Georgia to Egypt: 202ms via Mombasa and Mauritius
Based on real RIPE Atlas measurements from GeoCables monitoring infrastructure, March 2026
Egypt is Georgia's neighbor by regional standards — both border the Eastern Mediterranean, connected by the Black Sea, Turkey, and a short overland distance. A direct route should take no more than 30–40ms. Instead, our traceroute shows traffic going west to Marseille, then south on the
SEACOM cable to Mombasa, Kenya, then to Nairobi, then to
Mauritius — an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, 2,800km east of mainland Africa — before finally reaching Egypt at 202ms.
The packet travels approximately 18,000km to reach a destination roughly 1,500km away.
The Traceroute
| Hop | Location | Network | RTT |
|---|
| 1–6 | Tbilisi, GE | JSC Global Erty (AS34666) | 26ms |
| 7 | Sofia, BG | Level 3 (AS3356) | 25ms |
| 8–9 | Marseille, FR | Level 3 (AS3356) | 55–68ms |
| 10 | Marseille, FR | SEACOM (AS37100) | 171ms |
| 11–12 | Mombasa, KE | SEACOM (AS37100) | 171ms |
| 13 | Nairobi, KE | SEACOM (AS37100) | 201ms |
| 14–15 | Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, MU | EMTEL (AS30999) | 202ms |
| 16–19 | (timeouts) | — | — |
| 20 | Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, MU | EMTEL (AS30999) | 202ms |
The destination is not Egypt at all — it's
Mauritius. The traceroute target reached a server in Beau Bassin-Rose Hill, Mauritius. This is a routing database artifact: the measurement target was geolocated to Egypt, but the actual IP resolves to a Mauritian ISP.
The SEACOM Cable: East Africa's Internet Lifeline
The most fascinating element of this traceroute is
SEACOM (AS37100) appearing at hop 10. SEACOM is a 17,000km submarine cable connecting:
South Africa (Mtunzini) → Mozambique (Maputo) → Tanzania (Dar es Salaam) → Kenya (Mombasa) → Djibouti → India (Mumbai) → France (Marseille)
SEACOM was transformational for East Africa when it launched in 2009 — the first privately owned submarine cable serving the region, breaking the monopoly of the much older and more expensive
TEAMS and
EASSy cables. It reduced international bandwidth prices in East Africa by up to 90% in its first years of operation.
Marseille: Africa's Internet Gateway
The Marseille handoff at hop 10 — from Level 3 to SEACOM — reveals something important about how African internet traffic is organized.
Marseille is the primary landing point for cables connecting Europe to Africa and the Middle East:
- SEACOM lands in Marseille
- SEA-ME-WE 4 and 5 land in Marseille
- AAE-1 lands in Marseille
- 2Africa lands in Marseille
The city has become the de facto internet exchange for Africa-Europe traffic, much as Miami serves Latin America. Data from Georgia enters the SEACOM network in Marseille and rides the cable south — past the Strait of Gibraltar, down the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up the east coast to Mombasa.
What an Optimal Georgia→Egypt Route Would Look Like
The direct path exists physically: Georgia has terrestrial fiber connections through Turkey, and Turkey connects directly to Egypt via the
AAE-1 cable landing at Alexandria and Port Said. Theoretical RTT:
25–35ms.
That's 6× faster than the current 202ms. The reason it doesn't happen: Georgia's carriers (JSC Global Erty) have better peering agreements with Level 3 in Sofia than with Turkish or Middle Eastern carriers, so traffic defaults to the European backbone.
Monitoring Status
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Current RTT: 202ms |
Actual destination: Mauritius (EMTEL AS30999)
-
Path: Tbilisi → Sofia → Marseille → Mombasa → Nairobi → Mauritius
-
Key cable: SEACOM (Marseille → East Africa submarine cable)
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Geographic irony: 18,000km traveled to reach a destination 1,500km away