mamuna's Photos- powered by SmugMug

Most Popular Photos

Photo taken on the beach along Waikiki beach in Honolulu.

Photo taken at Ageebah Beach near Marsa Matrouh, Egypt.

"The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw." - Ellis Havelock

Photo taken in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

"As the ocean is never full of water, so is the heart never full of love."

Photo taken on the coast of Marsa Matrouh, Egypt.

"The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire." -Pamela Hansford

Photo taken on the coast of Marsa Matrouh, Egypt.

Galleries

Marsa Matrouh,Egypt : Mersa Matrouh lies 290 km. West of Alexandria and 222 km. from Sallum. The distance from Cairo to Matrouh is 524 km. It lies on a bay on the Mediterranean Sea.The beach is famous for its white soft sands and calm transparent waters, for the bay is protected from the high seas by a series of rocks forming a natural wave-breaker, with a small opening to allow light vessels in. This beach dates back to the days of Alexander, the Macedonian, when it was known as "Paraetonium" and also as "Amunia". It said that Alexander the Great stopped there during his historical expedition to pay tribute, and sacrifice, to the god Amun, at Siwa, so that he becomes Amun's son and his rule be a historical continuation of the pharaohs. There are ruins of a temple from the time of Rameses II (1200 B.C.) in Matrouh.

Marsa Matrouh,Egypt

Hawaii : Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu. The most recent census estimate puts the state's population at 1,283,388.

The state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi. The last is by far the largest, and is often called the "Big Island" or "Big Isle" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. This archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.

Cairo, Egypt : Cairo (Arabic: القاهرة‎ al-Qāhira) is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life. Even before Cairo was established in the tenth century, the land composing the present-day city was the site of national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo is also associated with Ancient Egypt due to its proximity to the Great Sphinx and the pyramids in nearby Giza.

Egyptians today often refer to Cairo as Miṣr (Arabic: مصر‎), the Arabic name for Egypt itself, emphasizing the city's continued role in Egyptian influence.

Sharm el Sheikh,Egypt : Sharm el-Sheikh (Arabic: شرم الشيخ‎, Sharm al-Shaykh), is a city situated on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, Egypt, on the coastal strip between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai.

Sharm el-Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt's South Sinai Governorate which includes the smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba as well as the mountainous interior, Saint Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai. Sharm el-Sheikh is known as The City of Peace referring to the large number of international peace conferences that have been held there.

Sharm el-Sheikh (27°51′N 34°17′E) is on a promontory overlooking the Straits of Tiran at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba. Its strategic importance led to its transformation from a fishing village into a major port and naval base for the Egyptian Navy. It was captured by Israel during the Sinai conflict of 1956 and restored to Egypt in 1957. A United Nations peacekeeping force was subsequently stationed there until the 1967 Six-Day War when it was recaptured by Israel. Sharm el-Sheikh remained under Israeli control until the Sinai peninsula was returned to Egypt in 1982 after the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1979.

A hierarchical planning approach was adopted for the Gulf of Aqaba, whereby their components were evaluated and subdivided into zones, cities and centers. In accordance with this approach, the Gulf of Aqaba zone was subdivided into four cities: Taba, Nuweiba, Dahab and Sharm El-Sheikh. Sharm El-Sheikh city has been subdivided into five homogeneous centers namely: Nabq, Ras Nusrani, Naama Bay, Umm Sid and Sharm El Maya.

Sharm El-Sheikh city together with Naama Bay, Hay el Nour, Hadaba, Rowaysat, Montazah and Shark's Bay form a metropolitan area.

Sharm el Sheikh,Egypt

Israel : Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Yisra'el; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيلُ‎, Isrā'īl) officially the State of Israel ( מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל (help·info), Medinat Yisra'el; Arabic: دَوْلَةُ إِسْرَائِيلَ‎, Dawlat Isrā'īl), is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Also adjacent are the West Bank to the east and Gaza Strip to the southwest. Israel is the world's only predominantly Jewish state with a population of about 7.4 million people, of whom approximately 5.62 million are Jewish.The largest ethnic minority group is the segment denominated as Arab citizens of Israel, while minority religious groups include Muslims, Christians, Druze, Samaritans and others, most of which are found within the Arab segment.

Mt.Sinai/St.Katherine, Egypt : Mount Sinai (Arabic: طور سيناء ,toor sinaa'i) (Hebrew: הר סיני ,har sina'i), also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa (Egyptian Arabic accent), Jabal Musa (standard Arabic meaning "Moses' Mountain") by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in Saint Katherine city, in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. In Arabic the words 'Jabal' and 'Toor' have similar meanings, and a Mount Sinai is mentioned in the Quran chapter 'The Fig' (Surah at-Tin) as "Toor-i-Sineen". Furthermore a Scottish individual by the name of Thomas Stratton compared ancient Hebrew languages and Gaelic languages to find that a translation of "toor" in either language produces "a mount." It is the traditional location of the Biblical Mount Sinai.

Mount Sinai is a 2285 m-high mountain in Saint Katherine city, in Sinai region. It is next to Mount St. Catherine (at 2,629 m,[3] the tallest peak on the Sinai peninsula). It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

The Monastery of St. Catherine in Saint Katherine city is sited at the foot of the adjacent mountain - Mount Catherine - at an elevation of around 1260 m.

There are two principal routes to the summit. The longer and shallower route, Siket El Bashait, takes about 2.5 hours on foot, though camels can be used. The steeper, more direct route (Siket Sayidna Musa) is up the 3,750 "steps of penitence" in the ravine behind the monastery. The summit of the mountain has a mosque and a Greek Orthodox chapel (which was constructed in 1934 on the ruins of a 16th century church) neither of which are open to the public. The chapel supposedly encloses the rock from which God made the Tablets of the Law. At the summit also is "Moses' cave" where Moses waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

Mt.Sinai/St.Katherine, Egypt

Khan El Khalili : Khan el-Khalili (Arabic: خان الخليلي‎) is a major souk in the Islamic district of Cairo. The bazaar district is one of Cairo's main attractions for tourists and Egyptians alike. The souk dates back to 1382, when Emir Djaharks el-Khalili built a large caravanserai (خان khan in Arabic) in Cairo under the Burji Mamluk Sultan Barquq; the eponymous khan is still extant. By the time of Barquq, the first Circassian Mamluk Sultan (1382- 1399 A.D.) much reconstruction needed to be done within the walls of the city in order to repair the damage incurred as a result of the Black Death. When Barquq started his madrassa in Bayn el-Qasrayn, markets were rebuilt, and Khan el-Khalili was established. It was also known Turkish bazaar during the Ottoman Empire.

In addition to shops, there are several coffeehouses (مقهى maqha or قهوة qahwah, depending on dialect), restaurants, and street food vendors distributed throughout the market. The coffeeshops are generally small and quite traditional, serving Arabic coffee and usually offering shisha. The al-Hussein Mosque is also in Khan el-Khalili; Al-Azhar University and its mosque are not far away.

Khan El Khalili

Taba, Egypt : Taba (Arabic: طابا‎) is a small Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Taba is the location of Egypt's busiest border crossing with neighboring Israel. Little more than a bus depot and a luxury hotel (complete with casino), Taba is a frequent vacation spot for Egyptians and tourists, especially those from Israel on their way to others destinations in Egypt or as a weekend getaway. It is the northernmost resort of Egypt's Red Sea Riviera.

Taba was located on the Egyptian side of the armistice line agreed to in 1949. During the Suez Crisis in 1956 it was briefly occupied but returned to Egypt when Israel withdrew in 1957. Israel reoccupied the Sinai Peninsula after the Six-Day War in 1967, and subsequently built a 400-room hotel in Taba. Following the 1973 Yom-Kippur War, when Egypt and Israel were negotiating the exact position of the border in preparation for the 1979 peace treaty, Israel claimed that Taba had been on the Ottoman side of a border agreed between the Ottomans and British Egypt in 1906 and had, therefore, been in error in its two previous agreements. Although most of Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982, Taba was the last portion to be returned. After a long dispute, the issue was submitted to an international commission composed of one Israeli, one Egyptian, and three outsiders. In 1988, the commission ruled in Egypt's favor, and Israel returned Taba to Egypt in 1989.

Siwa,Egypt : The Siwa Oasis (Arabic: واحة سيوة‎ Wāḥat Sīwah, from Berber Siwa "prey bird; protector of the sun god Amon-Ra") is an oasis in Egypt, located between the Qattara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Libyan Desert, nearly 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 mil) from Cairo.About 80 km (50 miles) in length and 20 km (12 mi) wide, Siwa Oasis is one of Egypt's isolated settlements, with 23,000 people, mostly ethnic Berbers who speak a distinct language of the Berber family known as taSiwit. Its fame lies primarily in its ancient role as the home to an oracle of Amon, the ruins of which are a popular tourist attraction and gave the oasis its name.

Although the oasis is known to have been settled since at least the 10th millennium BC, the earliest evidence of connection with ancient Egypt is the 26th Dynasty, when a necropolis was established. The ancient Egyptian name of Siwa was Sekht-am "Palm Land". Greek settlers at Cyrene made contact with the oasis around the same time (7th century BC), and the oracle temple of Amun (Greek Zeus Ammon, who, Herodotus was told, took the image here of a ram. Herodotus knew of a "fountain of the Sun" that ran coldest in the noontide heat. Prior to his campaign of conquest in Persia Alexander the Great reached the oasis, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The oracle, Alexander's court historians alleged, confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt.

The Romans later used Siwa as a place of banishment. Evidence of Christianity at Siwa is dubious, but in 708 the Siwans resisted an Islamic army, and probably did not convert until the 12th century. A local manuscript mentions only seven families totalling 40 men living at the oasis in 1203. The first European to visit since Roman times was the English traveler William George Browne, who came in 1792 to see the ancient temple of the oracle.

The oasis was officially added to Egypt by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1819, but his rule was tenuous and marked by several revolts. Siwa was the site of some fighting during World War I and World War II. The British Army's Long Range Desert Group was based here, but also Rommel's Afrika Korps took possession three times. German soldiers went skinny dipping in the lake of the oracle, which was considered a sacrilege.
Temple of the Oracle of Amun at Siwa.

The ancient fortress of Siwa, built of natural rock (inselberg), made of salt, mud-brick and palm logs and known as the Shali Ghali ("Shali" for city, and "Ghali", remote), although now mostly abandoned and 'melted', remains a prominent feature, towering five storeys above the modern town.

Top 100 Photo Keywords

ageebah beach • animal • baraka • beach • boy • bridge • buildings • cairo • camel • car • china walls • city • clouds • coast • color • colors • couple • curves • dawn • daybreak • deadsea • desert • edits • egypt • el alamein • enhace • enhance • expanse • grass • hawaii • history • hoiz • honolulu • hookah • horizon • inside • island • level • levels • maadi • market • marketb • marketc • marsa matrou • marsa matrouh • mediterranean sea • mosque • mountain • mountains • nature • oahu • oasis • ocean • old cairo • oracle • original • outrigger canoe club • outside • pacific ocean • palm • palm trees • paradisio • people • perfect • pharoah • pharoahisland • posterize • pyramids • reading • red sea • redsea • roadway • rock • rocks • sand • scenery • scenic • set • sharm el sheikh • sign • sky • spices • store • sunrise • sunrisea • sunriseb • sunrisec • sunset • temp • temple • thebox • town • transportation • travel • trees • troopers • waikiki beach • walking • water • waves

Available Feeds | What are feeds?

Recent Galleries:

Atom |

RSS |

Google Earth

Recent Photos:

Atom |

RSS |

Google Earth

Popular Photos:

Atom |

RSS |

Google Earth