The Red Sea Mountain Trail Has Officially Launched, Here Is Everything You Need to Know

In the heart of the wilderness that is the Red Sea Mountains, a trail connecting travel, hunting, and trade routes that are as old as time, existed, known only to the Bedouins of the pastoral landscapes. The tribesmen of Khushmaan, a clan of the larger Maaza, one of Egypt’s largest nomadic tribes, learned this route from childhood and in no time, they knew it like the back of their hands.

For centuries, the trail has been a part of the Bedouin culture that was never shared with the outside world, until the arrival of Ben Hoffler, the man behind the Sinai trail, and a group of interested individuals including Egyptian Mountaineer, Omar Samra, Martina Sedlakova, and Tony Howard. This group approached Sheikh Merayi Abu Musallem, the Head of the Khushmaan clan and introduced the idea of a Red Sea Mountain Trail. It’ similar to the Sinai Trail and it would be a community tourism project that would be 100% owned by the people of the Maaza tribe. Not to mention that it seeks to create jobs while preserving the endangered Bedouin culture.

And so then and there The Red Sea Mountain Trail Association (RSMTA) was born, with Sheikh Merayi as its founder and chair. Ben Hoffler has been chosen to be one of the founders and the ambassador of the project to the world. After several years of development and planning, the trail opened its doors to the world.

The Red Sea Mountain Trail is the first long-distance hiking trail in mainland Egypt and a sister project to the award-winning Sinai Trail. It is a 170-kilometer, 10-day hiking route that showcases the beautiful landscape of the mountains outside of Hurghada.

The trail opens a window to the untrodden wilderness of the Red Sea Mountains. There, one could witness the vast, desert plains, deep gorges, and high summits of the Red Sea Mountains while walking amidst the ruins of ancient Roman towns. Past that, the rock art and chapels that predates the ancient Egyptian civilization itself; it is indeed a beautiful journey into a part of Egypt that is little known.

Such a project will open the new field of adventure tourism that is in its baby steps in Egypt, introducing the regular tourists of Hurghada to the mountains of the region and to the Bedouin community. The project aims to provide the marginalized people of Maaza with a form of sustainable development that would help them keep their culture and lifestyle in our rapidly-modernizing world.

During the hike, participants will be accompanied by a Bedouin guide and will be provided traditional food at various checkpoints. The first hike is scheduled to be in springtime, and the details, once available, will be announced on the Facebook page.

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