Al-Quṣayr

Qoseir linked Upper Egypt's Nile country with the Red Sea and the pilgrimage routes to Arabia. The older harbour at Quseir al-Qadim, revived under the Ayyubids, was deserted by the fifteenth century. In 1571 the Ottomans established a new harbour and fort about eight kilometres farther south, at the site of the later town. Its garrison guarded a meeting point of desert transport, maritime trade and pilgrimage.

Local Bedouin resistance eventually weakened the fort's use. In 1799 French troops seized it and rebuilt its defences, resisting three days of bombardment by the British navy. Their withdrawal from Egypt in 1801 left the position abandoned once more. Muhammad Ali's sons revived it in 1816 for campaigns against the Wahhabis. Objects recovered from the fort, including Ottoman tobacco pipes, Yemeni coffee cups and East Asian blue-and-white porcelain, also reveal the varied material world passing through this Red Sea port.