Blogs from Africa - page 3358

Karnak is a place that is hard to describe. Huge. Grand. Visually astounding. Its a massive complex (over 100 acres all up, but you only look at a part of it) which you enter down a short avenue of sphinxes with rams heads and 'holding' statues of Ramses II - remember that avenue of sphinxes from Luxor temple? This is the other end. The further you go in the "main" part, the bigger things get, more and more grand. The columns in the hypostyle hall are awesome, huge round decorated pillars, all the walls have a different story to tell, of battles fought and always won. Even our photos, and we took a lot! wont do the place justice. The main part of the complex is the Precinct of Amun (almost 62 acres!) The most impressive ... read more

There is so much to see and do around Luxor, and we took so many photos, that we are going to try and write a separate entry for each place ie Luxor Temple, Karnak, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens... So here goes, our first day in Luxor... The train ride down wasnt anything special. When we got the tickets we asked for two seats next to each other, but the tickets came back with two seat numbers no where near each other. We questioned this and we assured that they were right next to each other, several times as we did keep asking! So what happened when we got on the train, yup, we were at either end of the carriage. At least we were in the same carriage. Luckily we managed to ... read more

Egypt is an Islamic country, something which is sometimes difficult to reconcile with the Western understanding of this ancient land of heiroglyphics, Phaorahs, and pyramids... It's also a very Christian country, with a historical connection to the Judeo-Christian tradition and a strong Coptic community. Copts are Orthodox Christians not dissimilar to Russian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox Churches... We quickly discovered the Egyptians to be a gregarious and friendly people, who absolutely adore children and were bemused by the fact we'd left our four at home on this trip... Cairo is a city to experience just in walking around the streets, interacting with the everyday Cairenes who live there. Full of contradictions you see BMW's next to donket carts, policemen with kalishikovs and military uniform next to boy on bicycles with massive baskets of bread on their ... read more

What can i say about egypt. Absolutely awesome... I loved Luxor. Again the culture of the place has alot to do with why i loved it so much. The way in which the people are so diffrent, transport the things they eat, the houses etc. The temperature was right up their. I couldnt lie beside the pool for even 3mins it was like a river of sweat running of me, and my feel were getting scoulded on the stones. Anyway the forst few days we just relazed in the hilton hotel we were staying at. The 3rd day my brother and I decided to adventure into town in taxi, WHAT A EXPERIENCE THAT WAS !!. Once we had survived the crazy taxi ride and bartered with the taxi driver, we ended up locked in a shop ... read more

Beach Holiday in Egypt (Sharm El Sheikh) For our second holiday together we went to sunny and hot Egypt. More precisely to Sharm El Sheikh in the Sinaï region. We stayed 2 weeks in hotel Holiday Inn****. From there we made some trips in the Sinaï region. The rest of our time we relaxed at the beach or at 1 of the 4 huge pools. In front of the hotel there was a private "hotel"-reef where we could snorkel all day long! The reef was really superb!! All kinds of fishes with all kinds of colours you can imagine. Our hotel was in Shark Bay, between the airport and Naama Bay. Naama Bay is the main tourist resort of Sharm El Sheikh, with lots of shops, bars and restaurants. There is even a Hard Rock Café! ... read more