Egypt: Cairo, Giza, Alexandria

November 26-27, 2009

These pictures span the two days we spent traveling in Egypt. We were given back our passports which were taken when we boarded the ship in Italy. We were met at the terminal in Port Said by our Memphis Tours guide, Hassan,who introduced us to our driver, Sadaka. We were the last vehicle of the first caravan to be escorted out of the port area. We would be escorted by police on our journey to Cairo and Giza. The driving there makes Italy look tame. They say the signs and lane markers in Rome are just a suggestion, but in Egypt, they are decoration. Our van was soon the first one in the convoy once we got out of the port city. The next several hours were spent jockeying for position and trying to nudge the police vehicle to go faster. Needless to say, there are no photos from the road trip since it was nearly impossible to get a shot out the windows. We didn't sleep either.

We arrived in Giza and picked up our Egyptologist, Emme. The pyramids are awesome! We were surprised to find out that they are not out in the middle of the desert, but almost surrounded by the city of Giza. We stopped several places in order to get some great photos of the biggest one first, The pyramid of Cheops. Then we went around and up on a hill to see the Pyramid of Chephren (his son) and the smaller one for his wife and others for children and other relatives.

Next we went around the other side to see the Sphinx which is supposed to be the head of Chephren on the body of a lion. It seems sort of small since it is dwarfed by the pyramids but it is quite large when you get closer. We went through a temple where they would do the rituals of burial and the mummification before taking the deceased to be interred. We stopped for some souvenir shopping and a jewelry store. Cartouches are vertical hieroglyphics of your name between two straight lines. They were usually just for royalty but these days the hot souvenir is to get your own name done. Unfortunately, the price of gold made it pretty pricey to buy a pendant there. We next went to a place that demonstrates how they make papyrus and they also sold artwork done on papyrus. I found one that is the marriage of King Tut and has places for cartouches for two names. So I bought one and they inscribed Jonathan's name and my name in hieroglyphics. JO got one with the Key of Life and her name. Cool.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe located in the Grand Hyatt Cairo. It was a buffet of Egyptian food which sort of surprised us since we were expecting the usual Hard Rock menu. It was okay. I'm not a spice person and there were also lots of raw vegetables that we were warned by the ship not to eat. I wasn't willing to take chances of getting sick while others in our group were more adventuresome. Luckily no one had a problem anywhere we went but we were reasonably cautious.

The afternoon at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities was spectacular. Emme was invaluable since she took us to the most important items and explained their significance. Without her, there were several things we might have walked right by without understanding that they are huge finds. She told us about the first female ruler ( I'll look up her name since I couldn't understand Emme's accent) who killed her husband in order to assume the throne and then henceforth presented herself as a man so she would appear more powerful. The statues of her all all dressed as male including the false beards the men wore, but there are breasts and a small waist of a female.

Of course, Tutankhamen's treasures were stunning. We learned that due to his death at a young age, there wasn't the lifetime of work done on his tomb so it was relatively small but they made up for it in grandeur. His mummy was encased in four nested gilded boxes where inside were several nested sarcophaguses (sp?) sort of like an elaborate set of Russian dolls, each successive piece was grander that its container. 24 carat gold inlaid with jewels. The mummy itself had a solid gold mask over the head and gold hands with scepters over the mummy hands. The room with the most valuable items is small and crowded, but I braved it anyway. They are building a whole new museum in another location that Emme says will be better to handle crowds.

Tired feet, bad knees, we were glad to sit down for a few minutes. We stopped by a perfumery and got the spiel and a couple people bought some. We then headed to our hotel the Le Meridien, and Hassan checked us in and got us pyramid-view rooms. If you look at Jo's photos of the hotel room, you might wonder what the arrow is for. It points toward the pyramids outside our window but it also might be pointing to Mecca. We're not exactly sure. We had about 45 minutes before Hassan picked us up again to go to the sound and light show back at the pyramids. It was interesting and pretty but a little cold out. Back at the hotel we all split up. Jo and I got a couple Snickers for our Thanksgiving dinner - too tired to do much else. Off to bed since we had to be ready to hit the road at 7 am.