Ras El Bar is a little island in Damietta overlooks the Nile on one side and the Mediterranean on another. The morale of visiting this isle is to never ‘judge a book from its cover’.
Yes there is more to that little island in Damietta. It can seem ordinary at the beginning, but it has so much to offer, with its guaranteed visual miracle with a perfect climate.
Ras El Bar translates to “head of land” in the Arabic language. Today’s resort is located at the Mediterranean Sea, exactly at the mouth of Damietta River in northeast Egypt. The permanent residents’ number amounts approximately to 25,000 permanent residents in the city. However, this number always witness an increase during the summer peak holiday season, that is from July to September, when the population literally expands to over 250,000.
Other stories tell that Ras El Bar was named by some sailors who felt that this place stands as the shelter where they are secure from the sea’s dangers. So if “Ras” is the start and “El Bar” is the land so it is the start of land and the shelter of any sailor.
Speaking of the miraculous experience you will only find in Ras El Bar, get ready to dazzle you eyes with the scenic view of “Lessan” located in the extreme northern part of this peninsula, which literally means this no blending point where the Damietta Nile arm flows in the Mediterranean Sea. This place was mentioned in the Quran for three times only to stress out the mighty power of god that made both river and sea meet with a separator that can never be seen and stops them from blending.
For a moment tourists may think this resort as a natural reserve when they see a range of underwater creatures such as the friendly dolphins visiting Ras El Bar shores. The gorgeous isle beauty does not stop here; if you are much of a birder you can visit El Manzala Lake where you can spot many kinds of wild birds during summer season. Ras El Bar is also a transit point for many migrating birds during the fall season, especially the flocks that come from Europe in her journey to South Africa.
Ras El Bar is not only an ordinary resort, it is one of the historic spots that witnessed so much great battles, but it finally became a resort in the 19th century. The beautiful city’s name has experienced a change several times with every historic era. Pharos called it the great green sea, then with the advent of the Romans the city was called “The Romans Sea” on 30 AD, and the spot where sea could meet a river was called (Be Tamosh) and it meant the meeting point between a sea and a river.
Ras El Bar is also reputable for its healing power, and seen as one of the healthiest resorts. According to Damietta governorate’s official website in 1883, the famed German physician Robert Koch was invited to Egypt by the Egyptian government to study the effects of cholera where he wrote in his report that Ras El Bar might become one of the most famous resorts in the world one day because of its dry climate and fresh clean air that has a high level of iodine and the lack of noise.
Now Ras El Bar is attracting more and more tourists every year because of the renovations and adjustments done by the government, which the breathtaking pictures reveal.
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