Egypt December 2014

We went to Egypt at the end of December for 5 days.  The weather was cool (they said 10-20C), which felt quite chilly for us.  The first thing we did when we arrived in Cairo was go to the Egyptian Museum which is on Tahrir Square.  It felt like it was still 1920 and the collection was amazing - Tutanhkaman's tomb treasures and all the statues you read about. (we could not take photos inside).



Then, we drove out to Giza.  Suddenly, out of the suburban sprawl, the pyramids rose up.  It was surprising. 

 

 

We went inside the Great Pyramid.  This is Henry afterwards.  I felt a little claustrophobic but it was worth going up the tunnel to the tomb chamber.

This is the view from the hotel.  We just sat out there and drank tea and looked at it all.  The pyramids were built around 2500BC, so it is hard to take in the age of it all.  We enjoyed the sound and light show each night.

 

 

 

 

 We had kushari, one of the national dishes of Egypt - pasta, rice and lentils with a tomato sauce, and also a lemon salad dressing on top.  It was very good.  The hotel just brought in food from nearby restaurants.

 

 

 

Even a restaurant had a pyramid view.

 

 

 The next day, we went in to Cairo itself and saw the bazaar:

 

We sat at a café called Fishawi's that apparently has been open 24 hours a day for the last 200 years.  We had sandwiches (falafel and eggplant) and lots more tea.  Our guides were very good - they told us a lot of history and took us to places we really wanted to see.  It was a tiring trip, but we were glad to see so much.

 

We saw old Cairene houses and mosques and old madrassas (Islamic schools) in the old part of the city.

 

 This was my favorite mosque - of Tulun built around 870AD.

The next day, we flew one hour south to Luxor to see the New Kingdom tombs and temples (mostly made around 1500BC).  We went to Hatshepsut's temple first:

 

 

 

Then, we went to another temple, of Habu.  We had no choice but to try to remember all the ancient gods - Isis, Osiris, Hathor, Horus, Ra, Amun.  And the pharohs - Ankenatan, Ramses, Khufu, etc.  Well, I tried.  To be honest, it was pretty hard to keep it all straight. 

 

Then, there were the historical periods - first Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, then the Greeks, Persians and Romans, Cleopatra and the Ptolemies, the coming of Christianity with St Mark in 68AD, then Islam in 641AD, then the Mamluks, the Ottomans, the French, the monarchy of Mohammed Ali, King Farouk, Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak, the 2010 Revolution and Sisi and the military now.  Believe me, I had to write it down.  I don't think I've got a very good grasp of it, but oh well.

 

 

 

Grace likes photographing small items.

 

We climbed down into tombs in the Valley of the Nobles (but could not take photos inside).  The tombs were beautifully painted very brightly with gods and the dead doing things.

 

Then, we saw the workers' tombs (the workers who dug the Valley of the Kings).

 

 

 

At our hotel, we had a view of the Nile.

 

On our fourth and final day, we were driven out to two temples in the desert - Dendara and Abydos.
We got to see some of the countryside.

 

It's very fertile there for several kilometers on each side of the Nile, and then there is the desert.

 

Dendera, temple of the god Hathor.

 

We got to climb down lots of stairs into amazing underground areas.

 

 

Abydos, temple of the god Osiris (god the dead).

 

That evening, we saw Luxor Temple by night.  It was really impressive.

 

There is now only one obelisk at Luxor because the other one is in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

 

 

It felt very safe and there were really not a lot of tourists.  We are told it is getting better, but still no where near the numbers of tourists they used to have before 2010.  Tourists have been coming to Luxor since the 17th century and before - you can see graffiti from Greek times and Roman times and the 1800s.  There was more to see, but we really pushed things as it was.  We did not go down to Aswan or Abu Simbel, or go on the Nile for more than a short ride.  It was a great trip though - very enlightening for me, as I did not know much about Egypt.