Geoheritage and Cultural-Religious Heritage of Samalute-Minia Area in North Egypt

Abstract

Geodiversity, geoheritage, geoconservation, and geotourism insights are meticulously interrelated. Their investigations are of comprehensive attention worldwide because of their high scientific, educational, scenic, and recreational values. Various new destinations in Egypt have been promoted for the geotourism and abundance in significance geological heritages in which Samalute-Minia Area is one of the most energetic tourist’s magnetism. The study area is an imperative geo-cultural province that has significant number of geosites and geotouristic fascinations, demonstrating broad array of distinctive phenomena. The latter are assigned to remarkable geomorphological, volcanological, hydrogeological, quarrying, historical, and cultural landscapes that are deliberated a vital part of the polythematic geopark. All of these sites allow the visitors, sightseers, and indigenous populations to enjoy different aspects of tourism such as religious, antiquities, recreational, safari, or ecological tourism as the root for providing the commitment, education, and pleasure. The goal of the present paper aims to stress the reputation of the geological heritage earmarked by Samalute-Minia Area. A quantitative assessment of geodiversity at the study area was carried out using the Brilha’s method (2016) in which the evaluation outputs are labeled for geotourism obligations. A list of eight geosites has been inventoried. Among the principal geosites are (1) geomorphology and karst landforms (GKL), (2) circular structural landforms (CSL), (3) volcanic landforms (VL), (4) riverine landforms (RL), (5) Christian Religion sites (CRS), (6) ancient Egypt monuments (AEM), (7) industrial sites (IS), and (8) hydrogeological aquifers (HA). Quantitative valuation has been revealed that the bunched geosites of GKL, VL, and RL have great scientific and educational value scores, while the geosites of CRS and AEM have high potential touristic use compared to low value for the IS. Regarding the risk evaluation, a high degradation risk is assigned to the sites of AEM, RL, and HA. Severe threats comprising pollution, rapid urbanization, intense degradation of underground water, illegal water pumping, quarrying/excavation, bumpy tourism, and lacking of environmental management are the chief causes for the degradation risk. The lasting five geosites display a moderate to low risk of degradation because there are no extreme observed denudation processes that generate degradation. The protection and geoconservation, increasing the touristic attractiveness, and the socio-economic development for the local community could be proposed in order to decrease the high degradation risk for some geosites. Lastly, the Samalute-Minia Area needs more scientific and potential geoheritage study, improvement in the security circumstances, promotion of the geosites, and strategic implementations as well as regulation constraints for continuous regional development to improve geotourism and geoconservation. The geotourism development would diminish the rate of joblessness and immigration, offer scenarios for dropping poverty through engaging the local inhabitants in tourism activities, and ensure the protection and educational stopovers to well-known geosites.