Today, we often forget just how diverse the Mediterranean region was ethnically, linguistically, and culturally in ancient times. At the height of its territorial expansion during the New Kingdom, the Egyptian empire reached as far north was modern-day Turkey and as far south as modern-day Ethiopia, while the Phoenician empire stretched from what is now Syria to Portugal. The Greek and Roman empires eventually topped those at the height of their power, with the latter literally turning the Mediterranean Sea into a vast domestic lake.
For nearly 10 centuries, from 332 BC until 641 AD, Egypt was an integral part of the Greek and later Roman worlds, a period often referred to as the Greco-Roman period of Egyptian history. During this time, people with ancestral roots in the Balkan and Italian Peninsulas became multi-generational native inhabitants of Egypt, establishing cities and societies that resembled what we might think of today as classical Greek and Roman metropolises.
In Egypt, these settlements were not limited to the Mediterranean coast. They also stretched deep into the Sahara Desert across North Africa, especially in Egypt where lush oases sustained thriving communities far from the Nile Valley and the coasts. Some of the most famous examples of Greco-Roman funerary artifacts come from the Fayoum Oasis, and Alexander the Great himself made it a priority to visit the remote Siwa Oasis deep in Egypt’s interior.
While the fulcrum of Greco-Roman civilization in Egypt was still along the country’s main transportation and trading arteries, new discoveries occasionally remind us that the depth and breadth of Roman reach into North Africa far exceeded the obvious. Thus is the case of a new discovery made recently in an area along Egypt’s far western Mediterranean coast called Marsa Matruh.
This region is not typically associated with historical tourism in Egypt, which is concentrated along the Nile Valley. Marsa Matruh is both a governate – or province – in Egypt and the namesake of the region’s capital. It stretches from about an hour west of Alexandria, where the interior salt lakes that run parallel to the coast start to dry up, all the way to the Libyan border. If you drive four hours south into the barren desert, you’ll eventually encounter Siwa Oasis a little over halfway to the governate’s southern boundary.
The provincial capital of Marsa Matrouh sits almost in the middle of the territory along the Mediterranean Sea. And it is near here, at a site known today as Umm al-Rakham, where the latest discovery of a previously unknown, underground, ancient Roman necropolis has been made. Professor Kotb Fawzy, who led the discovery and excavation mission, also revealed new findings of an extensive Roman bathhouse at the site, complete with receptions, seating and bathing areas, and even sophisticated plumbing.
While the main importance of Egypt to the Roman Empire is always thought to have been the vast supplies of grain that it could reliably produce for the fast-growing population across the empire, new discoveries like this show that other parts of Egypt outside of the fertile Nile Valley also played important roles as trading hubs along the Mediterranean.
Although largely forgotten and ignored over the last fifteen hundred years, the coastal region of Marsa Matrouh is surprisingly now making a modern-day comeback. Two of its airports – in El Alamein to the east and in the city of Marsa Matrouh in the west – have been opened up to civilian aviation in recent years and are now receiving regular flights from Cairo and even Europe.
The area in between these two airports, long known to Egyptians as an unspoiled paradise of white sand beaches and shallow turquoise- and cobalt-blue water but largely unknown outside of Egypt, is quickly becoming a booming new upscale summer vacation destination for upper-class Egyptians as well as for clued-in travelers from the Gulf and Europe. Known simply as the North Coast, the name now evokes a lifestyle brand that offers not only beautiful beaches, but also a growing list of trendy restaurants, bars, lounges, clubs, and concert venues where the “Who’s Who” of Egyptian, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern society come to relax and indulge.
New developments along Egypt’s North Coast region include New Alamein, a modern new city that the government of Egypt has invested billions of dollars in developing as a new regional hub; Marassi, a new development adjacent to the village of Sidi Abd El-Rahman and now booming with designer restaurants and beach clubs; Hacienda Bay, being turned into a vacation home and resort area by Egyptian builder Palm Hills Developments; SouthMed, a villa-packed new community by Egyptian real estate developer Talaat Mostafa Group which recently landed Sylvester Stallone as its spokesperson; and Almaza Bay, developed by Egyptian hospitality conglomerate Travco.
And then there’s the big new player on the scene that has made international headlines and moved financial markets across the region – Ras el Hekhma. The recent 35-billion-dollar acquisition of development rights for this 164-square-kilometer triangular peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean Sea by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund literally lifted the country out of a currency crisis and stabilized its economy as soon as the deal’s payment transfer was completed.
Not only was this the largest single foreign investment in Egypt’s history, but it was also the country’s largest-ever non-agricultural land deal, five-times bigger than the second largest back in 2008 which turned a barren plot of land an hour east of downtown Cairo into a thriving, upscale, leafy-green suburb and set the standard for developing new modern cities in Egypt.
The partnership with the Emiratis on developing Ras el Hekhma will undoubtably lead to an even greater leap forward for Egypt’s development, and will likely even become a future third international hub along the Marsa Matrouh governate’s stretch of Mediterranean coast, perfectly positioned between its two existing new hubs in the regional capital to the west and in New Alamein to the east.
While this area may have been largely forgotten and ignored during the 15 centuries of conquests, globalization, and change that passed since its time as a thriving Roman settlement, one thing about it did not change – its stunning natural beauty. That feature remained, protected by a cloak of obscurity that preserved its pristine aesthetic. And now, with the smart, eco-friendly development that’s currently under way along Egypt’s North Coast, the region stands ready to be rediscovered by the rest of the world – alongside its ancient roots.
