Trouble in Egypt

If it weren’t for the US presidential election, UN summit, and global financial melt-down, the media would likely be paying a good deal of attention to a hostage situation in Southern Egypt. Kidnappers have taken 11 tourists and 8 Egyptians and are demanding €6m ransom.

I hope that the hostages are well, and that this situation sorts itself out peacefully. I also hope that future adventurers aren’t scared away from Gilf al-Kebir, where this incident is taking place, because it sounds like a very interesting place, as BBC described today:

At the southern end of the plateau is the mountain range of Jebel Uweinat, effectively an area of no-man's land between the Sudanese, Libyan and Egyptian borders.


Here, the jurisdiction of national authorities blurs, and is ill defined.


The Lonely Planet guidebook to Egypt barely mentions the region. One of the book's authors described the area to the BBC simply as "damned remote".

Not to knock the pyramids and the rest of the standard Egyptian tourist route, but Gilf al-Kebir sounds like my kind of place. As such I imagine the hostages there aren’t too different from me, so my thoughts are with them.