Would you believe I am quite excited by all this?
Well I am! Something about the very name ''Cairo'' is doing it. Somehow the remote and mysterious East is stirring within me.... And at my age that doesn't happen as often as I would like. There is almost something romantic about it all.....
We have ahead of us 4 days of concentrated history ahead of us, and what I don't want is archaeological (and cultural) overload which is why I discussed the itinerary with my guide, (who is called Jesus by the way), and anyway it makes less work for him!
Driving out of Cairo in daylight is a bit of a surprise, I think I am being taken by the prettiest route though, but what is surprising is the large number of unfinished apartment blocks. I live in Greece and we have a fair number of those
but nothing like the ones I am seeing here. They are vast condominiums, not just a block of half a dozen. And many of them are dull drab khaki colour, but that of course is just the colour of Egyptian concrete, in Greece it is darkish grey. Some are just skeletons while others are partially completed, and even partly occupied.
Getting out of Cairo is surprisingly quick and we are heading for Dahshur and my first taste of a pyramid in the flesh!
For many I guess that leaving Cairo for the country would be a bit of a culture shock, but this is the Egypt where donkeys are still an everyday mode of transport, and many buildings are a bit dilapidated to say the least, and there is a lot of dust, and a fair amount of rubbish blown into corners, and the infrastructure is variable to say the least, the roads are rough and there are speed humps every so often, (which means the drivers race a break neck speed from one hump to the next and brake heavily when they get there.
Most of the roads follow canals that bring water for irrigation from the Nile quite some distance away, the banks of the canals are obviously a good place for dumping rubbish...... You certainly would not want to go for a swim in them.....
And there are date palms!
Dahshur reached we have a bit of a problem getting past the security guard and the policeman at the gate. In spite of the fact that we already have tickets money changes hands but my guide remains unfazed by it all!
Of course the first visit is to one of the most famous pyramids, The Bent Pyramid
of Sneferu about 4,600 years ago, one of the first attempts at a true pyramid it, still has its outer casing of limestone nearly intact. According to my guide there are various reasons why the outer casings on all other pyramids have disappeared, it seems some say erosion removed it, by my guide follows the theory that the outer skins were removed on purpose to be used elsewhere!
Nobody was around at the time who can actually tell us....
Here also we find the Red Pyramid, which is made from red limestone, hence the name. It didn't look red to me which is why I asked, ''Why do they call it the Red Pyramid?'' Doh......
Built be Sneferu again it was the second bash at getting it right. If you are into a bit of engineering then you will appreciate the technology behind the construction, and how difficult it must have been for the ancient Egyptians to actually build these things. Which is why they had a few attempts and a couple of disasters before they got it right. Indeed building pyramids became something of a family hobby after this because his son, Khufu, built, or rather commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Tim's Tip of The Day. If you want to see pyramids then you have to go to Cairo because that is where they mostly are......
Dahshur is quite a spread out site and there are other things to see if you have the time and inclination, there is a fair amount of walking over not very good terrain so if you are not a ''walker'' you might find that you get
tired quickly, and that goes for nearly all Egyptian archaeological sites.
But we are off to Saqqara, probably best known for the Step Pyramid, one of the first attempts at a true pyramid.... Unfortunately it was surrounded by scaffolding when we got there, which was a bit disappointing, but there is lots more to see, and some great opportunities for photographs once you have fought your way past the row of stalls selling some unbelievably tacky souvenirs.... (It's a common problem in any country so we will not single out Egypt as the worst case, I think Peru is the worst!).
My guide, and at this point I should say that I was his only tourist that day, has found somebody who is interested in what he has to say, and actually asks some astute questions, (well astute for me anyway), and is waxing lyrical about Old Kingdoms, Middle Kingdoms, First Dynasty, Third Dynasty, Fifth Dynasty.......... Indeed, even the not so humble average Nile boatman knows all about this stuff. You think his only talent is shinning up a felucca mast to take down the sails, well beware because if you start him off with an idle question you will get a potted history of Egypt. And hats off to them I say, they are proud of their history and have every right to be.
Saqqara is a big site, apart from Djoser's Step Pyramid there are another 15, (or was it 16?), pyramids built by various kings of Egypt, plus a vast amount of other nobles' tombs. Well every court has its ''hangers on'', I have a few myself.
There is a bit of graffiti in one of the building too, you have to take a picture of it even though you do not know what it says. Strangely my guide seems a little disinclined to tell me.
There is also a tomb that you can go down to and for many visitors if they are starting their tour in Cairo then this will be their first Egyptian tomb.... The way in and out is easy enough but if yu are a bit claustrophobic you might have a problem! (The Valley of The Kings is easier).
We missed lunch! So it is back to Cairo and something to eat. My guide is a bit surprised when I ask him to eat with me, but I am a sole traveller.
Back in the hotel I collect my thoughts and go through my dozens of photos taken that day.
Tomorrow is a big day......
The Pyramids at Giza has got to be one of the highlights of Egypt. Is there anybody in the World who has not seen a picture of them??
Just for a change I am up early because this is gong to be a busy day......
My hotel is not far from the Egyptian Museum so when Jesus comes to collect me we are going there first. He already has the entry tickets but I want to take my camera in with me so I have to pay a bit extra.
The Egyptian Museum is not huge by European standards, and by those standards it is not the ''best'' museum either. Indeed it all seems a bit haphazard and not very well kept. Everybody apologises for it and says it will be so much better when they open the New Museum ''next year''. But this is Egypt and things
do seem to be a bit haphazard at the best of times so it does not come as a surprise. It has, nonetheless, some of the prime exhibits of Egyptian artifacts of any museum in the world, (except perhaps for The Louvre where a lot of Egyptian things seem to be housed). We walk around and I take photos, some of it is a bit gruesome as a do not really want to walk around a room full of mummified bodies. Persons of a nervous dispostition take note. But what did surprise me was the fact that they mummified animals as well. A favourite dog or cat to take with you into the afterlife perhaps, but a sheep or a goat?? What's going on there then??
And then finally we get to the Tutankhamen display, so many glass cabinets, and a small army of women armed with a bottle of Windex and a yellow duster, except that the dust is on the inside of the glass not the outside, but somehow it does not detract from what you are looking at. Up to this point my guide stays with me, and then we get to the holy of holies, the room where you are not allowed to take photos, and guides are not allowed because they take up to much space and make too much noise although he gives me some advice on the layout before I go in, except there is something I have not told him yet.
Inside THE room we find King Tut's sarcophagus,
various bits of jewellery, and the ultimate piece, that death mask of solid gold although the Japanese couple taking selfies with a mobile phone rather detracts from the atmosphere, and the security guard is having problem with them because they do not speak English, (I bet they do), and they do not understand the sign with a large picture of a camera and a mobile phone with red lines through them....
But I am here in Egypt looking at King Tut's death mask in its rightful place...
In Egypt.
Absolutely choked. I am having a moment. The last time I felt like this was walking into St Peter's in Rome, where I had to have a tall Italian to hold me up.
I leave the room after a few minutes in deep thought, my guide meets me and starts to speak to me , and then asks if I am OK.
''No. I am fine but I want to go now....''
Sitting outside in the sun while we wait for the driver he asks me again what I thought of it all. Blase as ever, I reply ''Well I have seen it before but somehow it is completely different seeing it here, in Egypt''
''You have seen it before?''
''Yes. In London in 1972. I queued for hours.... But this is his home''
Lunchtime... And we go to a restaurant that has a view of The Sphinx. Not many restaurants can boast that. Somewhat surprised as I think the only pictures I have seen of The Sphinx it is miles from anywhere. But of course like any city Giza has grown and now borders right on to the Pyramids and Sphinx.
But first the Pyramids which are way over the other side of the hill..... You can see as many pictures as you like of something but seeing the real thing is completely different because you never quite get the scale of things right.
And the Great Pyramid of Khufu, (it is the Greeks that called him Cheops), is indeed awe inspiring, and truly deserves its place as one of the 7 Wonders of The Ancient World, indeed it is the only
one left virtually complete!
Which says quite a lot about the builders!
I just know I am going to get the statistics any moment now.... As Jesus starts I complete the sentence..... ''built by Khufu who was the second Pharoah of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom''.
Silence.... Then
''You have been doing some reading have you?''
''Yes''...... ''And earlier we saw the only statue of him in the museum.''
The subject of slavery rears its ugly head. Hollywood would have us believe that everything in Egypt was built by slaves, probably with Charleton Heston leading them, but current thinking is that they did not use ''slaves'' in the way that we use the term. Indeed fairly recent research concludes that the workforce building the Great Pyramid were well treated and were probably peasants who were unable to farm their land during the Nile flood periods. Wherever they came from they had their work cut out building the Great Pyramid.
We can but marvel at man's ingenuity.
Of course there are other pyramids at Giza and although we get time to look at them we have a timetable which includes a camel ride....
Tim's Tip of The Day... Never, under any circumstances, try riding a camel...
But you are going to do it anyway so why am I wasting my breath?
It is possibly the most uncomfortable and nerve wracking experience known to mankind, unless of course you are Arab in which case it is second nature to walking, and why walk when you have a camel?
It is nothing like riding a horse, or even a donkey, and they can be a bit uncooperative at times. But on the plus side the camel will kneel down to let you mount it. And the best way that I can describe the ''ride'' is that it is a bit like a bicycle where the spokes have been adjusted so that the wheels are oval instead of round, except that the ''ovality'' seems to vary at random.
All the time you're expecting to get used to the motion but it doesn't happen. The sole saving grace is that the camel driver has the most stunning eyes, which is the only bit of him that you can see because he is wearing the full ''Lawrence'' costume.
Returning to base after an interminable 30 minute trek around the Pyramids, Jesus is waiting for me. And he is smiling, but I am about to get my own back because as he approaches the camel which is sitting down to let me get off, the camel sticks its nose straight into his crotch. While we are trying to get a ''group photo'' the camel is constantly fascinated by him and his crotch. Jesus maintains that it's because he sometimes has food in his ''fanny bag''.
When I start to say ''Well it is quite a good looking camel'' Jesus replies, ''Do not do any camel jokes.''
See, I told you they had a sense of humour.
The last event for the daylight hours is, of course, the Sphinx, and the ultimate photo call that you only do once in a lifetime.
The Sphinx is a mystery. It is carved directly out of of the bedrock, (which was also used to build the Pyramids), but some of it is now made from blocks of stone to replace the parts that have been eroded away, you can make up your own story if you wish.
The buildings nearby are fascinating, the interlocking of the blocks of stone is incredible if you look closely enough.
Time for a trip back to the hotel and a wash and brush up before the evenings activities. No piece for the wicked when you are in Egypt!
On the schedule for the evening is a felucca ride on the Nile followed by an evening of entertainment on a cruise boat that doesn't go anywhere with ''a show''.
Cairo in January is not the warmest place in the world, especially at night, and there is no way I am going sailing in the dark even though the lights of Cairo look very nice from my upgraded Nile view suite at the Novotel El Borg with the heating on.
Jesus knows this so he is taking me from my hotel direct to the ''cabaret'' show, which will be a novelty in as much as they serve alcohol on the boat (that doesn't go anywhere).
The entertainment is a ''whirling dervish'' and a belly dancer..... I ask Jesus to join me for dinner, (he gets his free anyway but usually eats apart from his guests, but as I point out, I am a sole traveller), it was a good move on my part because he is now thawing out a bit.
I will not say too much about the cabaret except that the belly dancer is, apparently, world class, and comes from the USA... The whirling dervish is, well, a whirling dervish.... It is impressive in its own way, and of course very energetic..... But if, during your visit to Egypt, you manage to miss either show then I wouldn't worry to much!!
A final note on The Pyramids and The Sphinx.....
There is a ''sound and light show'' (used to be called Son et Lumiere when I was a boy, but it seems nobody can speak French anymore), done in front of the Sphinx. It is worth attending even if it a bit fanciful at times, the commentary is excellent and there is some excellent music played through a very good sound system. Somebody did make the comment that it made it look like Las Vegas, and in a way it did, but my dream would be to see Aida staged at the Pyramids. It has been done once but is unlikely to ever be done again!
And there's me on that bloody camel again, in the middle of nowhere expecting any minute that Omar Sharif will arrive to rescue me from the clutches of white slave traders........
I think on reflection that a day off between what has gone before, and this day's sightseeing would have been a good idea..... Coptic Cairo is around about the original Cairo before the Nile moved west. The architecture here is a bit of a hotch potch as it was influenced by the Romans, Greeks, Ottomans.... You name it, and there are more Christian churches than you can poke a stick at, and a fair number of mosques as well. The churches date back to when Egypt was a majority Christian country.
I am going to let the pictures do the talking here.....
There are some interesting doorways, I like door ways because I always want to know what is on the other side of them... Possibly the most notable of the churches are The Hanging Church which is not hanging as much as it used, The Church of St. George, and a visit to Ben Ezra Synagogue is also a must... Nearby is the original ''Old Bazaar in Cairo'', and also The Citadel of Saladin who always seemed to be in TV programmes and films about the Crusades.
This is a busy day and you are going to need a good strong cup of coffee....
There are a fair amount of Roman ruins around as well which are worth a picture or two.
And I must be honest trying to do this amount in a day is difficult, depending on your level of interest I would say that two days might just about be enough, particularly if you wanted to visit a couple of the other mosques.
Sorry to say, but I would have liked to spend more time digging around in the souk and a bit less time in the churches, but there you go.
There is also a Coptic Museum which I found out afterwards is also well worth a visit!!
I mentioned somewhere that there is a certain amount of dust and rubbish floating around, here is a typical side street in Cairo......
But finally we get to the souk and even the cats are having mid morning coffee...
And I get to go to just about the oldest cafe in Cairo, El Fishawy has been in business for 200 years, much frequented by famous people such as King Farouk and Roger Moore. The coffee is of course Turkish coffee, and throughout Egypt they call it that. A hangover from the Ottoman Rulers no doubt. (In Greece we call exactly the same thing Greek coffee)
The souk is a busy place with lots of things going on, and some interesting architecture to boot. During our coffee break there is a ''brochure'' sitting on the table detailing a new property development somewhere on the outskirts of Cairo, I forget the actual name of it, but thought it was a bit of an odd name considering the surrounding area is desert, but I ask Jesus about the vast unfinished complexes I have seen. It seems that many of them are developments by families, each member of which has a share in it, the number of shares depending on how much money they have put it into it. So one person may own more than one apartment in the building, and might complete their part of it before anybody else, which is why you see one finished apartment on the 10th floor when nothing else is finished. It seems there is also a tax reason as nobody pays tax until the who;e lot is finished but as usual the government is being mean about it and now passes laws to make people pay the tax before it is finished! Much like Greece except that I mention the legality of buildings, many of which in Greece are still not legal. The difference here is that the government insist they are pulled down and cannot be rebuilt. Now there's a good idea.
We take a wander around the souk and I find some interesting things to take pictures of.....
While my guide is getting a bit tetchy because we are running behind schedule, and there is me thinking I have got him trained!!
But we are off to the Citadel, which if nothing else, gives some fine, although slightly smoggy, views across Cairo.
In the surrounding grounds of the Citadel the are some fine examples of Egyptian topiary which they seem to be very fond of, I am not sure where this originates but I am guessing they inherited it from the Ottomans...
The mosque is an imposing edifice, and well worth a look inside. There are a lot of mosques, nearly as many mosques in Egypt as there are churches in Greece, and the are still building more, the sound of the call to prayer in the evening is quite haunting, especially when you are hearing it from severl directions at once.
The photo outside the mosque makes me look fat........ A couple of months after this photo was taken I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, initially they thought it might be a pulmonary infection but it wasn't, however it put paid to any flying for twelve months....
Tomorrow is a day off from sightseeing...... And I bid farewell to my guide for the last four days with the promise that I will give him a good review on TA and a handsome tip for him and the driver.....
We missed lunch! So it is back to Cairo and something to eat. My guide is a bit surprised when I ask him to eat with me, but I am a sole traveller. 
