Minya, 110 km south of Beni Suef and 245 km from Cairo on the west bank of the Nile, is among the most picturesque and charming cities in Egypt. People are warm and relaxed, and the large Christian population very much in evidence. There’s a wide green patch that runs alongside the river, and at night and on weekends locals flood the Corniche with their families to picnic and play. Though Minya and nearby Mallawi were at the centre of militant Islamist attacks in the mid-1990s, the last 10 years have seen relative peace. Happily, security efforts have relaxed slightly in the last year, although some hotels are still off-limits to foreign visitors and security guards insist on accompanying independent travellers to nearby sites. Around town, however, you are free to explore without a police escort – just write and sign a declaration that states you wish to be alone and will take responsibility for anything that might happen to you.
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