Every once in a while, I go on a trip that fits in the category of something I have wanted to experience my entire life. For many of the years that I had been able to afford to travel, Egypt had not been available through any tour that I could find. Likely part of the reason for that included things like the massacre of 62 people (mostly tourists) on the steps of Hatshepsut’s Temple at the Valley of the Kings in 1997. Then, all of a sudden, in 2008, the tour company I use most of the time had a tour to Egypt!
After the Central Europe tour earlier that year, Mom decided that the Egypt tour would be too much for her. It would be a very physically strenuous trip in very hot weather (about 104F), in late September/early October. So I went on a solo tour to Egypt.
Not only would I be flying to Cairo, but would also be flying from Cairo to Aswan and then Luxor to Cairo later on in the trip for a Nile Cruise. So I bought a new suitcase – a bright purple soft-sided case that was light-weight. I could easily handle it when I needed to and, more importantly, spot it quickly. That really came in handy as we had to identify our cases each morning before they were loaded on the tour bus. I did have to handle it myself at the Aswan and Luxor airports as well as when we left the cruise. Among all the black or red cases, mine definitely stood out.
The hotel was in Giza, near the pyramids. In fact, I could see them from the patio just outside my hotel room. The rooms were clustered into small units with their own entrances and private patios throughout a large resort area which was walled and gated.
Throughout the trip, it was necessary to send whatever bags I had with me through scanning machines at every hotel, tourist venue, and each time we returned to the cruise ship. Most of these machines were ancient. My poor video camera didn’t stand a chance. It died during the trip.
We had a group of twenty five – 10 American, 2 Malaysian, 4 Australian, one from India, 2 from New Zealand and 6 from the UK. I mainly hung out with Phiroza from India, Irene and Sue Ling from Malaysia, and Janet from NYC. I met the four of them our first evening.
Usually on a tour, there is a Tour Director and a Driver. Then we have Local Guides in each location to take us around and show us everything. This trip, we had an Egyptologist with us the entire time, so no need for any Local Guides. We also had a plain-clothes, armed, Security Guard who would be replaced in each city where we stayed with a fresh one.
The next day, we went to the Giza Plateau. The pyramids and Great Sphinx were just as magnificent as I figured they would be. We went to the Khufu pyramid first. This is the pyramid known as The Great Pyramid and is the oldest (roughly completed 2560 BC) and largest of the three — Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure.
We were on the side of the pyramid with an entrance that tomb robbers created. Usually tourists were allowed to go inside, but that wasn’t being allowed at that time. Not sure why. So we went over to the Khafre pyramid to go inside that instead.
This was another time I was glad to be so short. The ancient Egyptians were so much smaller than people are today. Even I was bent over. I wouldn’t recommend going inside to anyone who is claustrophobic.
Khafre was Khufu’s son. His pyramid was the second built. There is evidence that the plan might have been to make it larger than his father’s, but that didn’t happen.
Next came something that I didn’t even know existed – Khufu’s boat. It had been buried in a pit in front of his pyramid and, despite being built of wood (Lebanon cedar), was still intact when discovered in the 1950s. The boat was buried in pieces to be reassembled in the afterlife. It took years to be reassembled and is now displayed in a building in front of Khufu’s pyramid. I just loved seeing a boat that old. So far, it is the oldest I have ever seen.
In front of the Khafre pyramid is the Great Sphinx. With the body of a lion and the head of a man, it looks like it is guardian of the entire area. The face was supposedly modeled on Khafre and was certainly built during his reign. There is a raised area to the left of the Sphinx when facing it, from which we could look at and photograph it, but we couldn’t get close enough to touch it.
There were several men in the area who were trying to sell things to tourists or were taking tourists on camel rides. It wasn’t a great idea in Egypt, even at that time, to admit that you were from the US. So, whenever I was asked, “where you from?” I would say, “Canada.” The reaction was the same every time. There would be a short beat, and then the other person would say, “Canada Dry.” That just made me smile.
To save time spent on lunch, our Tour Director got us all falafel sandwiches to eat on the tour bus en route from the pyramids into Cairo to visit the National Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square (where the Egyptian Revolution took place three years later in 2011). We were also there during Ramadan, so most of the population was fasting.
We also quickly found that Cairo traffic is “every man for himself”. There are no traffic signals, stop signs, or seemingly any rules at all. There is also so much traffic that it pretty much crawls along and takes forever to get anywhere. We had plenty of time to get our lunch eaten before we arrived at the museum.
Ice cold bottled water was kept on the tour bus and was sold to us for 1 USD apiece. I went through three or four of them daily. We were instructed to drink bottled water only and to watch for the bottle to be sealed. This is because the water in Egypt is not drinkable. One can get really ill from drinking it as it contains parasites. It was also suggested that we not get ice cubes in drinks and use bottled water for brushing our teeth too. When we took the Nile cruise later, it was okay to use the water and ice cubes on the ship as the water came from a different source.
The Cairo Museum (with roughly 120,000 items) reminded me of someone’s attic with everything packed in and stacked up. It was only two levels, but like a labyrinth. It would be very easy to get lost. During the riots that took place in the square during the revolution, parts of the museum and some of the contents were destroyed, damaged or stolen. That really upset me as I found the contents to be awe-inspiring. If I were ever to return to Egypt, I would like to spend at least a full day exploring that museum.
When our group entered, we went straight to the Tutankhamun exhibit, which covers a very large area of the upstairs. We weren’t allowed to take photos anywhere in the museum. The amount of items that had been in the tomb was overwhelming. They were packed into a relatively small space. But the space was much larger than the tomb had been. There was a special room for the most precious items from Tut’s tomb, including the gold mask. Since two of his statues were damaged during the revolution, it’s a good thing that the vandals couldn’t get at the mask, gold coffin, jewels, and some of the other completely irreplaceable items.
We then went through several other parts of the museum where we saw statues of Khafre, Khufu, Djoser, Menkaure, Ramses II, various Amenhoteps and Tutmoseses, Tut’s dad Akhenaten, Hatshepsut, Seti I, the Seated Scribe, and loads of other items from all over Egypt. During free time, I made a beeline to the Royal Mummies.
After paying extra (the equivalent of about 25 USD), I was able to gaze upon the actual faces of Seti I, Ramses II, and several other pharaohs. New to the room was female pharaoh, Hatshepsut who reigned from roughly 1478 – 1458 BC. Just the year before my trip, Dr Zahi Hawass had used modern methods to try to identify her body from among three possible candidates. The actual identification came from comparing a space in her mouth from a missing tooth to a tooth contained in one of her canopic jars (jars the held the heart, entrails, and other parts of mummified pharaohs). I had watched the whole drama of the search for her identity unfold on the Discovery Channel and was thrilled to actually see her! Other royals who had not been pharaohs, were in another room nearby and there was a room with animal mummies – cats, goats, crocodiles, and a dog.
That night we had a Nile Dinner Cruise that included belly dancing. Egyptian belly dancing is very different from the belly dancing found in the rest of the Middle East. It is actually more sensual despite the dancers wearing more clothing. There were a couple of male dancers who, at one point, brought me up to dance with them.
We began the next day at the Muhammad Ali Mosque, built in 1848. It is mainly a tourist mosque and was the first mosque I had ever been in. Then we went to Old Cairo. We were told that the street level was 18th century. We went several steps down to reach the 8th century. The 7th century was when the Muslim conquest of Egypt took place. Prior to that, Coptic Christianity (founded in 42 AD by the Apostle Mark in Alexandria, Egypt) was the main religion throughout Egypt.
We went down a few more levels to reach the 4th century. At that level, we walked to the Saints Sergius & Bacchus Church (also known as Abu Serga), which is one of the oldest churches in Cairo. It was built over the location where Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus reportedly lived when they fled to Egypt after Jesus’ birth. We could look down the steps to the 1st century level, but we weren’t allowed down there.
The next day we set off for Cleopatra’s capitol, Alexandria.
