. They require at least two nights and one day, the Bedouins three days. Some of the townspeople who have a large household keep special camels for carrying the water. The water being dear, a full goat-skin, which is by no means large, always costs from half a franc to 2 francs; it is dearer than usual at the pasture season, when the camels are sent into the Nile Valley, and only those of the Bedouins remain, and also at the time when many pilgrims are in the town. Government officials get their water paid for or delivered by the government; several water camels are the orders of the governor. The poorer people provide themselves with water from less remote springs, but these are all saline, bitter and hard. The domestic animals are watered with springs in the closest proximity to the town; this water is still worse, and is just drinkable for human beings only for a few months after a fall of rain.
MORE PHOTOS

The castle is a paradise for cannon spotters.
The high tower to the left and French quarters built up against the ramparts right.

You can see the wagons which until recently miners had to push loaded with phosphate.

The high tower to the left and French quarters built up against the ramparts right.

The fort's cannon overlook a row of tourist bazaars.

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