We're just back from a whirlwhind trip of Egypt. Well, actually we've been back for a few days, but I've needed some time to digest the experience and get my pictures onto Flickr. Our time there was so packed I really can't begin to describe it in detail, so I'll have to settle for some pictures and a few impressions.
I really didn't think I wanted to see Egypt all that much. I thought it might be one of those over-hyped tourist traps. But there we were in chilly Izmir with Kurban Bayram coming up, a whole week off. What to do? Stick around and freeze and veg in our apartment, or go someplace warm? Then Ron found this tour, there was space for us, so off we went. And I'm glad we did.
Here's our itinerary with some thoughts and pictures thrown in. I've included links to an excellent set of sites (www.touregypt.net) that contain all the information I wish I'd had before we set out.
Saturday, January 7
Went from Izmir to Istanbul in the afternoon, then to Cairo. Our plane left an hour late because the two baggage handlers were having trouble manhandling some huge crates into the luggage compartment (they eventually gave up and left them on the tarmac). Arrived in Cairo around 1 a.m. to be met by an efficient trouble-shooter who got us through immigration and to our hotel by 2.
Sunday, January 8
Up and out by 10 with another efficient guide who took us around the Saqqara ruins with the pyramid of Zoser, a carpet factory in a school for needy kids, and the pyramids and sphinx at Giza - all before lunch (at 3 p.m.). Whew!
I was so astonished by my first sight of the Sahara desert that I had to lean out the car window to get this shot. You're in the middle of trees and farms with nice black soil, and suddenly there's this mass of sand hanging over you. The black soil is in the region that used to be covered by the Nile during its annual inundations - before the Aswan High Dam was built. The whole rhythm of life in Egypt was set by this event. There were three seasons: planting/growing, harvest, and flood. During the flood season (which is also the coolest time) the pharaohs would take workers from the farms and use them to build things like the pyramids. The Hebrew slaves had nothing to do with the pyramids!
The pyramid of Zoser is the oldest stone structure in the world and the first pyramid. It isn't as big or as slick as the rest, but it's quite special.
The sheer mass of the Great Pyramid at Giza is overwhelming. Standing at its foot I could hardly make out the top - and the top several meters are missing! (Saladin took the outer layer of this pyramid to use in fortifying Cairo).
This picture makes good wallpaper for your computer desktop.
From the rooftop bar of our hotel in Cairo we had a stunning view of the pyramids of Giza. They would have been lovely at sunrise, too, but we somehow missed that sight!
Monday, January 9
Nominally a day off. We took a taxi to the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. I don't normally enjoy museums - too much standing makes my back and hip hurt, and my eyes glaze over after the fiftieth whatnot. But this is a must-see place. We hired a guide for the morning who took us through the highlights. After lunch we went back and got a closer look at what interested us most. That kept us busy until it got too dark to see well. The Museum is frustrating: it holds so many treasures that someone said its basement is the largest unexplored archaeological dig in Egypt. But they really aren't well displayed, and the lighting is atrocious. But there are still flashes of beauty and wonder among all the stuff, and I'm glad we saw it. I'm also glad the Egyptians have a bit of their own stuff left; so much of it was taken off to other parts of the world during the early days of Egyptology.
That night we flew to Luxor and spent a few hours sleeping on the boat.
Tuesday, January 10
Our guide dragged us out at 6:30 so we could tour three of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the area on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor (formerly Thebes) where the Middle-Kingdom pharaohs were buried. The tombs were very impressive. The sunrise was great, too.
One thing you don't see in the picture is the armed guards on the hilltops all around. The Egyptians don't take any chances with their tourists or their antiquities.
The desolation of the countryside gives me a lot of respect for the Egyptologists who explored the area 100+ years ago, not to mention the workers who dug the tombs there in the first place. There's an article I find interesting on the geography and the geology of the area here.
Then we headed back towards Luxor via an alabaster workshop and the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. She was the original tough lady who took the throne of Egypt from her stepson and ruled for about 20 years until he deposed her. It saddened me to see his attempts to erase her memory - removing her name and image everywhere it could be found. But he failed. Yay Hattie! You go, girl!
Then back across the river to Luxor and the Karnak temple.
The vast temple complex at Karnak was something like the Egyptian equivalent of the Vatican. It was the religious and political power centre of the empire for 2000 years. At one point some 80,000 people may have worked there. The "heretic pharaoh" Akhnaten, supposedly the first monotheist, tried to break the power of the hierarchy by adopting a new god (Aten, the sun disk) and moving his capital to a new city out in the desert. It didn't work. He died young (hmmm) and his young son Tutankhamen - or someone who had political influence - returned to the old system.
As a result of an unfortunate terrorist attack in 1998 on a party of tourists, all the places where tourists hang out seem to be heavily guarded. At the Luxor temple we chatted a bit with a guard, and I asked if we could take his picture. He wouldn't let us, but volunteered to take ours. I was happy about the idea, but Ron looks like he's not too sure about the photographer coming equipped with a machine gun.
Because we had joined the boat cruise a little late we had taken just one day to do Luxor instead of the two the other passengers had been given. The boat had moved on to its next stop and we needed to catch up. Tourists travel in convoys around Luxor for the same reason that there are armed guards everywhere. We got into a minibus that travelled with maybe a dozen other vehicles and a few trucks of soldiers upriver to Edfu.
Wednesday, January 11
"Another #$%^@ temple" we were beginning to think as we took a whirlwind trip around the one at Edfu. When we got back there was this remarkable creation on our bed. Instead of hanging the towels up neatly in the bathroom, our steward seemed to enjoy making animal sculptures out of them. One day we found a swan on our bed. Wednesday morning we discovered this crocodile, which incorporated my pashmina (an essential part of my wardrobe; Egypt is not as warm in January as I'd expected.)
The boat continued upriver to Kom Ombo and another temple, and then during the night to Aswan, the nicest place in Egypt in my humble opinion.
Thursday, January 12
Aswan has it all: an ancient quarry with an unfinished obelisk, the Aswan High Dam, the temple of Philae, feluccas, a Nubian village, and much more. We saw them all.
Unlike Turkey, Egypt has birds. The Nile's shores seem particularly popular. All through our trip I was enjoying cattle egrets, grey herons, kingfishers, and this. I think it's a green heron. We saw it as we returned to the mainland from the island temple of Philae.
In the afternoon we had a chance to sail in a felucca, an ancient boat of a type that could have been used by the pharaohs. There are scads of them all along the Nile. The one were in looked like the one in the picture, which is sailing past some of the dozens of tour boats like ours docked at Aswan.
After a bit of sailing we transferred into a motor launch for a voyage through the First Cataract of the Nile (we'd call it rapids in Canada) to a village of Nubians who were displaced by the flooding of their land when the Aswan High Dam was built. They've discovered a lucrative market in tourists who want to see their homes (complete with baby crocodiles) and ride their camels. The scenery on the way was stunning, like these sand dunes. The Sahara comes right up to the river.
Friday, January 13
Friday the 13th indeed. We had to leave our lovely cruise and fly back to Cairo. The plane was a couple of hours late leaving Aswan because of fog in Cairo. Then our luggage spent ages turning up on the carousel. We were met by the same efficient troubleshooter who greeted us early Sunday morning, and he eventually took matters into his own hands. He got onto the carousel and climbed into the baggage handling area behind. There he found a pile-up of stuck luggage and sorted the mess out himself. What a man!
We went back to our old familiar hotel and had a bit of lunch. But we didn't do much else because our flight to Istanbul was scheduled to leave at 3:45 the next morning. We caught a good six hours or so of sleep before having supper in our room and meeting our helpful troubleshooter again at midnight.
Saturday, January 14
Flying and sleeping. Arrived in Istanbul around 6 a.m., checked our bag through to Izmir and waited for our plane, which left around noon. About 10 a.m. I discovered I'd left my MP3 player (we were listening to an Elizabeth Peters mystery, The Curse of the Pharaoh, as we travelled) on the plane from Cairo. Not having much hope of getting it back I went to the customer service agent of Turkish Airlines. She called their lost property office - and it was there! So I had to navigate back to the international terminal and wait for the lost property person to come. Meanwhile I had a chance to observe a huge crowd of people around the international arrivals exit. It was the hajjis again, the ones who'd shared Izmir airport with us as Rachel was trying to leave. They were being greeted as heroes, with applause and television cameras and news photographers. And they looked so happy; radiant, even.
And finally we were back home again in Izmir. Tired, with a touch of the "pharaoh's revenge" (maybe from the tea we drank at the Nubian home), glad to be back, but entirely satisfied with our week's adventure.
General impressions:
A well organized tour. We were particularly impressed with the troubleshooter who got is into and out of Cairo. He really knew his way around the system.
Most Egyptians we met spoke useable English. There are also lots of people who speak French, Italian, Spanish and German. There aren't many North Americans; the Egyptians say Americans are afraid to come now. Lots of Spanish tourists, though. Egypt is where the Spanish go when their own country is overrun by the English.
Baksheesh. Everyone who does anything for you expects a handout. Every woman's washroom has its young boy or older lady who will hand you a wad of toilet paper and expect money in return. I hate it.
Great food, a little spicier than Turkish. Lentil soup to die for.
Crowds. Noise. Cigarette smoke. Just like Turkey.
We want to do it again.
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