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Published: January 4th 2008
We rolled into Cairo on the 26th of November after a wonderful 4AM flight from Nairobi (oh how I love budget travel). After getting acquainted with traffic and the lack of road rules on the drive from the airport we found our hostel and got familiar with this home of 20 million people.
The next day we went to the areas of Saqqara, Memphis, and Giza outside of the city with Hamish, our new Aussie friend we met at the hostel. Our first stop, Saqqara, is the ancient burial grounds used by the Egyptians going all the way back to the first dynasty (30 century BC). We started out visiting the step pyramid of King Djoser which is the oldest known large-scale stone building and dates back to the 27th century BC. From there he headed to the pyramid of Teti and the mastaba of his chancellor near by. The mastaba, a flat roofed burial chamber, contained 32 rooms that had some great hieroglyphics and pictograms.
Our next stop was the ancient capital city of Memphis. Memphis was the capital of the Egyptian empire off and on from as far back as 3100BC. The main features at the
site were the 11m long, red granite Colossus of Ramses II that was found near Memphis, a large sphinx monument made from alabaster, and several other stone statues found in the area.
In the late afternoon we headed up the Nile to Giza where we headed out on a 3 hour tour of the great pyramids on camels. It took a little bit to get used to riding the camels, but once we did it wasn't too bad. We were rather soar the next day though. We toured to the Great Sphinx, the pyramid of Chephren, and then headed out onto the sand dunes behind and above the pyramids for a great view over the whole pyramid complex and Cairo in the background. This is also where we were introduced to the workings of the Tourist Police. They are very helpful in, shall we say, making sure all things run smoothly (i.e. staying on the pyramid grounds after closing time). After enjoying a nice sunset on top of the dunes we headed back to our hostel.
The next day we headed over to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities with Hamish to check out the exhibits there. We hired
a guide and toured around the museum for a couple of hours learning about the history of ancient Egypt. We saw relics from all three periods covering the 30 different dynasties. The highlights of the day were the collection of King Tutankhamun's funeral goods including the famous mummy mask, a 220lbs solid gold coffin, and the collection of mummies containing the mummies of the kings and queens. After our tour we headed back to our hostel and then, later that night, got a train south to the city of Aswan.
We arrived in Aswan the next day after a long, overnight train ride. Soon after arriving we joined a tour group and headed out to the High Dam and Lake Nasser. The High Dam blocks the Nile just above Aswan and created Lake Nasser which is the largest man-made lake in the world.
From the dam we headed to the Temple of Philae which sits on an island in between the High Dam and an older dam. The temple itself was moved from the island of Philae to the island of Agilika due to the flooding of Philae Island. The temple was built for the goddess Isis and
has structures spanning from the 26th dynasty to the Roman period. There were some great hieroglyphics and pictograms on the walls of the temple complex and the island setting made this a very interesting site.
We had a very early morning the next morning when we joined our tour group at 3:30AM so that we could travel with the mandatory tourist convoy to the site of Abu Simbel. The site sits in the south part of Egypt just north of the boarder with Sudan and was built by King Ramses II to commemorate his supposed victory over the Nubians and to intimidate all Numbians traveling to Egypt. The two massive temples built to honor King Ramses II and his queen, Queen Nefertari, were completely dismantled and moved in the 1960's to save the site from the flooding of Lake Nasser. An artificial hill was created to mimic the original site and the complex was painstakingly reassembled on the shores of the lake. Looking at the colossus of the king and queen it is hard to decide which is more amazing, the creation of the temples or the project to dismantle, move, and replicate the site. Both make for a
very awe-inspiring site.
It was another three and a half hour bus ride back through the desert to Aswan where we gathered our stuff and jumped onto a felucca, the traditional wooden sailboats used on the Nile. We joined Hamish, Nathan, another guy from our trip, two Germans, and two other Americans for a leisurely ride down the Nile. We relaxed and enjoyed the view of the Nile valley while our captain, Mohammad (everybody seemed to be named Mohammad), guided us down the river. At sundown we pulled up to the shore at Mohamed's village and had dinner on the boat. After dinner Mohamed took us up to his house and shared some tea with us and told us about his village.
The next morning Brittany and I left the group who continued on the felucca for another day and got a taxi ride to the town of Kom Ombo where we toured the temples dedicated to both the falcon god Horus and the crocodile god Sobek. From there we headed north to the town of Edfu to tour the Temple of Horus. The temple is one of the better preserved temples in Egypt and has some great
statues and hieroglyphics. After leaving Edfu we headed further north to the town of Luxor where we relaxed in our hotel after a few hard days of traveling.
The next day we ventured out and around the town of Luxor in the morning before meeting up with our tour group for a trip out to the temple complex at Karnak. The complex sits just outside Luxor and is a mass of various temples, chapels, and other buildings dedicated to the worship of the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Khons. This group of gods were the most important and powerful gods in the ancient city of Thebes. Though the complex is in varying degrees of ruin the massive columns, obelisks, and statues that still stand give you an idea of what an amazing complex this used to be.
From Karnak we headed back to Luxor and the Luxor Temple. We arrived at the temple as the sun was setting which made for an amazing backdrop for viewing the temple. This temple, like Karnak, is dedicated to the Theban Triad but was build specifically for the Opet Festival which was the parading of the cult statue of Amun down
the Nile from Karnak to the temple to stay with Mut during a celebration of fertility. There were more great statues, hieroglyphics, and pictograms within the temple that we were able to check out.
The next day we headed across the Nile to the famous Theban Necropolis. Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings which contains the tombs of Theban kings. The valley was used between 1539BC and 1075BC and contains at least 63 tombs, the most famous of which is the tomb of King Tutankhamun. We visited the tombs of Ramses I, III, and IX and Brittany went into King Tut's tomb. The tombs had some great pictograms and hieroglyphics on the walls and many still had their original color. Unfortunately no pictures in the tombs so you'll have to take our word for it.
Next we headed to the mortuary temple complex of Deir-el-Bahri where we visited Djeser-Djeseru which was built for the most well know female ruler of Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut. The massive, three tiered temple is built into the surrounding rock cliff face and is considered one of the great buildings of ancient times. Though most of the statues of the temple
have been either stolen or destroyed there were still some great works to be seen.
From there we were off to the Valley of the Queens which is a little bit of a misnomer as two of the three tombs we saw were for princes. We visited the tombs of Prince Amunherkhepshef (son of Ramses III), Queen Tyti, and Khaemwaset (son of Ramses III). The painted reliefs in the tombs all had an amazing amount of color even after all of these years and depicted scenes such as the journey to the afterlife. On our way back to Luxor we stopped at our last sight which was the Colossus of Memnon.
The evening we visited the Luxor Museum which had an excellent exhibit of statues found in 1989 under part of Luxor Temple. The statues that were discovered were some of the best preserved that we saw and really gave you an idea of the craftsmanship that the Egyptians exhibited so early on. We also saw the few mummies housed at the museum and some of the funeral goods from Tutankhamun's tomb. After visiting the museum we headed to the train station for the long ride back up
to Cairo on another night train.
Once back in Cairo we headed back out to the pyramids to get a closer look at some of the sites there. We stopped by the Great Sphinx again to see it in detail and then I toured the interior of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. I was only able to go to the King's Chamber inside the pyramid but it was amazing to walk up the steep tunnel while looking up at the 5 ton granite blocks above your head. It really brings home what an immense project it was to build these things.
We also toured the Solar Boat Museum on the side of Cheops Pyramid. The boat housed inside the museum was found in a pit on the side of the pyramid and is believed to have been used either as a Solar Barge to carry the resurrected king with the sun god Ra across the heavens or the actual funeral boat that carried the mummified body of Cheops from Memphis to the pyramid. The boat was found in the 1950's and reconstructed using as much of the original cedar wood as possible. At 43m long it is quite
an impressive site.
Our last day in Cairo we headed out on a guided tour of the city itself. Our first stop was the Saladin Citadel which sits on large hill above the city. There we toured the Mosque of Mohammed Ali which was built in the mid 1800's and the old palace that sits next door. The mosque was an amazing building that was as impressive inside as it was outside. The view overlooking the city from here was rather amazing also.
Our next stop was the area called Coptic Cairo where we visited some of the Christian sites of the city. We stopped first at the ruins of the Roman fortress and then walked to the Hanging Church. The church is so-named because it sits suspended above a gatehouse of the Roman fortress. We then walked the narrow alleyways to the churches of St. George, St. Barbara, and St. Sergius which sits above a cave that the Holy Family is believed to have stayed in while in Cairo. We finished out the trip in this area at the Temple of Benezra which is one of only a few Jewish temples in the city.
The last
stop of the day was the Khan-el-Khalili Bizarre. Here we walked around the narrow streets of the bizarre checking out the rug shops, silver goods, and cloths and seeing how the locals shop for their daily goods. We stopped into one of the local restaurants for some good local food with our guide. It was a good way to end our time in Egypt.
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Kimmy
non-member comment
Queen Hatshepsut's got a better patch!
Rich, it appears from your picture of the statue of Queen Hatshepsut, that she has fuller chin whiskers than you! Is "Queen" a reference to a lifestyle-preference? Looking good on that camel, Brittany!