# A journey down Egypt’s Red Sea coast to find Sufi saints and a mystical lyre

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/a-journey-down-egypts-red-sea-coast-to-find-sufi-saints-and-a-mystical-lyre/
- Published: 2026-11-11T11:26:26+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T12:39:48+00:00
- Original publisher: Middle East Eye (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/journey-down-egypts-red-sea-coast-revealed-sufi-saints-and-mystical-lyre
- Topics: World

## Key points

- El-Quseir hosts a gathering celebrating Red Sea music.
- The simsimiyya connects the town’s present with its seafaring past.
- Local organisers are recording and preserving traditional songs.

## Summary

A journey along Egypt’s Red Sea coast explores the simsimiyya, a five- or six-stringed lyre linked to the region’s seafaring heritage. In El-Quseir, a community gathering shows how music and local history remain intertwined, while efforts to preserve the songs help maintain a cultural connection shared across the Red Sea.

The article describes a Hazz night hosted by Bahar, a local organisation working to protect El-Quseir’s heritage and marine environment, in the town’s former mayoral house, built in 1888. Founder Aly El-Sayed says sailors on long voyages reserved space on their dhows for simsimiyya players; the author also recalls explorer Alan Villiers’s account of crews singing and dancing aboard ship. The journey began with a debate in Cairo over whether Egypt is more Mediterranean or Red Sea, settled at the table by the instrument’s cultural ties across the region.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.