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Egypt Travel Blogs

Background: The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C. and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty following World War II. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to ready the economy for the new millennium through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure.




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Since my quick blog in Cairo, it seems that we’ve been traveling for weeks with the amount of things I’ve seen and done, possibly one of the most exciting being meeting the truck for the first time (named Nahinda meaning power and strength in Swahili) which is to be our home, transport, storage and portable camping accessory for the next four months . It’s a bright yellow Scania lorry that’s been adapted with coach seats that run down either side and has been kitted out with lots of storage, a ‘beach’ area at the top where you can sunbathe, cool boxes [View Full Entry]

Mel Hansom - Melissa Hansom | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1139 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 26 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 23rd 2009 | 141 Views | [diary=446914]

Mel & Franco Tour Leader and Driver
First glimpse of Nahinda by the pyramids
Pyramids

On the morning of the 19th we were effectively becalmed and mired in thick smog/fog/mist. We could see dozens of ships at anchor on the outskirts of Alexandra harbour: the crew dropped the sails and started winding the way through to the unseen harbour. On this ship you often don't know what to do first even though it is small. In this case participate in Tai Chi, enjoy another huge breakfast, listen to the historical commentary about the famous library or lighthouse of Alexandria, or watch the crew deal with the pilot and ubiquitous tugs - Greg took the tugs, Catherine [View Full Entry]

GregCath - catherine Harper | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1100 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 8 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 20th 2009 | 63 Views | [diary=446750]

Alexander's desert
The Citadel
Greg in front of the pyramid of Cheops at Giza

After returning from Alexandria, we went back to Cairo to give Erin more time to recover. Although the wound seems to be healed on the outside, there is still healing to be done on the inside, and he must be careful not to get a hernia. The temperature in Cairo has cooled somewhat (30-35 instead of 35 upwards), but it is still very warm and necessitates the use of fans and air-con. We arrived back in Cairo on the first day of the Eid il Futr (festival of breaking the fast), meaning Ramadan is over. So what did we do for [View Full Entry]

kiwibyrd - Mel & Erin | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
807 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 5 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 20th 2009 | 68 Views | [diary=443708]

Sadat
Sadat
Sadat

By KateVoss
October 17th 2009
Walk Like An Egyptian Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Giza
We started our adventure late Thursday night, at the bus station. By ‘we’ I mean myself, Rachel, my suitemate from CT, and Niall, who is Canadian. We took the midnight bus from Haifa to Eilat, and there we met our first hic up. I had thought about buying tickets early but decided to just deal with it at the bus station. Well at the bus station, turned out that we had to buy tickets from the bus driver, and that most of the seats were taken. So I ended up on the floor for half the time, feeling a bit like [View Full Entry]

KateVoss - The Traveling Dancer | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
3195 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 34 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 17th 2009 | 99 Views | [diary=445702]

Turban-ized
Niall and Rach led the way
Your friendly every-day neighbor

Well, thought I'd do a little blog entry to mark the start of my 5 month adventure and before we head out to the desert tomorrow for the first of our many days spent travelling on the truck and nights camping out under the stars! The week in Cairo's been pretty amazing, lots of chances for sightseeing, relaxing and getting to know my fellow travellers. The first couple of days were spent walking around the streets and soaking up some of the bustling atmosphere in the souks, getting used to the haggling culture and madness of the streets (fearing for your [View Full Entry]

Mel Hansom - Melissa Hansom | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
476 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 15th 2009 | 138 Views | [diary=445244]

The useful pop-up map (thanks James!)
Spices at the souks
Views over Cairo from the Citadel

By davidt
October 15th 2009
Aswan Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Aswan
Day 6 and 7 - Aswan On arrival at Aswan a coach was waiting to take us to the Orchida Hotel. About the best thing you could say about this hotel is that it is near the Souk and also handy to a Duty Free store. It turns out that you’re allowed to buy duty free on the presentation of a foreign passport and a valid visa within 48hours of arrival. Prices were quite good. I selected a 1L Grants Whisky for $12US and Sean decided on a bottle of Absolute Vodka for $14US. The sales guy looked at my visa [View Full Entry]

davidt - David Tasker | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
653 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 17 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 15th 2009 | 96 Views | [diary=445260]

Aswan Souk
Lui  and Hibiscus drink
Pizza in the Souk

Day 6 and 7 - Feluccas on the Nile and Luxor Today we began two days of sailing on a fairly traditional Felucca. The hull is of steel and a canopy covers ¾ of the boat. Felucca sailing is a great way to unwind. We all had 10 or 12 bottles of Stella Beer on ice and it was with great restraint that the lads held out until 1pm before lifting the first bottle. There is not a lot to do on a Felucca and the scenery is mile after mile of low lying Nile Floodplains. At 4.30pm I gave the [View Full Entry]

davidt - David Tasker | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
635 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 12 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 15th 2009 | 110 Views | [diary=445265]

Mohamad Rowiing
Nile Feluccas
Nile Twighlight

By davidt
October 15th 2009
A night to Remember Mt Sinai Africa » Egypt » Sinai » Dahab
Day 11 - A Day to remember We were on the truck and away from Herghada by 6am. This turned out to be an exhausting day of almost 13 hours of driving to St Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt Sinai. Arriving at the car park around 8pm the designated cook group prepared a dinner and at 9.30pm we started the trek to the top of Mt Sinai arriving at 12.30am. I was not happy with the guide. He set a blistering pace and subsequently 2 of our group paid 80 Egyptian Pounds to hire a camel. Each time the [View Full Entry]

davidt - David Tasker | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
594 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 5 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 15th 2009 | 126 Views | [diary=445269]

Sunrise
Pilgrims
Sean

By MikeAndKelly
October 15th 2009
Pyramids of Giza Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo
Though I wished we could have spent a lot more time in Israel I was looking forward to seeing the Pyramids in Egypt. All six of us were off the boat before the buses left and had to walk out of the port over a bridge where the security detail - six or more trucks full of soldiers carrying machine guns) - to escort the tour buses to Cairo. Our passports were checked again as we left to meet our replacement tour guide Rasha and van driver (forget his name) and we left without any escort detail. Rasha does not drive [View Full Entry]

MikeAndKelly - Michael & Kelly Greene | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1756 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 9 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: December 1st 2009 | 60 Views | [diary=457157]

Sail boat ride on the Nile
Great Pyramid
Camel Ride

By SayLittle
October 14th 2009
Moses' Path done by Leah Africa » Egypt » Sinai » Dahab
Because Mount Sinai is a very common tourist attraction it is best to hike up the mountain during the night and sleep up there until sunrise. We began our hike up the mountain at 9:30 at night. The hike was not that bad, especially when Monica (a fellow traveler) got a camel and took my 8 pound pack off of me. The hike in total was 7km, most of which was switch backs. The only really challenging part of the hike was that it was so dark during the night because there was no lighting except the moon, stars and our [View Full Entry]

SayLittle - Leah Leslie | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
695 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 17 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 1st 2009 | 80 Views | [diary=449714]

Staying Warm
Sun Just showing
Full Sunrise