After spending some time in Egypt I’ve decided I should be called King Tutintomin, that’s right King Tut-in-Tom-in, I’m sure there is royal blood flowing in these veins. Close friends can still call me Tom or Tommy but all others need to use King Tutintomin.
I’m not sure where to start talking about Egypt, it is both magical and monstrous. The sights you see will amaze you. Realizing they did these things thousands of years ago is unbelievable. That said, it is a poor Middle Eastern country and the things you see will bewilder you. While it is not as bad as Saudi Arabia it is hot, dirty and sad. Poverty and unemployment encircles you, everywhere you look. People from all walks of life struggling to make a better life for themselves at the expense of others.
From the elevator of the hotel to the curb you can have your luggage handed off three times with everybody expecting a tip. Walk through a souq and you will be approached, followed and harassed to purchase something. While I understand their situation and I am sympathetic, day after day at every stop you make is overwhelming. Then the guides take you to places their friends or business partners own and you're hounded to buy more items. Additional tickets for cameras, access to additional areas, DVD sets, it goes on and on.
In the picture to the left we are travelling 40-45 mph and people are trying to "walk" through the cars. Drivers honking, swerving and somehow missing the people crossing the street, amazing.
Like Saudi Arabia, there are no traffic rules. You drive where you want while honking the horn and flashing your lights to improve your position. On all but the large freeways you will see donkey carts loaded with various items, our guide called them "Egyptian Ferrari’s". Three wheel Tuk-Tuks everywhere, overloaded and swerving in and out of traffic. If it’s a two lane road they drive three abreast, a three lane road they drive four abreast and forever trying to get more cars, carts and motorcycles through a road designed for less traffic. The registered tour guide drivers are better about stopping at lights but will still thrill you with their exploits.
It was disappointing to not be able to take pictures in a lot of the places we toured as it would have been great to share our memories with others. Where possible I will share pictures we took and in other places I will use stock photos we got on DVD.
So many of the artifacts are incomplete or damaged, it was common practice for the conquering army to tear down or deface the statues, especially the facial features.
Cairo is a big city with about 20 million people in the metropolitan area. Our room had a view of the Giza pyramids. Our first day touring was spent in Giza to see the pyramids and Sphinx.
Cheops' pyramid is the largest pyramid in existence and is the only remaining structure of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The pyramids were erected to preserve the bodies and treasures of the Pharaohs for the afterlife.
Sakkara is called "The City of the Dead", it is the oldest burial ground in Egypt. Sakkara is the site of the Pyramid of Djoser or the Step Pyramid, one of the first pyramids constructed. There are 17 burial tombs within the complex.
At the Necropolis of Dahshur you can see The Bent Pyramid. It is a pyramid that changes the angle of the sides about half way to the top, very unusual and the only pyramid of this type.
In Cairo we also went to the Egyptian Museum. While the exhibits were nice it was very hot, no AC in the building with 95+ degree heat and hundreds of people. The King Tut exhibit was awesome, worth the price by itself.
Luxor is about a hour flight South from Cairo on the river Nile. Our guide for Luxor was named Bob. He said he was a big Bob Marley fan and his friends gave him the nickname and it stuck.
Our first stop was the Karnak Complex. On our way there looking out the windows we saw beautiful flowers, trees and agricultural lands, this is the fertile Nile valley We learned that the Nile (which flows from South to North) has had branches forked off of it many times, diminishing the size of it. This was done to irrigate the fields further away to increase their growing areas. Once we saw the end of the Nile in Cairo, this was amazing as the end result of what's left of the river is still huge.
The Karnak Temple Complex is a series of decaying temples, chapels and other buildings near Luxor, formerly known as Thebes. One of the buildings, the Hypostyle Hall, was built by King Seti, who ruled from 1290 - 1279 B.C. This Hall is filled with huge columns covered with hieroglyphics relating the story of King Seti. The tallest of the columns are 70 ft tall and the shortest are 40 ft tall. The hall is an area large enough to encompass the whole of Notre Dam in Paris.
The Avenue of Sphinxes was a row of Sphinxes connecting the temples of Luxor and Karnak. It is over 3 km long and was made up of over 2000 sphinxes.
We had the opportunity to visit the Luxor Museum and we did. There is a big struggle within the Egyptian antiquities authorities as to which museum (Luxor or Cairo) gets the best stuff. Our guide was quite adamant that the Cairo museum was stealing their best displays.
The Hall of Mummies in the museum was very nice. There were seven or eight mummies in various conditions, I think they were all impressive. The display was well done, good exhibits, adequate lighting and a good subject.
On our second day in Luxor we visited The Valley of The Kings on the West Bank of the Nile. Interestingly, the West Bank was designated for the dead, with the living being on the East Bank. There are 63 tombs located in this area. We went into three different tombs. Some of the original paintings still have beautiful colors showing, it's quite a site.To access one tomb you transverse a 125 meter deep shaft at about a 40 degree slope, it was a hard walk down and back up. Of course there is no air circulation system so it makes the interior extremely hot.
The Temple of Hatshepsut the only woman Pharaoh of Egypt.
Our final night in Cairo we stayed at the Grand Nile Tower Hotel. It was awesome! We had a suite that overlooked the Nile and the view was incredible. It was the perfect way to leave Egypt.
TJ & EA in Egypt
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