|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
 |
Egypt... by Lesli Heron  Pyramids, pharaohs, King Tut, the Sphynx, all these images I grew up with and every day of my 2 week trip in Egypt had me constantly in a state of excited anticipation. How would the sites be? Would they live up to my expectations? Are the pyramids as grand as they seem on TV? Are the carved statues at Abu Simbel as massive as they seem in pictures? The answer is yes to all of the above. From the moment I arrived in Cairo I was just thrilled to be in Egypt. Cairo is a bustling city of 20 million plus people and approximately 3 million taxis. Cars, six abreast, squeeze along on 2 lane roads! The initial challenge was learning how to cross the street. I soon learned to look out for any locals crossing and attach myself to them and this worked really well. I was in Egypt for the last week of Ramadan so got to experience both Ramadan and the festivities that followed. The positive aspect of visiting at that time was learning all about it on a day to day basis and, nobody was smoking. The downside was that a lot of sites visited were open shorter hours but the number of tourists was the same. When Ramadan ended the streets were filled with women and children out celebrating which was great fun as our day-to-day exchanges were most typically with men. I had just 3 days in Cairo but it deserves many more. One could spend days walking the maze of streets in the Khan al Kalili bazaar and days exploring all the exhibits in the Egyptian Museum. Other sights worth seeing are Coptic Cairo, the Christian area, and the Citadel, with fantastic views of the city and hopefully a glimpse of the pyramids. The pyramids were amazing and took my breath away. Each one made with over 20 million slabs. You marvel at how they managed to build them and still there are no real answers to that question. The Great Pyramid (of Cheops) is open for you to go inside, as long as you do not suffer from claustrophobia or mind walking bent over uphill for quite a ways! From Cairo we took an overnight sleeper train to Aswan. It was heaven waking up with the sun reflecting off the desert dunes and peering out the window to see the Nile right beside us as we followed it south. Aswan is an interesting town but very hectic. It is supposed to be famous for it's spice market but I have seen far better ones in Turkey and Morocco. An afternoon sail in a felucca is a great way to while away the afternoon before heading off to The Old Cataracts Hotel, of Agatha Christie fame, for a cocktail. And if you can, ask them for a peak at the suite named after her. Also well worth a visit is the Nubian Museum, excellent displays and the interpretation is far superior to the Cairo Museum. Since the shooting in the Valley of the Kings in 1997 security is tight everywhere including police escorted convoys to various parts of the country. Which is why we were up at 3:00am for our 4:00am coach convoy down to Abu Simbel. But what a sight once there, as long as you can ignore the masses of tourists. Ramses II had the temples built to honor himself and his wife Nefertari. These temples were threatened by the damning of Lake Nassar. Various world organizations got together and funded the project, moving the temples to higher ground. There is a fascinating display of photographs of the work that took place over 14 years to accomplish this move. From Aswan we boarded our lovely little cruise boat Melody and started to make our way up the Nile. The Nile is really fascinating as about 90% of Egypt's population lives on the Nile and the green belt spreads a couple of kilometers away from the river on both sides and then it abrubtly stops and becomes desert as far as the eye can see. So lots of life to see as we cruised by. We made several stops along the way visiting the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu before arriving in Luxor and disembarking. Luxor is a great little city. I had a good feeling about it right away. Not sure if it was because of the grand colonnades of the Luxor Temple illuminated as the sun was starting to set as we pulled into town or it's proximity to the Valley of the Kings, the fact that local transportation was by horse drawn carriages, or the fact that we had access to MacDonald ice cream sundaes! By far the best sights are Karnak Temple and the Valley of the Kings. Adel was our fantastic Egyptologist guide who accompanied us to both Karnak and the Valley of the Kings and his wealth of information and passion for Egypt's history were very engaging! Karnak Temple is over 2000 years old and must have at least 100 columns and fantastic reliefs with the colours still as vibrant as they were all those years ago. There are various sound and light shows in Egypt including one here at Karnak. It was worthwhile, if a bit long. I have always wanted to go hot air ballooning and thought I would give it a go over the Valley of the Kings. This was truly one of the highlights of my trip! I thought it would be a bit of a jerky lift off but we seemed to just float into the air. One of our first sights was Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, what a gorgeous setting at the foot of a limestone cliff-face. The view from up there gave a great perspective of the division between life along side the Nile and the desert. Instead of taking normal transportation into The Valley of the Kings, such as a bus, we rode donkeys, that's right, for 7 miles, seemed like 50! But we were a great spectacle for the Japanese tourists as we trotted in! We may even have attracted more attention than King Tut's tomb! There were many tombs open to view. The walls of the tombs are covered in unbelievably well preserved paintings of gods and goddesses, and complex hieroglyphics depicting their life and afterlife. Most of the burial chambers were looted except King Tutankhamun, hence the fantastic displays at the Cairo Museum. But you will still find King Tut's body in his tomb. You pay extra to enter King Tut's tomb if you are so inclined. From the valley we hiked up and over to Deir el Medina, which is the workers village. On the way you end up over top of Queen Hatshepsut Temple and get another fantastic view. In Deir el Medina you can still see the remains of the tomb builders homes and their own tombs that are almost more beautifully preserved than the kings tombs. We then climbed back onboard our donkeys to make our way back to the Nile. On our way back we trotted through a little village, and the kids were just getting out of school. They must of thought we were a silly sight, but they were high- fiving us nonetheless! We had a fantastic last dinner in Luxor and some last minute shopping. Silver and gold are pretty good purchases in Luxor. We were up very early the next morning for our convoy to Hurghada and the Red Sea. The winter winds had picked up so it was far cooler on the coast than I had expected. What to say about Hurghada, not much really. It is a seaside resort in either constant disrepair or expansion, hard to know which. What was wonderful was our day out at sea, snorkeling. The underwater life was fantastic and the sea was that gorgeous blue that just invites you in. Once back in Cairo, I did some more last minute shopping and eating before saying goodbye to a great group of people I had spent the past 2 weeks with and reflecting on the fact that I had indeed seen the Great Pyramids, Abu Simbel , hot air ballooned over the Valley of the Kings and cruised down the Nile! Not bad! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
» Other Journal Entries |
||