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Assyut
Travel Guide
Assyut is the largest city in Upper Egypt
and lies about 234 miles south of the town
of Cairo. Assyut an old town which was first
settled in pharaonic times, then the capital
of the 13 Nome of Upper Egypt and named Syut.
Later, the Greeks renamed it Lycopolis which
means 'town of the wolf'. This was due to
the importance of the Jackal gods Wepwawet
and Anubis. Although the town was of
considerable strategic value in its position
between Upper and Lower Egypt, it somehow
managed to stay clear of national importance
as a capital.
Today, Assyut is the place where the
Egyptian police has most trouble upholding
guaranties for visitors' safety. The line of
militant Islamism which has its centre in
the city of Assyut, is the one killing Sadat
in 1981, and the one that moved to USA with
shaykh Omar Abdu r-Rahman, and believed to
have been responsible for the bombing of
World Trade Center in New York in 1993.
However the reports are fairly few on
Western tourists having been killed in the
city of Assyut, this has only to do with
precautions from the tourists themselves.
However you might not be losing all to much.
The city of Assyut was worth visiting
earlier, but there are several far better
places in Egypt that has as much and more to
offer. But for every 1000 tourist, there is
one fascinated by danger, and he or she
couldn't do better in Egypt, than visiting
Assyut.
One of the results of the turmoil of the
city of Assyut, is that communications are
affected. Normally cruises on the Nile,
travellers on trains, and those heading out
to the oases along the old Nile, like
Bahariya, all have to pass through Assyut.
All I can say, for the time being, is: Make
your stay in Assyut as short as possible,
and I hope you don't miss that last train
out from Assyut.
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