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Published: February 12th 2011
The Sphinx & Pyramid
The iconic symbols of ancient Egypt.
GizaArriving from
Israel, we crossed the land border into
Taba (north east Egypt) and ran into our first challenge. The Egyptian visa we had picked up was missing an official stamp for entry, and technically we weren’t allowed into the country via this over-land route. In these sorts of situations it’s best to remain silent and play the “tourist card”.
Believe it or not, we ended up paying the border immigration officer to “sponsor” our entry into the country for a “fee”, whereby his company would “vouch” for us so to speak. The alternative of not being allowed in didn’t sit well with us, so we went along with this interesting concept.
Furthermore; and this would have to be seen to be believed, the immigration officer (our new sponsor) also seemed to have a “taxi company” which we could hire to bring us to our hotel...and so we did!
Read into this what you like; everyone including the immigration officer seemed happy with this arrangement, i.e. the passports were stamped with the correct visa; we were led outside and whisked off to our destination. Welcome to Egypt – a place where over 85 million people call home!
Tomb Wall Art & Hieroglyphics
One of the illicit photos taken on my phone!
Giza The History bit Egypt’s history dates back to around 4,000 BC; a serious of dynasties ruled Egypt for the next several thousand years; during this time the Egyptians were the most advanced civilisation on earth, leaving us an amazing array of relics to study. They built giant statues as well as pyramids (tombs) for their dead kings (Pharaohs).
Like all great civilisations they fell into disarray and were conquered, first by Alexander the Great who founded a new capital ‘
Alexandria’; a city which remains today. The Romans subsequently followed for a period, and then the Arabs came a-calling in the 7th century, and brought with them the Arabic language and the religion of Islam, ruling for the next several hundred years.
In due course the Ottoman Turks and Europeans turned up (the French under Napoleons tutelage, and then the British who were rather keen in protecting their investment in the Suez Canal). Egyptian nationalism eventually shook off the British, and Egypt became a self-governed country in the mid 20th century.
After much fighting with Israel, it ceded the
Gaza strip, made a peace agreement as part of the
Camp David Agreement in the late 1970’s, and is
Hammock Time!
Marriott Resort, Taba one of the few Arab countries which recognises Israel.
Sadly today Egypt struggles with many problems; corruption is endemic within the society, press censorship, human rights infringement, managing a population which is exploding, rising unemployment, and a fall in tourism due to several bombings in recent years.
*** Taba ***
We spent two days in Taba in the Marriot resort, and why not I hear you say!! There, we took time out to hang out with well-to-do folk, lounge around the pool, eat in the waterfall café, and pretty much relax. I also did a couple of dives in the
Red Sea to improve my diving skills. Taba was very hot though, with the temperature soaring to 44’ – 45’ degrees on days with a strong hot desert wind.
*** Cairo ***
After two days of leisure we managed to organise a local bus to Cairo, and later that night (six hours later to be precise) we arrived in Cairo shortly before midnight, and found some accommodation in the old downtown part of the city.
Cairo is “full-on” to say the least, and it won’t be very long at all before the dust, noise, pollution, chaos,
and touts make you want to scream! Walking around the city will see you battling the smothering traffic. Just make sure you use a local as a battering ram between you and oncoming vehicles!
Cairo is Africa’s biggest city and home to tens of millions of people. Consequently driving here is chaos to say the best, and darn right dangerous to say the worst. Our hearts were in our mouths every time we travelled at speed.
Never ones to waste valuable time, the following morning we were up early and hired a driver for the day to bring us to Giza to go pyramid sightseeing. The
Pyramids of Giza are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and not to be missed.
How did they do it? Some 4,500 years ago, a bunch of slaves carried 2.3 million rocks of limestone with an average weight of 2.5 tonnes each, and assembled them into the largest structure ever built. When stuck for words to describe something so magnificent, Arabs say “
Allahu Akbar” meaning “God is great”.
We hired some horses to bring us around the site. I even managed to pay off the security guards
with a good
baksheesh (tip), so I could literally climb up one of the pyramids to get some photos – all illegal of course. Today the polished limestone covering may have crumbled away but the great pyramids of Giza flanked by its companion pyramids, remain the most extravagant tombs on planet earth.
Afterwards we took time to visit
the Sphinx (see picture above) – a rather large monolithic piece of limestone, which was left over from the building of the great pyramids. This rock is shaped with a lion’s body and a god-like face, which along with the pyramids has become an iconic image of ancient Egypt.
Later that afternoon, we headed to
Saqqara (the Step Pyramid) and the
Pyramids of Dahshur (the Bent Pyramid), where we even managed to climb inside the pyramid, and walk for several minutes to reach some of the chambers. Although there is not much to see inside, the experience is unforgettable (not for anyone who is Claustrophobic).
Whist we were in Cairo we also took some time to wander about the old city, and took in the amazing
Egyptian Museum where we saw the incredible tomb of the famous pharaoh
Tutankhamun and some real mummies from 3,000 years ago.
*** Luxor ***
The following day we headed to the train station to sort out tickets to Luxor, as we wanted to head down south to see the Valley of the Kings. Navigating independently can be challenging to say the least, and it won’t be long before you’re in the thick of things, and getting hassled by the ever persistent touts. Ramses train station is a sight to behold and trying to get a train ticket when everything is in Arabic takes some time, patience, and confidence!
An hour later and after much confusion and queuing, we had our prize – overnight train tickets to Luxor. That evening we jumped on board the seating class and settled in for the night. This sort of journey is a bit rough, and perhaps a sleeper cart might have been better.
We arrived into Luxor at 5:45am, and made our way to the hostel in the middle of the city. We shamefully knocked at the door to get the owner out of bed, who luckily woke up and let us in. He then gave us a room to catch some shut eye.
Colossi of Memnon
Two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III Luxor is a place of staggering ancient splendour; home to an extraordinary concentration of monuments. That afternoon it was off to
Karnak Temple for a few hours, (very impressive), and then onwards to
Luxor Temple where we wandered around in awe. Afterwards we were off around town via horse drawn carriage (local taxis around here) and later that evening we wined and dined on a roof top garden overlooking the
Nile River for a few hours.
With time being against us (when is it not?) we managed to get ourselves on a tour for the following morning to go to the world famous
Valley of the Kings (tombs of the Pharaohs),
Valley of the Queens as well as the funerary
temple of Hatshepsut, where in 1997 an Islamic extremist group carried out a bloody massacre of 58 tourists on a day trip to the temple.
In Pharaoh times the “valley area” around Luxor was the capital, and the pharaohs when they died were buried in these elaborate tombs. Well worth seeing.
Note that pictures are banned inside the tombs, and after getting caught sneaking a few - once again I had to dig deep & pay-off
the guards with a hefty
baksheesh to get my iPhone back…
This tour took up most of the day and by that evening we were all tombed out! Afterwards we headed to the fascinating
Mummification Museum for a quick look. Then some dinner was on the cards, before we were back on the overnight train to Cairo.
This country can be tough work, especially once you step outside the “tourist spots” so come prepared; there’s numerous scams going on here – more than you can count, so bring your common sense.
* * *
Next stop on our trip is
Kenya and we have just jumped on a 6 hour overnight flight.
As I write this blog we’re sitting on a runway in
Khartoum airport (the capital) in
Sudan on a transit stop. No chance of stopping here though.
So Nairobi here we come…
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