On the 4th of February, 2008, King Juan Carlos and his wife Queen Sofia embarked on a three-day visit of Egypt. The already strong Egyptian-Spanish ties were cemented by this recent visit which saw King Juan Carlos, and his wife Queen Sofia, visit some of Egypt’s most famous historic sites.

The three-day visit saw the Minister of Tourism Zuhair Garranah receive the Spanish king at the Egyptian branch of the Madrid FITUR Tourism fair. Both parties expressed their satisfaction with the success of the Egyptian tourism industry, which is shown by the increasing number of Spanish tourists choosing to visit Egypt - 171 thousand Spanish tourists in 2007 with an increase of 15.6%.

Queen Sofia highlighted a few of the reasons why Egypt is such a popular tourist destination when she visited the Djoser step pyramid located in the Saqqara necropolis. Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass was also present, and escorted the queen on her trip, also showing her around recently excavated sites and the area where a tomb was found that is believed to belong to a Middle Kingdom Pharaoh.

King Juan Carlos also honored Egypt when he opened the new Ibn Khaldoun exhibition, which celebrates the 600th anniversary of Ibn Khaldoun. Honoring the life and works of Ibn Khaldoun, the exhibition features an eclectic selection of artifacts which also celebrates the strong and distinguished history Egypt and Spain share. The opening, for which First Lady Suzanne Mubarak joined in the festivities, was attended by a number of other distinguished guests including Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, as well as the Secretary of the Arab League Amr Moussa, and a number of other Arab and foreign ambassadors.