Land of the Pharaohs

---

---

I have been dreaming of this visit since I was 10.

As many Europeans I grew up studying Ancient Egypt at my history class and I became interested in Egyptian mythology.

As it was my first trip to Egypt I contacted a travel agency although now that I have been there I would not recommend it.

The first day we stayed in Cairo but we did not visit anything since the next day we had to fly to Aswan. There, we stayed on a cruise with which we would later go to Luxor. On our cruise we met very nice Spaniards with whom we shared the entire tour.

In Aswan we spent a day and a half in which we visited the Philae temple and went to Abu Simbel on a roundtrip. The Philae temple was the first place where we could see the damage the monuments had suffered at the hands of Coptic non-believers since many of the representations of the gods were chopped as well as the statues. The temple also contained in one of its interior corners a small Coptic altar carved in the same stone. The guide explained to us that the temple was dedicated to the goddess Isis and that said goddess was assimilated to the image of the Virgin Mary when the temple was occupied by the Copts and that is why the relief of the Goddess is one of the only carved haut-relief whose face is still intact. We had the opportunity to get on a Felucca, which is the traditional Egyptian boat and whose use has apparently been inherited by the descendants of the Nubians for transporting merchandise and touristic activities. We got up at 2 to see the sunrise at Abu Simbel. Upper Egypt is really hot, and at 6 in the morning it was already 26 degrees. At the doors of the two temples of Abu Simbel, there were some Egyptian gentlemen who were waiting to be able to earn some coins by taking photos of the tourists, but I preferred to take photos of them. The interior was well preserved and mostly contained bas-reliefs of Ramses II fighting enemies and of different goddesses (like Hator faces on pillars) in the temple of his wife Nefertari.

The next day our cruise departed and we began to tour the Nile River towards the Upper Egypt passing near the temple of Sobek and Horus (better known as the temple of Kom Ombo) and the temple of Horus in the city of Edfu. I really wanted to visit the Temple of Kom Ombo because one of my favorite gods is Sobek but when I got there I felt quite disappointed because the place was very poorly preserved, there was even dog piss on the sides of the stones with hieroglyphs. Furthermore, the cruises had arrived at the same time and the temple was crowded as hell so it could not be visited normally. The museum had nothing special apart from the crocodile mummies that, when the animals where alive, lived at the temple and where revered by the priests. The Edfu temple is dedicated to the god Horus and in fact it is one of the temples that seemed best preserved because it was found quite late and totally buried under the sand. At the entrance it has two statues of falcons and inside a large courtyard with columns. Its corridors also showed signs of degradation since the bas-reliefs were chopped as in other temples.

The cruise ships arrive, unload people and then leave again in a black smoke that is visible throughout the entire route that is made along the Nile, which is why I do not recommend anyone to take a cruise unless it is a sailboat. Also, this type of tourism does not benefit the people who live in those cities at all since the schedules are so tight that tourists do not have time to consume or walk around some of the cities where they make a stop. The inhabitants get nervous and even aggressive when they try to sell their merchandise or exchange foreign coins for bills as quickly as possible to the tourists who are going to stay for barely an hour at the temple before they get back to their cruise.

We also had a similar experience when we visited the temple of Edfu as we went by chariot. Our guide warned us that in Egypt it is typical for coachmen to beat their horses to make them go faster and that this is traditional, but it was evident that many of the people who came to visit Egypt were shocked by this. What surprised me the most was the overall poverty of that city that seemed only to take advantage of the tourists' presence when they made their way in a carriage between the boat and the temple. The coachmen fought among themselves to know who was going take them tourists and how much they were going to pay them and also insisted that they be highly tipped almost aggressively. On the cruise there was a boy who was a photographer and he was actually from Edfu. He told me that the city had a very bad reputation and that it was indeed a very poor city. The boy was very nice and solar. I hope that one day the local travel agencies understand that it is important for their own people to be able to let tourists stay long enough in places like Edfu so as to contribute to their economic development.

On our way to Luxor there were little boats that got tied to our cruise to try to sell souvenirs and they would scream at the top of their lungs for more than an hour if they saw tourists on the boat. Buying tourists threw money at them from the boats and some bills even ended up falling into the water to the misfortune of both.

When we arrived in Luxor it was already night and one of the guides took us to see the city at night near the Souk (market) where we had a few drinks at the Horus café. The Souk was in the city center and there was an esplanade in front of a mosque in which many families with children had gathered as they were preparing Ramadan. Our guide also took the opportunity to take us to Aboudi bookstore where I bought a couple of books about the gods of ancient Egypt and about the Egyptian alphabet.

The next day in the morning we went to the Valley of the Kings where we visited some tombs, some better preserved than others. In front of each tomb there was a man ready to take your photos in exchange for a few coins. Our guide told us that it was not worth visiting the tomb of Tutankhamun since the value of it were the objects that had been transferred to the Cairo Museum. We visited the tombs of Ramses I, of Seti I as well as that of Tausert and Setnakht.

Our visit continued at the temple of Karnak which is undoubtedly one of the most impressive in all of Egypt with its majestic courtyard of restored columns and the temple of Luxor, with its alley of sphinxes that linked said temple with that of Karnak. The Luxor temple had the peculiarity of being adjacent to the mosque near the esplanade in the center of the city.

We said goodbye to Luxor and parted towards Hurghada to initiate the most chill part of our trip. We had very good weather and we took the opportunity to visit the marina, El Mina mosque, went to a Safari at the desert to visit a nomadic tribe and snorkel near Orange Bay, a very beautiful beach on which a wooden beach complex with lounge pugs and bars has been built for tourists. Could be the place to host a Red Moon party ?

After relaxing for a few days in Hurghada we flew back to Cairo where we visited the last monuments of our tour, that is, the pyramids of Giza, the Great Sphinx, Memphis, Saqqara and finally Cairo at night. The Giza pyramids were impressive but I do not recommend going inside at all since there is nothing and it is also very claustrophobic especially when it is hot. One piece of advice, don't even think about taking pictures of camels because their owners could charge you since these rights are reserved for those who pay them to ride a camel and have a walk. You have been warned. Everything in Egypt that a tourist does means money. Even if they fix your turban apparently in an act of kindness, they will ask for a tip later (happened to me).

What I liked the most was Memphis and Saqqara since it is a bit far from the tumultuous city of Cairo and that is where the oldest monuments of ancient Egypt are located. We visited the Saqqara necropolis as well as the Djoser pyramid. I was impressed to be able to find paintings in good condition that were more than 5,000 years old in which the activities of that time were represented, such as agriculture, men, women and animals. In Memphis we visited the museum where they had the great statue of Ramses II and went to eat at a popular restaurant among the locals where they served barbecued meats.

Back in Cairo by night we went for a walk through the center passing in front of the mosques, and entering Khan el Khalili market where we bought souvenirs at the well known Jordi Bazaar and had tea in the famous Cafe of Mirrors.

We also visited the Citadel of Saladin and Mohamed Ali mosque. And as no one can leave Cairo without having been to the museum where all the treasures of Tutankhamen's tomb are, we spent the whole day at the museum where you can find many objects that show the life of the Egyptians in that ancient time, from sandals to toys, boardgames, architect clay models of temples, agriculture objects, merchant seals, etc. The bad part is that the museum has not been renovated and most of what is on display is still in the condition in which probably the British and French left it (thin glass and wood bonded protections, sarcophagi under the heat of the sun hitting through windows, too short explanations about objects written by foreigners on a typewriter in the early 19 century, etc.). The government is finishing building a bigger museum close to Giza in order to house all those museum pieces in good conditions but according to locals they have been saying for years that it is going to open...

Last but not least, a short day trip to Alexandria where we visited the catacombs of Kom el Shogafa, the citadel of Qaitbay and the mosque of Abu al Abbas al Mursi. It was especially interesting to visit the catacombs since there we could observe the transition between the world of ancient Egypt and the Roman world, observing the high reliefs of the main tomb (an Anubis-wolf dressed as a Roman).

There are many things that I have not been able to see and people that I haven't been able to meet in this country and surely much more interesting than those that are found during the touristic route, which is why I will return at some point in my life.

I am left with a bittersweet taste of my visit to Egypt since I was very surprised by the way a part of the country's history was treated, a past which is clearly not representative of the Arab culture but it is part of the history of the Egyptian people and they should be proud and able to protect their heritage not only for money but also for everything it represents in terms of art, science and evolution. I also understand that most Egyptians feel disconnected from this part of their history since it seems that it is exclusively for tourists, and maybe the Egyptian government also wants it that way. It is sad to see how tourism generates a large part of the money that nourishes the Egyptian economy and yet the majority of the population does not enjoy this contribution from tourists. Maybe one day things will change for the Egyptians about the way they see ancient Egypt history. They may be one day when they want to protect ancient Egypt heritage as their own heritage from the passage of time and overexploitation in order to continue teaching future generations with proudness as they are the descendants of one of the most emblematic people of all humanity. I hope that by then all Egyptian heritage has not been destroyed by tourist mistreatment and cultural indifference.

---