BootsnAll Travel Network



Egypt 8 – Felucca sailing and a Nubian Village

May 19th, 2010

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A felucca

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View of the sail looking up from my boat

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Kid in a Nile-style row boat

After returning to Aswan by about noon following the epic trek to Abu Simbel, I considered a nap but decided I needed to man-up to make sure I got to see the rest of the sites available in Aswan before I headed to Luxor the next day.  Aswan is a cute little village on the shores of the Nile near two islands:  Kitchener and Elephantine.  A fun thing to do is take a felucca ride around the islands stopping on both to see the sites.  A felucca is an Egyptian sailboat and is a fantastic and comfortable way to beat the heat and get a different perspective.  I negotiated with a felucca captain at the shore for about $10 per hour and set off on a 3 hour adventure.  The first stop was the uninhabited Kitchener Island which houses a surprisingly beautiful botanical garden.  After about 30 minutes there we continued our sail, had a nice cup of tea (prepared on a propane burner on the boat) and stopped at Elephantine Island which is home to the Aswan Museum, a Nubian Village and the obnoxious and luxurious Movenpick Hotel.

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Scenes from the botanical garden on Kitchener Island

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The Nubians, if you recall from earlier, are an ancient African people who were also largely displaced by the damming of the Nile.  The Nubians are one of Africa’s oldest tribes dating to the 4th millennium BC and who were settled along the Nile from Aswan and south into Sudan.  After the damming of the Nile, they were relocated to several locations including  Elephantine Island where several villages remain today.  When I disembarked from my felucca, the village’s “chief” met me at the boat landing.  He took me on a tour (which was not optional and for which I was expected to tip him) through the village.  I’ve included some pictures here…the chief told me that 3000 people live in this little village though during the day they are mostly off the island working.  The gardens were of some interest to me as he said they are all community gardens open to everyone in the village and the excess production is sold on the mainland.

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Contrast of the green Nile Valley and the nearby desert

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Scenes from a Nubian Village

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Mosque within the Nubian Village

The next day I returned to Elephantine Island to visit the Aswan Museum and a new “chief” offered his tour services which I declined with a bit of a chuckle on my way to the ferry.  The rest of the pictures below are from the still-being-excavated ruins of Elephantine Island.  Of particular interest is the photo of the Nilometer…one of a few remaining in Egypt that was previously used to measure flood levels of the Nile to predict crop yield and subsequent taxes.

Tomorrow the Mini-Extravaganza is headed to Luxor for the Valley of the Kings and the temple of Hatshepsut.  Enjoy the photos!

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Bananas

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Mangos

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My felucca waiting for me at Elephantine Island

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My two intrepid captains bidding me farewell

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Ruins from Elephantine Island

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Yes those are flowers stuck behind my ears.  My guide insisted.

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One of the Nilometers on Elephantine Island.  I will admit I don’t totally get how this works.

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Mummified baby if you can believe it.  I had to stop short of letting him take a picture of the baby mummy with me in the photo.

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Ridiculous.  This guide offered my 2nd of 3 marriage proposals and quite frankly, the most serious.  He even got out his phone to exchange numbers.

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Egypt 7 – Abu Simbel and Lake Nasser

May 18th, 2010

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The Four Statues of Ramses II

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And up close with two of them

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The biggest attraction in Aswan is Abu Simbel which is not actually in Aswan but 150 miles to the south and about 20 miles north of the Sudanese border.  Some people fly to Abu Simbel but most drive along the desolate desert highway in a police convoy.  Yes, I said a police convoy.  It must be said here that getting to Abu Simbel is an absolute production in and of itself.  In 1997 there was a terrorist bombing in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor (much more on Hatshepsut in the coming Luxor posts) which pretty much decimated tourism throughout Egypt thus removing the livelihood of a significant portion of Egyptians.  Since then, the government has been very keen to protect the tourists and thus instituted required police convoys to various locations in Egypt.  Several have been lifted over the years but the one to Abu Simbel remains and that is how I found myself in a 100 vehicle (coach buses, minibuses, private taxis) convoy headed toward Sudan.

The details of this trek cannot be underestimated.  I got a wake up call at 2:45 am at my hotel and was picked up by the tour company at 3:15 so we’d have enough time to meet the convoy at 4 am.  If you’re not there and checked-in by 4 am you’re screwed…the police won’t let you go.  It was nuts.  So of course we all arrive at Abu Simbel at the same time, stay for two hours with thousands of our closest friends and then embark on the 3 hour trek back to Aswan arriving back by noon.  Abu Simbel was beautiful and scenic on the shores of Lake Nasser…but if I were to do it again I think I’d figure out a way to stay near the village of Abu Simbel so as to not have to visit when everyone else is there.

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Interior hall with you guessed it…more statues of Ramses II

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One of the interior store rooms

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Carved hieroglyphics on the wall

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Interior reliefs

Abu Simbel is one of the many archeological sights that was threatened to be submerged by the damming of the Nile so in 1964 UNESCO embarked upon a 40 million dollar resue project to move the monument above and away from the original site to avoid the waters of Lake Nasser.  Abu Simbel was built by Egypt’s most egotistical pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BC) for himself and his beautiful wife Nefertari.  The intent was that the 4 statues of himself would be the first thing travelers, visitors and enemies alike would see as they arrived in Egypt from the south.  Similarly, he built a separate temple for Nefertari which is not quite as imposing as his own temple but still quite impressive.  Both temples are carved directly into the rock and have many, many chambers and walkways inside.  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the temples for fear of ruining the colored reliefs with our camera flashes.  I found the pictures you see here of the interior elsewhere on the web.

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Queen Nefertari’s tomb

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Nefertari up close and personal

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Lake Nasser about 7 am

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Lake Nasser, as we learned previously, is the reservoir created by the damming of the Nile River.  It is the largest reservoir on the planet and is 83% contained in Egypt while the rest is in Sudan (and called Lake Nubia).  Lake Nasser is more than 2000 square miles in surface area and 37 cubic miles in volume.  The fishing is reported to be very good for Nile Perch in Lake Nasser with the record fish ever caught weighing 392 pounds.

Tomorrow on the Mini-Extravaganza we’ll take a felucca ride and visit Elephantine Island before heading off to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  Enjoy the pictures!

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Egypt 6 – Aswan and the River Nile

May 17th, 2010

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View of the desert over Lake Nasser

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Monument to Egyptians from the Soviets after completion of the High Dam

OK, back on track.  It turns out that Luxor Airport has a fine Wifi connection and I have a couple of hours to spare before my flight so hopefully I will get a little bit caught up.  It’s worth mentioning here that I’m several days behind on the blog as compared to my current location.  Part of this is circumstance (bad internet connection, etc.) and part is by design.  I’ve packed a lot into this first week so have lots of pictures and information to share from that stretch of the Mini-Extravaganza while my second week promises to be relaxed, low-key and likely lacking blog-worthy material.  So basically I’m trying to space the posts out over time so I don’t end up with a big gap this week while I’m relaxing on the beach and diving under the sea.  And now, back to Aswan…

So after leaving the mayhem that is Cairo, I hopped on the overnight train to Aswan in Upper Egypt.  Interestingly, Upper Egypt is actually south of Cairo and is so-named because the Nile River runs from the mountains of Africa down towards the Mediterranean Sea…so “upper” in this case refers to elevation.  Now, the Nile is a vital and important part of the history and sustainability of Egypt however it has also been causing the Egyptians massive headaches for thousands of years.  Like all un-dammed rivers the conditions of the Nile have been hard to control.  Some years it flooded the Nile Valley washing out the crops and some years the water was so low that there was drought and famine.  So in 1898, the British rolled in during their occupation of Egypt and built the first dam on the Nile…the Aswan Low Dam.  The height of this dam was increased twice until finally in 1946 after the dam overflowed yet again they got smart and built another dam upriver…the Aswan High Dam.

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Aerial shots of the High Dam and Lake Nasser

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Schematic drawings of the dam.  The volume of the structure is 17 times larger than the Pyramid of Cheops

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Lake Nasser again (the world’s largest reservoir)

Naturally there was a lot of political drama surrounding the construction of the dam and I’ll spare you the specific details but suffice it to say that in the early 1950s with the U.S., Britain and the U.S.S.R involved the whole project was a bit of a train wreck.  Ultimately, the U.S.S.R provided the funding for the construction of the High Dam and it was finally completed in 1970.  Fantastic.  So now they’ve created a reservoir to control irrigation in dry years (Lake Nasser which I’ll get to later), they’ve added electricity-producing capacity and have been able to increase the usable amount of farmland in the Nile Valley by 500%.  Everything is looking good and Egyptians are happy…everyone except for the head of Antiquities because the building of the dam has caused many important archaeological sites to be flooded and in some cases completely submerged by water.  Further, it displaced the homes of about 60,000 Nubian villagers and caused a wide variety of other ills but by and large has been considered a success.

The pictures I have here from the dam are not great as it’s rather difficult to take a picture of something so huge if you’re standing on top of it.  I’ve included a few shots (mostly of Lake Nasser on the other side) and the schematic of the dam’s construction.  The better pictures are from the Philae Temple which is one of the archaeological sights that was submerged by the damming of the Nile.  So in 1960 UNESCO began the project to relocate Philae to higher ground on an island nearby.  They paid an Italian company to carefully cut the temple into pieces and reconstruct them on the new island.

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View of village from the boat ride to the Philae Temple

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Philae Temple from boat

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Some fishermen

Philae Temple has an interesting history in that it has been host to a wide variety of kingdoms, religions and dynasties over the years.  It was originally used as the temple to the goddess Isis but over the years was also occupied by the Christians who did their best to mutilate the sculptures of the the temple.  In the 1800s it became a popular tourist spot with the British and before the High Dam was built people could take boat rides over the ruins where they were partially submerged by water.

There is much more to come on the River Nile so stay-tuned for feluccas, Abu Simbel and Nubian Villages in the coming days.

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The colors from the reliefs was washed away with the multiple floodings.

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Evidence of the Christian occupation of Philae Temple

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Egypt 5 – A Farewell to Cairo

May 14th, 2010

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View of Cairo from my hotel balcony (note the smog)

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 Same view at night

Before I arrived in Cairo I had heard tons and tons of stories of the hassles I was likely to encounter here being a solo female traveler. Fortunately, none of it came to pass. As I’ve mentioned before, I did not feel threatened one minute of my time in the city and indeed never felt I was the target of any ill-will or contempt for being a foreigner. In fact, everyone I encountered was friendly and helpful and the interactions with men I was told to avoid were completely innocuous. Sure, I was swindled a bit here and there by paying more than I probably should have for a few things but that’s to be expected to some degree. I rapidly discovered that if I didn’t want company walking down the street the key was to not react at all when they tried to get my attention. And even when that failed and I found myself with a companion I did not feel threatened in the least. I did speak with a married couple from Atlanta who found the treatment of the wife to be somewhat disconcerting. She was essentially invisible to the front desk staff at their hotel who deferred to her husband for everything…including asking “what is her name?” when she was standing right there.  Maybe being solo has its benefits after all?

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 View of Cairo and the Nile

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 Another  night view

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 A local university

Interactions with women, on the other hand, were another story. In short: there were none. Not a single woman initiated conversation with me…I did speak to a few who worked in the museum and one old woman smiled at me at the Khan but other than that I was completely ignored by the female population of Cairo. It’s puzzling. Maybe it’s a language issue or maybe a complete inability to relate to each other’s lives? I’m not sure but it did feel strange. Of course I was chatted up by a couple of groups of kids…once in the Christian quarter of Old Cairo by a trio of 12ish year-old girls and later in Islamic Cairo by a gaggle of 10ish year-old boys. Fortunately, kids are the same everywhere…goofy and silly and amusing to behold. And hey, they all got to practice their English a bit.

Going back to the women for a moment, I was surprised to see as many Taliban-style burqas as I did around town. That is, women completely covered head-to-toe with only an eye slit in their veil and sometimes even just a sheer netting instead of a slit. I’d say about 90% of the women I saw in Cairo had some type of head scarf or burqa-type covering though I was under the impression that full burqas were mostly common to extremely conservative regimes such as Afganistan and Saudi Arabia. Indeed, it’s amazing how stylish the women can look and still have only their hands and faces exposed. Lots of them wore cute short sleeve shirts with some type of body-suit garment underneath to cover their arms. Many were wearing jeans and other western-style clothing with brightly colored head scarfs and looked very stylish. Some had more traditional long-skirts. I still can’t get used to the full burqas though…I just wonder what those women are thinking about underneath all of those layers…

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 Cairo Tower

A farewell to Cairo would not be complete without another mention of the traffic and driving. OH MY GOD. It is madness. Absolute madness. It amazes me there aren’t constant accidents considering how crazy everyone is driving and how crazy everyone is stepping into the street without looking! I have been on some crazy car rides in my travels before but nothing previous even comes close to this scene. Between the cigarettes and the pollution my lungs may not miss Cairo…but the rest of me truly enjoyed the experience. Every crazy bit of it.

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 Koshari: noodles, lentils, fried onions, spices with tomato sauce to pour over it

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 Not sure what this is called but it was kind of like a philly cheesesteak sandwich but with awesome pickled veggies added

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 Fresh strawberry juice was a bit of a risk but it was yummy and I suffered no ill effects

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 Fresh lemonade, tahini dip, falafel and tomato salad

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 Egyptian pizza…sort of like a stuffed pizza but the crust is super, super thin

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Egypt 4 – The Khan Souk

May 13th, 2010

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One thing I’ve learned about Cairo is that if you have something to do it’s best to get up early and accomplish it before the day gets too hot and there are so many people out and about that you become overwhelmed.  The great thing about Cairo is that I feel completely safe here…well, unless I’m trying to cross a street at which point the task at hand could be deemed suicidal.  According to my trusty guidebook, the walk between downtown Cairo where my hotel is located and the Khan El-Khalili souk (market) is a manageable and easy 15 to 20 minute walk.  I typically prefer to walk a new city when it’s appropriate as it helps to get your bearings and if you’re lucky see how local people are living.  I left the hotel around 9 am and had a pleasant stroll out of the touristed areas and into places where people are living and working.  Certainly I got a few stares but no one caused me any trouble…not today…not at all since I’ve been in Cairo which was truly refreshing considering I was expecting far worse.

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Making bread

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After a couple of wrong turns due to the existence of Arabic-only street signs, I arrived at my destination.  The Khan (as the locals call it) is the major Cairo market in the heart of Islamic Cairo and has been in operation since 1382.  Doing the math you will note that is a full 100 years before Columbus “discovered” the New World.  So basically, it’s been around a long time.  Things have changed a bit over the years…there is a definitely a very touristy component to the market but if you are willing to take a chance and go down some of the narrow, twisty-turny roads away from the main drag you’ll be rewarded with the “real” Khan.  My favorites were definitely the spice markets and the perfumeries.  I’ve included some pictures here of some of the scenes around the Khan.

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Mixed pot of spices.  The dark red leaves in the background are hibiscus tea.

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Water pipes for smoking sheesha

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Surrounding the market are many mosques and other religious buildings.  It would be a trick to name all of them correctly so I won’t try.  Instead, I’ll just include the pictures here so you can get an idea of the beautiful archictecture and artistry associated with the ancient buildings.  I did go inside a couple of mosques but removing my non-slip-on shoes and donning the head scarf became rather tiresome after a while so pictures from inside the buildings may be somewhat lacking.  I did get a mosque-keeper to take me to the top of the building from the vantage point of the minaret (tower) and got a great view of the city of Cairo.

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Mosque from outside

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…and from the inside.

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View of minaret from the roof of mosque

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 Also from the roof

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 A good look for me, no?

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I don’t know what the trees with the orange blossoms are but they’re beautiful and everywhere.

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By about 3 pm I had had it with the heat and decided to head back to my hotel to rest and cool off before catching my night train to Aswan.  I was planning to walk back to my hotel in reverse of what I had done in the morning but there were SO many more people out and about that it was practically impossible to move.  I gave up trying and jumped in a cab for the mad dash adventure that is Cairo traffic.  All-in-all a fantastic time was had in Cairo.  Tomorrow on the Mini-Extravaganza I will offer a farewell to Cairo with some parting photos and thoughts before I head to Upper Egypt to continue the adventure.

Enjoy the photos!

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Off the tourist track…

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…and again.

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Fishawy coffee shop…claims to have been continuously open since it opened in 1773.

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Perfumery

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Egypt 3 – Egyptian Museum and Old Cairo

May 12th, 2010

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The Egyptian Museum

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The Sculpture Garden at Egyptian Museum

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View of the main hall in the museum

On Monday, a cold snap hit Cairo…it was merely 90 degrees rather than 109.  To be honest, it didn’t feel that much different to me though everyone else was rejoicing at how cool it had gotten.  Bright and early on Monday morning I headed to the world-famous Egyptian Museum which is conveniently located 300 meters from my hotel.  It took no less than two police officers to assist me across four lanes of traffic…I have never seen such traffic or crazy driving as I’ve seen in Cairo.  The driving situation here makes Chicago drivers look like little old ladies out for a Sunday stroll.

The museum is housed in an enormous pink building with a nice entryway including a sculpture garden with a pond.  The building is very large and packed full of artifacts but still there is not enough room for everything and I’m told much of the collection lies in storage in the basement.  The pride and joy of the Egyptian Museum is the King Tut display.  King Tut’s tomb was only discovered in the last century by Englishman Howard Carter in 1922 and amazingly was found to be largely intact.  Our cameras were confiscated upon arrival so the pictures here are those I’ve found elsewhere on the web but are of the same artifacts I saw in the Museum.  Perhaps the coolest exhibit in the Egyptian Museum is that of the Royal Mummies.  About 20 mummies from kings and queens of years past were on display and by display, I mean they had pulled down the linen wrappings around the bodies to show the head and the feet of each mummy.  It was truly fascinating and well worth the additional entrance fee.

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Mask over the head of King Tut’s mummy.  Estimated by collectors to be worth more than the Crown Jewels

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Throne

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One of 3 coffins that contained the mummy

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Royal bed found in the tomb

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Necklace

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Shrine in which the various coffins were contained

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Various knives and daggers

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Ceremonial chair considered the best example of cabinet-making found in Egypt

After the museum, I decided to hop on the Metro and head down to Old Cairo, the scene of the original city from 500 BC and later a Christian enclave where a few small, ancient Christian churches still exist.  I love cities with subways.  Subways are so easy to get around in.  They are pretty much the same everywhere and it’s very difficult to mess up.  Indeed Cairo was the same.  The subway system has only two lines so it doesn’t go everywhere but for this particularly stop on the tour it was extremely convenient…and cheap.  One ticket costs 1 Egyptian pound which is roughly the equivalent of 18 cents.  Yes, 18 cents.

Egypt being a largely Muslim country, there are all kinds of gender restrictions on men and women in public.  Interestingly, there are 4 cars of each train dedicated exclusively to women and they are very clearly marked so everyone knows what is expected.  It is not,  however, clear to me what would happen if a woman tried to ride in a man’s carriage and I wasn’t really up for finding out so there I found myself…the only “Western” woman in a car full of hooded and veiled women.  It was certainly a different experience…they were no doubt wondering about my life as much as I found myself wondering about theirs.

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Hanging Church

Just outside the Metro stop was the entrance to Old Cairo.  There are a few remaining churches from the 5th century AD as well as a Jewish synagogue from the 12th century AD that lie nearly 3 meters below street level.  I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the inside of those old churches or the synagogue so the pictures you see here are from the other two that are above ground.  The main attraction aside from the Coptic Museum is the Hanging Church…so named because it is not set on a foundation at all but is set on three stone piers of the semi-flooded Roman Water Gate.  It was originally built in the 4th century AD, demolished in 840, rebuilt in 977 and “recently” modified in 1775.  Inside the church they have a cut-out in the floor showing 13 meters down that there is indeed no foundation.  The inside of the church is very beautiful with a 15 column pulpit as well as the wood and mother-of-pearl inlaid screen in the front separating the main church from the side rooms.  The mosaics of various biblical scenes are on the walls leading to the steep stairs up into the church.

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Entryway to Hanging Church

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Main portion of church with 15 column pulpit

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Examples of woodwork with inlaid mother-of-pearl

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Mosaics on the walls leading up to Hanging Church

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 The second church of interest is that of the modern St. George (1904)…the only circular church in Egypt.  Surprisingly they allowed me to take pictures in there though it’s sort of difficult to take pictures of round spaces.  The painting of Christ is underneath the dome shown in the photo and the wooden chairs are found around the perimeter of the building.  This church is the head of the Greek Orthodox church in Cairo and the mausoleums you see here are from the Greek Orthodox cemetery within the stone walls of old Cairo.  The tombs and mausoleums are in surprisingly poor repair given that the dates of most of the burials are within the last century. Those of you who were with me in New Orleans and again in Buenos Aires may recall my fascination for old cemeteries.  There’s just something interesting, eerie and beautiful about them to me.

By 3 pm I was ready to return to the hotel for a little siesta.  My final day in Cairo finds me cruising through the narrow and windy streets of Islamic Cairo and the old Khan El-Khalili market.  Pictures and stories to follow tomorrow!

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Modern Church of St. George

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Interior of St. George Church

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Entryway to Old Cairo

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Mausoleums and tombs from Greek Orthodox cemetery

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Egypt 2 – The Pyramids, Part 2

May 10th, 2010

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The Red Pyramid

A few kilometers outside of Cairo (and seemingly a whole world away) lie the pyramids of Dahshur and Saqqara.  Cairo is utter mayhem while the villages near these monuments are serene and agricultural.  It is hard to believe that the craziness that is Cairo lies only a few kilometers to the north.

After spending the morning at Giza, I finagled my driver into taking me to Dahshur despite the fact that wasn’t on our original itinerary.  Dahshur is home to two major pyramids: the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid as well as several lesser pyramids.  I had previously heard that if you want to go inside a pyramid that the Red Pyramid of Dahshur was the place to do it as it was less claustrophobic than at Cheops, there are fewer people and the entry is included in the 30 Egyptian pound fee.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity to go inside one of these monuments so I climbed the steep stairs to the entry about halfway up the side of the pyramid and in I went.

As I was descending through the passage and into the pyramid, a large tour group of senior citizens was huffing and puffing their way out on ascent through the passage.  The passage was clearly not built with two-way traffic in mind so I had to stop frequently to let them pass and with each breathless person I encountered I was wondering what I was getting myself into.  The passage was narrow to be sure and the “stairs” were just boards nailed horizontally onto a long platform.  It was dark but there were some low lights on each side and I had to crouch down and sort of slide my way down the slope.  Amazingly, when I got there there was no one else so I had the entire burial chamber to myself.  Which, I must say, was a rather eerie experience.

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View from bottom of pyramid shaft (how it actually looked)

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And with a flash so you can see it a little better

These pictures are not great and I’m battling a bit with the flash on my camera to get it the correct intensity but hopefully these shots kind of give you an idea of what it was like inside.  There were basically only two rooms…the first with an added wooden floor and a very high, pointed ceiling.  You then went up some stairs and found yourself in the burial chamber looking down at…not much.  As you can see below, it’s largely a bunch of rocks strewn about and my guidebook says the burial chamber was never actually used.  The ascent out of the pyramid didn’t feel too challenging at the time though I am majorly feeling it today.  I’m not sure my quads have ever been so sore and going up and down stairs is currently not one of my favorite activities.

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Steep angled ceiling of first chamber

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Burial chamber

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Burial chamber

Also near the Red Pyramid and viewable from a distance is the Bent Pyramid which is clearly given its name from the strange angles found in its shape.  No one seems to know why this pyramid was constructed in this manner though several theories abound.  Some think the angle was changed so as to complete it sooner, some thought it indicated a double pyramid (two pyramids superimposed) and still others think the architect lost his nerve.  Apparently another pyramid collapsed that was being built with the same angles as the bottom portion of the Bent Pyramid.  Regardless, it was too far afield to walk to so I have only these photos from afar.  Wondering about the haze?  Nope, it’s not my camera…just the notorious Cairo pollution which is horrible to say the least.

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Bent Pyramid

After Dahshur, we were off to Saqqara which is a much larger complex of pyramids and most notably there lies the first pyramid ever constructed and considered to be the prototype for Giza and all others that came later.  This pyramid is called the Step Pyramid for its shape and is currently undergoing restoration which is why there is so much scaffolding about.  Prior to the age of pyramids, important people were buried in mastabas which were burial tombs with deep shafts for the sarcophagus (stone coffins essentially).  The construction of the Step Pyramid marked the beginning of the age of imposing elevated mausoleums.

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Step Pyramid of Saqqara

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Close up of bricks used to construct Step Pyramid

At this point in the day, I was on the edge of melting so I quickly took some pictures of the various points of interest and got myself back to Cairo.  The columns are from Hypostyle Hall which was the only entrance into the Step Pyramid back in the day.  The whole complex is the funerary of the king Zoser (2667-2648 BC) and was built by chief architect Imhotep who is widely considered to be the world’s first architect.  One of the local guides showed me around some of the tombs and let me take some pictures of the walls which you can see below.  Also shown are the walls of tombs covered in hieroglyphics and other pictorial scenes.

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Hypostyle Hall

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Columns within the Hall

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After a day of pyramid-hopping in 109 degree heat I headed back to the hotel for a much needed shower and nap.  Next up on the Mini-Extravaganza…my trip to the Egyptian Museum as well as my subway trip to see Old Cairo (or Christian/Coptic Cairo as it’s sometimes referred to).  Tomorrow I’m headed to the famous Khan El-Khalili market and to wander the streets of Islamic Cairo.  Type to you soon!

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Egypt 1 – The Pyramids, Part 1

May 9th, 2010

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 Pyramid of Cheops

Greetings and salutations from the great city of Cairo, Egypt (population 16 million souls…the largest city on the African continent). My driver told me that today the temperature reached 43 C (109 F). He assured me that this is even hot for Cairo…particularly in May. Lucky me.

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 View of block construction of Cheops

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Shot with the sun about 9 am

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 Self-portrait

No matter, armed with a floppy hat, 70 SPF sunscreen and a long sleeve shirt I was off to participate in the Tour de Pyramids starting with the famed Pyramids of Giza just outside of Cairo.  My first glimpse of Giza was actually from the air as we were about to land and I was struck by just how enormous they really are.  Allegedly the largest of the Egypt’s pyramids, the Pyramid of Cheops (and the pyramid at the top of the page) can be seen from the moon.  Which is a little insane if you ask me.

First up this morning was entering the Giza complex on the Sphinx side.  I had been advised to get there just as they opened at 8 am and was surprised to find myself the only person in line for a ticket with the exception of a large tour group who had their tickets already.  The entrance didn’t seem too bad and I enjoyed the Sphinx and views of the Great Pyramids unhampered by crowds.  Indeed, I was wondering what the big deal about the crowds was for a full hour before I discovered it.  Rounding the front of Cheops I was accosted by hundreds of people and many, many gigantic tour buses.  Silently I thanked my driver for getting me in the side entrance.

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First glimpse of Chephren from Valley Temple

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Inside Valley Temple

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Valley Temple again…

Now at 109 degrees there is not much that a person is comfortable doing except maybe swimming and unfortunately there isn’t a swimming hole near the Great Pyramids.  A sane person is certainly not tromping around a desert in early summer.  It was HOT.  And by hot, I mean HOT.  About two hours was all I could take at this first stop and the photos you see here are the shots I got between constantly wiping the sweat from my brow.  The highlights:

1.  Pyramid of Cheops – as mentioned above, the largest of the Egyptian pyramids at 459 ft. tall, Cheops was built between 2589-2566 BC out of 2,300,000 blocks of stone with an average weight of 2.5 tons per block.  150 people are allowed inside Cheops per day but I decided against it as I’d heard entering one of the pyramids at Dahshur was easier and less crowded (more on this in Part 2).  Originally, Cheops had a limestone overlay similar to what is still seen on the top of the Pyramid of Chephren but that casing has since eroded or been pilfered by later rulers wanting to use the stone to construct the Islamic city.

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Pyramid of Chephren

2.  Pyramid of Chephren – slightly smaller than Cheops and built a little later between 2570-2530 BC, I actually liked this one better due to the maintained casing near the top.  It’s easier to imagine what the pyramids originally looked like after seeing the casing still preserved…gleaming, smooth and white.  The construction is similar to Cheops using a step pattern you can see from the picture above.

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The Sphinx from the front

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From one side with Cheops in the background

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From the other side

3.  The Sphinx – “newish” on the Giza block, the Spinx was only recently rediscovered (it had previously been covered in sand) around 1417 BC which is actually rather fortuitous.  The Sphinx is made of very soft sandstone and it is theorized that if it hadn’t been covered in sand for more than 1000 years it might not have been so well preserved.  Indeed the Sphinx has had rough time of it over the years…Napolean and his cronies used him for target practice and he lost his beard to the British Museum in London.

Part 2 of the Pyramids of Egypt rolls out tomorrow so stay tuned to the Mini-Extravaganza for more pyramid trivia and pictures.

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The “lesser” pyramid of Menkaure

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Camels traversing a barren desert

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Stacey+Cheops

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The obligatory tourist shot with the camel guy

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Pre-departure: A Preview of the Mini-Extravaganza

April 11th, 2010

The most frequent question I’m fielding about this trip is “What are you going to do there?” so I thought I’d offer a little preview of the planned itinerary.  Below are the planned highlights of the next 3 weeks.

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 Pyramids of Giza

Cairo

  • Pyramids of Giza, Saqqara, Dahshur
  • Coptic Cairo – Christian section of the city of Cairo
  • Islamic Cairo – Islamic quarter containing important historical mosques and monuments
  • Khan El-Khalili – ancient market dating to 1382
  • Egyptian Museum – largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world

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Feluccas on the Nile

Aswan

  • Abu Simbel – twin temples located near the shores of Lake Nasser
  • Felucca sailing on the Nile -Egyptian sailboat trip on the river Nile and around Elephantine Island
  • Elephantine Island -Nubian villages, nilometer, Aswan Museum

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View of the Nile and Luxor Temple

Luxor

  • Valley of the Kings/Queens – valley containing 500 years worth of Egyptian kings, queens and other notable figures
  • Karnak Temple – largest pharaonic monument outside of the Giza pyramids
  • Luxor Temple – temple complex from 1400 BC located on the east bank of the Nile
  • Hot-air balloon ride – if the wind cooperates, a flight over the temples of Luxor

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Beach at the Red Sea in Dahab

Dahab

  • SCUBA Diving – Various reefs and sea critters in the Red Sea
  • Mt. Sinai – Allegedly the location that Moses waited to receive the Ten Commandments
  • RELAXING – they tell me Dahab is the best place in the world to relax, read, smoke shisha and watch the world go by

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“The Monastery” at Petra

Petra

  • Roaming buildings and streets of the historic and archaeological city of Petra.  Readers may also recognize Petra as the site of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

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The desert of Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum

  • Overnight trip through the Bedouin “Valley of the Moon.”  Known for its trekking, rock-climbing, camel and horseback riding, camping under the stars.

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Madaba and environs

  • Madaba – small city known for its mosaic making and in particular, the large map of the Holy Land
  • Dead Sea – lowest elevation on Earth’s surface, this sea boasts a salinity of 33.7% (8.6 times more salty than the ocean)
  • Mt. Nebo – Moses again makes an appearance on the mini-Extravaganza as the site where he was allegedly given a view of the promised land that God was giving to the Israelites.
  • Hammamat Ma’in – hot springs.  Time-permitting I may find myself here for an afternoon or so.
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