For those of you who know me, you know that travel is a priority. I love exploring new places and particularly exotic locales steeped in history.
From the time I was about 10 years old, I have dreamed of going to Egypt. In fact, I once considered becoming an archeologist, as many children do, and while I didn't end up pursuing that path; still the idea of Egypt, with all that history, called to me like a lighthouse in a storm.
Unfortunately, it has never been safe to go to Egypt. In 1999 there was a Y2K New Years' Nile cruise that I thought would be amazing to experience, but my daughters begged me not to go out of fear for my safety -- and so I did not.
However, things have changed significantly in Egypt -- politically and culturally. There is a big push for tourism so last year when a deal popped up on Expedia, I thought, 'now is the time'.
You cannot believe how inexpensive it was! Flights for two people, plus a week in a hotel was a total of $2000! And that was for us flying out of our local Palm Springs airport.
Of course we paid for the convenience and inexpensive tickets by having extreme layovers both ways. While it was definitely hard on the body, it was totally worth it.
The Egyptian Pound conversion is 17-1 so there is value for expenses too. So on Mar 6, we took off and I am here to tell you that Egypt was everything I dreamed it'd be and so much more!
All of the pictures here are mine and if you'd like to see more, check them out on my Facebook Page.
Let me share some factoids about Egypt and all the history.
First, the factoids:
--Don't even consider renting a car when you visit.
There are no traffic lights and no one follows any sort of orderly driving even if there are lines on the road (of which there are few). We participated in a four-vehicle-wide U-turn one day -- exciting to say the least! Cars drive bumper to bumper, squeezing into impossible spots and there is constant honking. I started to notice a pattern to the honking and asked about it - surprisingly there is an unspoken code -- one honk means look out for me, two honks means I'm coming through, and so on. Most of the streets in Old Cairo and Old Giza are narrow and difficult to maneuver. It's crazy and fun and terrifying all at once. And nearly every car on the road has sideswipe marks! We only saw two accidents and given the insanity of the driving, that was remarkable.
--Do not expect to drink the water.
It's bottled water all the way. Dan stayed mostly with cooked food and he has been fine, but I ate mostly fresh fruits and vegetables and am paying the price. I never thought about it, but fresh fruit and vegetables are cleaned in the local water. Just say no.
--Book a hotel closer to downtown.
We didn't -- instead we stayed near the airport. Not intentionally, that was just the best deal for us, but every tour guide grumbled good naturedly about it as it was a far trek for them to pick us up. Still we loved it because our hotel, the Concorde El Salam was Egyptian. We could have stayed at a Hilton or Marriott or the Ritz Carlton but we can do that anytime. We prefer culturally appropriate hotels. More fun!
--Take the tours to see the sights
-- group and private tours are available for everything and since it makes no sense to drive, a tour is ideal, plus you'll learn so much more. Every tour guide must complete a four-year curriculum at University so they are all experienced Egyptologists. All our tours were private tours which we prefer. That way if we wanted to stay longer at a spot or adjust the itinerary, we were able to do so. It's so much fun and we learned so much!
--Security is intense in Egypt.
Everywhere we went, our backpacks were scanned or checked and we had to walk through a body scanner. At the airport, not only do you have to be checked just to come onto the airport property (dogs checking the car), but there are three security checkpoints before you can get to your gate. Every ruin we visited, every museum, every locale except restaurants required security checks. Even our hotel had exterior security -- every car is scanned for explosives and a dog sniffs the car, then we had to be body scanned and bag scanned to get inside every day. To say it is safe is an understatement. In fact I felt safer there than I did the last time I was in New Orleans!
--Use your phone camera
-- in some places photos were prohibited unless you had a phone camera only. Or you had to pay extra to use a regular camera, but not the phone. If you are a serious photographer, by all means, bring your camera, but if you're an amateur the phone should be adequate.
--Make sure to see old Cairo and Giza before seeing the newer areas.
The Old sections are everything you think Egypt is but the new areas are like being in any big city in America. All the big box stores, restaurants, car dealers, manufacturers etc are there. If we had seen that first, we would have been extremely disappointed.
--If you can manage it, be sure to go to Luxor and Alexandria
. You're there anyway, so make the time to visit these other culturally significant areas. The only place we really missed was Aswan but we just couldn't fit in any more during our 5 day visit. And FYI, one week is enough to see all that is significant but leaves zero down time for recuperation. Stay two weeks and lay by the pool once in a while.
--Many of the homes you'll see look like they are unfinished
and that's because they are. In Egypt, once you complete a building you have to pay taxes on it. Unfinished = No taxes. That's why you'll see rebar sticking up into the sky from the tops of the buildings
--The litter problem is ridiculous
and sad in the old parts of the city. Egypt has no litter policies and most of the people just toss their trash into the street. They don't know any better as that's how it's been done for generations. Oddly, the city doesn't smell like garbage except in very few areas. And even though there is trash everywhere, the people themselves are very clean. It's an odd dichotomy.
--There are very few supermarkets
although they are starting to build malls and super stores in the new areas. Every few blocks in each old neighborhood are little stores with chips and sodas and sweets but then there are these amazing farmer's markets all around. Fresh produce grown near the Nile and as delicious as you might imagine. There are people with chickens and rabbits that will prepare them on the spot for your evening cooking. Likewise for lamb -- it is prepped and hanging right in the open, ready to purchase. The meat shops were the most fragrant. Every day people go shopping for groceries and they have an abundant supply. So good!
--The restaurants reminded me of Cuba
-- not so clean and animals wandering around (particularly cats which are sort of sacred in Egypt) -- but most of the food was delicious. Their basic dish is a 'mixed grill' which includes chicken, beef and/or lamb. Always a salad, always some sort of soup, a tahini sauce, and freshly made pita bread. We had this dish that looks like a mess (See photo at right) but was actually delicious. I don't recall the name of it, but it is a local favorite.
--And there are bazaars everywhere!
Nothing looks like you'd think it will look but driving down back alleys we saw paint stores, lumberyards, chandelier stores, clothing shops, auto mechanics, on and on.... I don't know why this surprised me, but it did. (See photo at left.) Maybe because everything looks so primitive but that is not the case.
--Muslims and Christians live together peacefully
for the majority of the time. I forget who it was, but when the Muslims first came to Egypt, they gave the people of Egypt two options -- stay a Christian and get along with Muslims or become Muslim. So there are lots of both. And, like all religions, there are varying degrees of compliance. Some Muslim women were full burkas others wear only the hijab (head scarf), and there are others who wear nothing at all to indicate they are Muslim. It is pretty interesting. Everyone, Muslim or Christian with whom we interfaced was extremely friendly and kind.
--Most importantly, carry your own toilet paper
and handi-wipes. The bathrooms, also like Cuba, often have no seats, no paper, and water on the floor. They were not the most sanitary in most of the places we visited.
On to history:
--If you see a photo
of a pharaoh and he is wearing a red and white head piece, that means he is King of the North and the South. If he is King of only one area, he will only wear one color head piece.
--In ancient Egyptian times
, all art was designed to be idealistic not realistic. That means if they made an image or statue, the person will be shown with no scars or marks and bigger and stronger than he/she might otherwise be. Also, if they depicted a man and woman together (as a couple), they would often make them the same size so that it could not be inferred as one is more important than the other.
--The arrangement of the body
matters too, in ancient Egyptian art. A foot forward is to indicate the person is strong. Open hands means they are ruling in peace. Closed fists means they are for war. One hand open and one fist means they are ruling in balance.
--Much of the art takes erosion into consideration.
You might see a statue with two hands closed around what appears to be rolls of papyrus or holding orbs. That's because the hand and fingers are weak in stone and to prevent them from breaking off, they would show the pharaoh holding something.
--It seems everything in ancient Egypt revolves around the Sun
, or the Sun God Ra. Egyptians believed in rebirth (or reincarnation) because every day the sun would rise in the East and set in the West which they interpreted as death in the West and rebirth in the East. That's why all the tombs/pyramids housing mummies are on the West side of the Nile and all the tombs built in honor of someone are built on the East of the Nile
--You can tell if a statue is of a living or dead person
because of the head and arms. Egyptian Kings wore false beards, held on by strings that go up around the ears. If the statue is an image of a person alive (See photo at right), the beard is straight and the hands are at the side or out in front. If the statue is an image of a dead person, the beard is bent and the hands are crossed over the chest.
--There is no way to process how in the heck the Egyptians built the pyramids
or anything else for that matter. The tour guides guarantee it wasn't with alien help (apparently they get asked that a lot haha). The current thinking is that they built sand ramps higher and higher as they built their structures, and then cleaned it away as they finished. While that is a respectable theory and somewhat supported by a few places they've found, when you see the size of these structures and the precision by which they are made, it is impossible to believe.
--The carving of hieroglyphics is a little easier to understand
after we visited an alabaster factory. There they had a piece of limestone and drew a picture on it. Then they wet the limestone and it was fairly easy to carve. Of course the guy carving it was experienced so I'm sure he made it look easier than it is. The theory for the pyramids and other tombs is the same. Some people drew the images and others carved them and still others did the quality checks. Given nothing seemed to be 'erased' and done over, you have to believe the quality control was rigorous.
--The Great pyramid was built by King Cheops and no one had any idea of what he looked like. That is until this tiny, 7" statue was found in Abydos in 1903. (See photo at right.) It has his name engraved on the side. Pretty amazing! To date it's the only statue found of him.
--The Valley of the Kinds is beyond incredible -- After the pyramids were built, grave robbers knew exactly where to go for treasure so the Egyptians decided it was better to use mountains. There is a photo on my Facebook Page of what appears to be a pyramid at the top of a mountain -- this the Egyptians believed to be a natural pyramid so they dug tombs in the sides of that mountain and to date 62 tombs have been found. Most of the tombs had also been raided but King Tuts' tomb's entrance was obscured by fallen rock and debris, which is why it was found completely undisturbed. Inside King Tuts' tomb is Tut himself along with one of his sarcophagi and the extremely beautiful and colorful wall artwork as pristine as the time it was originally created.
--Also on my Facebook Page are images of the catacomb of Kom El Shoqafa in Alexandria. They are, like all the ruins, quite beautiful but the one mind-blowing feature is that this three-level, underground necropolis is carved out of one single stone area. Just the sheer planning, design and execution of creating this space is impossible to comprehend.
I could go on and on about all that we learned. Going to Egypt has been my dream for the last 50 years and finally I made it! This just goes to show you should never give up on your dreams no matter how farfetched or unobtainable they may seem.
On our way home, Dan asked -- where to next? And I honestly don't know. Egypt was my #1 bucket list item. Still, I have always wanted to see Italy. Oh, and Morocco! And Costa Rica.... And.... (sigh)....
Until next time, follow your dreams and be brave enough to just 'go for it' when opportunities present themselves.
