Burullus is not just for fishing ... Tourism is knocking at the doors of a forgotten Egyptian lake

Like thousands of young Egyptians, Ahmed Ali, 30, graduated from the College of Engineering but could not find a job. He traveled for many years, and Burullus remained, the lake that many Egyptians know only about as one of the salt lakes in Egypt, as geography books mention.

Burullus is famous for hunting, this is also a second piece of information studied in social studies curricula, but this was never enough for Ahmed, who was explaining the history of Burullus, its historical shrines, its famous food and the life of its fishermen that need to be documented, for everyone who knows him in his exile and before it as well.

Ahmed returned from Saudi Arabia, and he decided to start his own project, in addition to his work as an engineer, he decided to put his small city in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate on the Egyptian tourism map, because the city that has a hidden beauty, which no one knows, is the time to appear to the eyes of tourists from inside and outside Egypt .

Ahmed told Al-Jazeera Net, "Burullus is no different from the city of Dahab, in terms of tourist attractions and landscapes, the uniqueness of its population structure, and the proximity of the conditions of the fishermen to the conditions of the Sinai Bedouins, which gives a special charm to the place."

Ahmed studied the conditions of his greater governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh, which has passed through history, but only geography mentioned it.

On his annual vacations, he documented the conditions of fishermen, their daily lives, and their trips at dawn every day to fish, and he also went to document the governorate's shrines, which everyone is ignorant of.

In the city of Sakha, there are a number of Coptic monuments, the most important of which is the Church of the Virgin, which contains the relics of the foot of Christ - peace be upon him - as well as the “Sidi Ibrahim El Desouki” mosque, in the nearby city of Desouq, the owner of the famous shrine whose birth is held annually and attended by thousands of devotees.

Ahmed also documented the city of "Bhutto", which is now known as Tell Al-Faraeen, which was the capital of Lower Egypt during the era of the Pharaohs, in addition to the city of "Fuwa", which is famous for its Islamic antiquities and its wide fame in the manufacture of kilims (from carpets) and Jubalan (from fabrics).

Documenting the history of Kafr El Sheikh, was the beginning that introduced Ahmed to the other side of Burullus, the city in which he lived and his soul was passionate about, so whenever he left it at night, he returned to it during the day.

26 small islands, tram in the waters of the mother island, containing the traces of the ancients, and the scents of the dead on it by sea and land, so its light and goodness were its effects since the era of Saladin and the Crusades, from here the idea came to the engineer Ahmed and with his friend Abdul Rahman Jalal, a graduate of the Faculty of Science, and together they started their project To promote Al-Burullus, under the title "Camp Al-Burullus."

Abdul Rahman is interested in the marine nature of the island and its marine life, while Ahmed is the owner of the photographic documentation project for Kafr El Sheikh Governorate and then Burullus, and from here they met together to transform Burullus into a semi-private reserve that receives tourists and those interested in exploration and free photography in the natural environment.

The idea was among an initiative to improve the conditions of fishermen and provide job opportunities for their children. After the absence of suitable opportunities for the city’s workers, “we sought to find an alternative to seed hunting, which was used by small-scale fishermen, which is hunting that is legally criminal in Egypt, and its perpetrators are arrested.”

Ahmed says, who adds that the initiative caught the attention of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, and attracted the attention of the people because of the trips that flocked to the city, then they got used to it and started celebrating the guests and developing their capabilities to suit their new source of livelihood.

As for the next stage of Ahmed's plan, he says that he dreams of establishing an entire camp on the banks of the lake, so that its visitors can follow the migratory birds.