Eaziak from Egypt

Dear All,

Its been a bit of an epic for me to get on email so expect an epic yourself! ;)

A land of magnificent World Heritage sites and the oldest travel destination on the planet, Egypt has been enticing visitors for more than three millennia while also contributing much to the development of civilisation.

We are on a 2-week adventure, which we were promised would be a fantastic overview of Egypt, from pyramids to the Red Sea Coast, and across the Nile to Mount Sinai. From the only one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World still in existence, to the plethora of hieroglyph-covered tombs & temples in the lush Nile Valley over to what is reputed to be the site of some of the world's best diving and snorkelling and finishing at the pink & purple wedge of rugged earth where Moses was believed to have been given the Ten Commandments. So far this has been a riveting journey. We are travelling with an extremely great group composed of 8 Aussies, 4 Brits, 1 Canadian and our local Egyptian guide / Egyptologist.

We started the trip in Cairo, the biggest city in Africa where Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic history fuse with the present. In the shadow of the Pyramids, along the banks of the Nile, the commotion & chaos overpoweringly assaults the senses, well more precisely the smog, hanging over the city like an old curtain though some of it may be down to the sheesha smoke! The traffic is an experience as is crossing the road - not an endeavour for the faint-hearted.

Packed to the point of overflowing, more than 120,000 relics & antiquities from almost every period of ancient Egyptian history are housed in the fantastic Egyptian Museum, enough to induce "Pharaonic phatigue" on the first day of the trip. Approx 1,700 objects on display are from the tomb of Tutankhamun who died in 1352BC which are the best overall exhibits. Wandering from room to room is like taking a stroll through history giving a great insight into ancient egyptian life. Morbidly curious, we paid the extra for a walk through the Royal Mummy Room. Most of the mummies looked quite peaceful, well as peaceful as several thousand year old corpses look. However there was one who died in battle and his mummy was particularly grotesque. We also saw mummified animals including crocodiles, cows, a horse and various other creatures.

Just on the southeastern edge of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile River stand the 4,500-year-old mausoleums known as the Pyramids of Giza. The only remaining one of the Seven Ancient Wonders, they rise out of the desert towering above the modern city of Cairo right on the edge of the suburbs. The tallest & oldest of these is the Great (or Khufu's) Pyramid with a base covering 5 hectares. In front of these pyramids is the mythical beast of lion's body & human head known as the Sphinx. These are indeed a spectacular sight although after hearing so much as I have recently about the pyramids I expected them to be bigger than they were. But they are still big and still impressive. The fun part of the visit was riding on camels around to the far side of the pyramids away from the normal tourist area on camels; mine was called Fred!

On the afternoon of the second day, we continued on the theme of pyramids and visited King Zoser's Step Pyramid at Saqquara where we also got a sighting of the Bent and Red Pyramids whioh were built by King Zoser's successor. The Step Pyramid is considered the first real pyramid though it was built in six stages. The architect was Imhotep, who was later deified not buried at the foot of Annubis in the City of the Dead as in the movie The Mummy!

From Cairo we took an overnight train to Aswan, overnight also including the following morning as the trip is some 13.5hrs long. Here it is said that the Nile is at its most beautiful and certainly compared to the polluted river in Cairo as it nears the end of its course, it most certainly is better. The heat in Aswan was pretty much unbearable when we first arrived, so we waited until the cooler evening before visiting the Philae Temple of Isis for its Sound & Light Show.

The following day travelling by convoy we headed off at 4.30am 280km south of Aswan (only 40km north of the Sudanese border) to Abu Simbel. This huge archaeological site comprises the two massive temples of Ramses II originally carved out of a mountain on the west bank of the Nile between 1274BC and 1244BC. Not only is this a magnificent monument in its own right but also its removal brick by brick & reconstruction (when threatened by submersion in Lake Nasser due to the construction of the High Dam) during a UNESCO project in the 1960's another feat of great engineering. The temple is aligned in such a way that on 22 Feb & 22 Oct every year the first rays of rising sun penetrate it where they illuminate three of the four Gods of the innermost chamber (sacred sanctuary) Ra-Horakhty, Amun, & the deified Pharaoh himself as they sit on their thrones. Ptah is the fourth. This was one of the most impressive sites on the trip so far. It was definitely more mind blowing than the Pyramids of Giza, but it is also much younger and by the time of Ramses II the Egyptians archititectural skills surpassed any earlier attempts. Ramses II was a great warrior but also a great family man (well producing them anyway). He graced Egypt with 125 of his offspring - 85 boys and 40 girls, of which he outlived 16 of his children and was succeeded by his 13th son! What a busy boy!

In the evening we visited a Nubian Village where we tried herbiscus and mint tea, held a small crocodile (as you do, though I have held an alligator in the past!), had henna tattoos then enjoyed a meal followed by Nubian singing & dancing.

We left Aswan to cruise up the Nile in a felluca for two days. A felluca is a traditional sailing vessel and an ideal way to relax and see the Nile at the same time. We had a few dips in the Nile to cool off and the sailors cooked our meals on the boat. The only downside was having to "go bush" literally for the two days, not good when several people in the group had developed "Travellers' Tummy"!!!

We disembarked the felluca at Kom Ombu where we visited another temple. This was from the same era as the Philae Temple, as was our next stop at Edfu temple. All three tell the story of Isis, Osiris and Horus in carvings, pictures and writing. Then we proceeded onto Luxor where we rested during the heat of the afternoon and enjoyed a refreshing dip in the hotel's pool on the roof followed by a visit to the markets in the evening.

Today we visited the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir al-Bahri, a temple blended into the limestone cliffs and terraced up the steep slopes. Although Hatshepsut was one of the most famous and uniquely female pharoahs, it would appear that she was not well loved in her time and her pictures and cartouch have been chiselled off the temple. Only restored statues remain.

We rode donkeys (mine was called Ali Baba) to the Theban Necropolis that is the Valley of the Kings. Here tombs were hidden in the hillsides to protect them from robbers, the most famously discovered being that of King Tut. We visited three of the tombs that are open (there are 63 tombs at the moment and the latest discovery was the tomb of Ramses II's sons - as you can imagine, its a pretty humungous tomb, but its not open to the public, neither is that of the big man Ramses II himself). We visited Merenptah (Ramses II's son & successor), Ramses I and Tuthmosis III. Merenptah's tomb was by far the most impressive but the other two were excellent too. Its quite wierd standing in a few thousand year-old mausoleum sweating like mad (they're extremely humid inside!).

Tonight we're off out to sample the nightlife of Luxor. Some of our party finish tomorrow so we're giving them a send-off. Tomorrow is a visit to Karnak Temple.

Ashofak baedain

Kath & Andy