Nine months to Egypt (but you should go now)

Old Oct 23rd, 2016, 11:07 AM
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Nine months to Egypt (but you should go now)

I have spent the last few years reading trip reports on Fodors for advice and inspiration, and this year two trip reports really helped put together a trip to Egypt. So this is my way of paying it forward, these trip reports are really accurate and helpful and I want to tell readers what Egypt is like now in these last few months of 2016 and why they should visit it for sure. A huge thank you to welltraveledbrit & SelfPropelledTripod who had such a great time in Egypt and told us about it.


Firstly why Egypt? I’d grown up reading about the pharaoh’s and pyramids. The antiquity of Egyptian civilization is hard to wrap your head around, these massive structures were built when Rome, Athens and all didn’t even exist and no comparable large scale structures from civilizations of a similar time exist. The colour and yes even glamor that TV & Hollywood has bestowed on Egypt is hard to resist and from what I saw it seems justified. These are the reasons I can give.


But the question I was most asked by friends and well-wishers is a different why? Why go to a place which is unsafe, the middle east is in turmoil why visit it now? Yes some parts of the Middle East are facing violent conflict and war, do not visit Syria, Iraq and Yemen for sure. Think twice about visiting Lebanon if you will but Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and the other countries do not have any active conflicts and have good tourist infrastructure waiting for elusive visitors. Having said that, visits to Sinai and the western desert areas of Egypt are warned against by the travel advisories and visitors will do well to stick to the Nile Valley and red sea coast. Indeed due to this perception or fear of instability the tourism industries of these areas are at an all time low – with record low hotel occupancy and low number of tourists at major sites. That’s why this is a great time for really really good deals and wonderful pictures and being treated like kings in most places.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2016, 11:32 AM
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I have a confession to make here, I usually love to plan my travels to the smallest detail (and except for one impulsive trip to Nepal where except for the plane tickets I did not have anything else planned or booked) I always make sure I give myself enough time to plan things out. Here’s what happened with the Egypt trip. I read the wonderful trip reports of welltraveledbrit & SelfPropelledTripod in February 2016. It sounded so wonderful and adventurous (even romantic) I was hooked. I looked at tickets and Etihad had great prices for Cairo. So tickets were booked. Yes my impulsive side intervened. All indications were that the best time to visit was from October to February (winter) so since I did not have enough time to ponder and plan like I always do I settled on October rather than immediately setting off. Twelve days in Egypt nine months away, that sounded like enough time, images of the sphinx and pyramids floated in my vision and I relished the task ahead over the months to plan the perfect vacation aided as I was with wonderful trip reports and the vast trove of detail all over the net.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2016, 01:22 PM
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Thanks for sharing, Leo. I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip.
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Old Oct 31st, 2016, 07:21 AM
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This is as much a story of the nine months that went before the actual trip to Egypt. Any other destination you book tickets plan a little visit and have a great time. Egypt was a special circumstance case. When I booked tickets way back in February the Metroject crash in October 2015 (a year ago from now) had happened, it was a terrorist thing, nothing else had happened after that though various airlines had canceled direct flights to the Sinai area and even to other cities. I had just reassured my self that this is a one off thing not going to happen again and then the Egyptair hijacking to Cyprus happened in March and the Egyptair crash into the Mediterranean happened in May. I’d also by this time planned my itinerary and booked flights from Cairo to Luxor and then from Aswan to Cairo. My carefully laid plans were about to go haywire. Was this an Egypt and Egyptair thing? Was there more to follow and should I just give up on this trip? I was undecided for months and random things just reiterated the safety aspect – anyone thinking of air travel and accidents would realize that content in our movies and TV has these topics rather prominently. The film ‘Sully’ comes to mind – did not watch it, then out of no where I switch on the TV and Meg Ryan in French Kiss is on air – and I was like that sounds like me, that’s how I feel about flying to Egypt, I have lots of examples of things which made me think twice of going on this trip. Add to this the fact that the very evil terror group I would not like to name was rooting around in Libya and parts of Sinai and I was thinking ‘this is what happens when you do impulsive things’, ‘why couldn’t I just go someplace safe like Japan.’ Some how Japan sounds solidly safe to me – don’t ask why.


Now to the reassuring part obviously I have survived to write this report. Egyptair was as safe as any other airline and they do security checks at the airports – I just wish it was more consistent. Sometimes it was very thorough sometimes they would just wave you through – somewhat scary. But Egypt is safe. Never while on the ground did I feel unsafe at all, I did not even think of safety while visiting sites and travelling around so re-assuring was the whole tourist, travel thing. There is massive security at all destinations and even at some hotels. Soldiers with automatic rifles were present at the pyramids and less visibly armed soldiers at the Luxor temples, Egyptian Museum etc. In some sites like Kom Ombo the bag check machine was not working – wish the government would get it looked at soon. But on the ground normal Egyptians we met did not feel that they were under threat. Reading most news articles you would imagine there is a repressed revolution just waiting to happen. That may be the case for some people but what the country has gone through in 2011 and then again with the next president being ousted, the Egyptian people it looks like just want to get on with their lives and have the economy improve.


The impact of all these fears for safety has been sad for the people of course, especially those in the tourism industry. At each site we visited there were shops with no visitors, just a bored shop keeper wondering when people will visit, hotels with may be 20-30% occupancy, empty restaurants and even the major sites had very few people. The pyramids at Giza may have had a hundred folks between the three of them, Karnak and Luxor temples may have had around ten to thirty people at most and sometime the whole site is empty (Edfu & Kom Ombo) and it’s just you walking around and taking pictures as you please. That’s why this is the best time to visit, the normal hordes of tourists are staying away, the market is low so you get good prices and every site is empty so awesome pictures are guaranteed.
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Old Oct 31st, 2016, 07:23 AM
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Thanks tripplanner001 for the encouragement - this is my first ever post like in ever! So going slow but will complete
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Old Nov 1st, 2016, 08:10 AM
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Leo - I haven't been on Fodors much recently but I'm really delighted to see (and follow along) on your trip report. So chuffed to read that my TR along with SelfPropelledTripod's was inspiring . Thanks very much for letting me know I really appreciate it.

TR are always quite a task, I know I currently have one hanging over my head from Cuba! It really is extraordinary t have these amazing sites to oneself...looking forward to reading more!
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Old Nov 1st, 2016, 06:44 PM
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Take your time, Leo. I look forward to reading about your trip whenever you have time to share with us about it.
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Old Nov 6th, 2016, 07:27 AM
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Now to an important part of our trip, the tour operator. Both SelfPropelledTripod and Welltraveledbrit had travelled with Djed tours and I chose to do so as well. There are countries where you could just go and explore on your own somehow Egypt from what I read did not seem like one of them. Sure there are the brave folks who take buses and taxis on their own, read up in advance or take along a guide book, but they are awesome and that sort of travel was not for me at least not in Egypt. I’ve heard of tourists wasting time bargaining and arguing with taxi drivers who wanted to be paid only a certain amount and that too in dollars – not for me. I wrote to Djed in February as soon as I had my tickets and they replied promptly. I specified that I wanted to see Pharonic Egypt and nothing else. The Pyramids, Karnak, Hatshepsut’s temple in Luxor and Abu Simble down south. I was very particular about Abu Simble having heard about it when I was a child and seeing pictures of how UNESCO had the statues carefully cut and moved to another location, there was no way I could have missed Abu Simble. They reverted promptly asking if I’d like to visit in September as by then the summer heat would reduce, and with an itinerary which included all the sites I wanted to see as well as a few others that are considered important. I stuck to my earlier dates but enquired about taking a dahabiya down the Nile, a lot of folks had had a lovely time travelling the Nile by Dahabiya. They reverted with a different itinerary which had three days on the dahabiya – floating from temple to temple. Sounds lovely right? I thought it over a lot and then declined, its an enchanting idea but three days is too much time for me. I’d go crazy sitting in one place or even a boat for so long. If it was one day I’d have grabbed the chance. As it is they do a minimum of three days on the dahabiya where you are provided with meals and you disembark to visit temples like Edfu & Kom Ombo as you travel from Luxor to Aswan. I would actively recommend this to anyone, the Nile is a very beautiful, and relatively clean river. It is particularly nice on this stretch from Luxor to Aswan. Wide, blue and peaceful, just a little too peaceful for me perhaps. The price was not a big difference from that of the original itinerary and may be in some other time I could come back and try this as it still sounds enchanting.


Djed books domestic flights in Egypt and hotels as well and they supposedly get better prices, but I always take care of these and I did for this trip as well. I find that the hotels you stay at are core to the experience you have during your vacation. Sure backpackers don’t stay at fancy places and still have an awesome time – but I’d like a nice place to rest and relax in once all the running around is done. That’s why I rarely take up home stays either. In Cairo I chose the wrong hotel . I wanted something close to the pyramids as one whole day of the itinerary was devoted to them, so something in Giza would have been ideal. The Mena house suggested itself – and was very tantalizing but we’d stayed at a Mercure earlier and we chose that as it would be familiar in a strange country. Suffice to say that it and the Le Meridian next door are primarily used for large tour groups. It did not have the kind of services and facilities we would have loved at our first stay in Cairo and in fact was most un-mercure like. I should have gone with the Mena house perhaps.
As I had months to plan by July- August I’d added Petra in Jordan to this trip, so I reduced the time in Egypt from the 12 days first planned to 9 days which looked sufficient and now having lived those days I can say it’s a comfortable 9 days if you are some one who is used to 5- 6 hours of sight seeing in a day. If you need more leisure time the original 12 days will suit you.


Finally as October approached I’d gotten into this ‘what happens will happen’ mode and that’s how we made our way to Egypt, rumors of turmoil there may be but we will face what comes and if it’s just hype then we will have a grand time of it.
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Old Nov 6th, 2016, 08:35 AM
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I’d quickly get to the trip itself now, writing a trip report is so much harder than I anticipated. We flew via Etihad with a stopover at Abu Dhabi, I’ll just say that the flight was very comfortable and that Abu Dhabi airport was built for smaller numbers. We eagerly watched as the red sea and the Sinai Peninsula flew by as we descended into Cairo. The city from the sky looks very brown and dusty, not too much color and rows and rows of similar houses and apartment blocks and of course there is the desert all around. Cairo Airport was not busy when we landed and passport control took just all of five minutes, the officer was a woman, a pleasant surprise in an Islamic country. She hardly glanced at our passports and stamped them, while another woman right next to her fed the details into a computer. The Djed representative in fact their Cairo manager met us near passport control and led us to the van that was to be our ride for the next day or so. The terminal we landed at (terminal 1) is the older one and a bit run down, it was virtually empty, the much newer terminal 3 is dedicated solely to Egypt air flights and they are just a short distance from each other. Djed asks for 20% of the payment to be wired to them in advance which I didn’t hesitate with as I’ve paid various tour groups earlier in a similar way, but I wish they’d get a credit card option soon. The first thing to notice in Cairo is that there are a lot of old cars, may be 10 and 15 year old Korean and Japanese cars. This was explained to us, apparently the newer cars have a higher tax rate compared to older cars hence the preference to buy older cars plus I am sure they are more economical. There is a complete lack of bikes of any sort, apparently Egyptians do not like them which is a huge contrast to Thailand or Vietnam where bikes are very popular. There were even a few tuk-tuks but very few comparatively. We were driven via the expressway to Giza which passes a very affluent neighborhood – large houses with lawns which is not the norm for most Egyptians. In around 45 minutes you are in Giza and beholding the Pyramids. It is still amazing that these huge iconic structures can just be there. We were mesmerized; our hotel with all its faults still had some views of the Pyramid. We ended the day with dinner at the Mena House. It’s a block away from where we were and the walk was easy despite fast moving traffic, someone came up to us and helped cross the road and immediately started telling us of his friends shop where we could get good deals on papyrus and perfume. The Pyramids are visible the whole length of the Giza road. Mena house is wonderful and relaxing a great way to ease your first few days in Egypt, and the Pyramid looks as though it is right over the wall, where as in fact there is a road and some open space between them. There is a lot of security at this point – an armored vehicle or a military truck at the entrance to the road which leads to Mena House and the Pyramids and cars are checked as they enter. That’s how we ended our first day in Cairo. The itinerary for the next two days was a visit to the pyramids at Giza & Saqqara on day one and then Islamic Cairo and the Egyptian Museum on day two.
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Old Nov 6th, 2016, 08:40 AM
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Thanks again Tripplanner001

welltravelledbrit, Its so cool to hear from you after reading all about your Egypt trip - Cuba sounds like a very good idea, looking forward to reading about it.
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Old Nov 16th, 2016, 05:16 AM
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Our first sightseeing day in Cairo – we were as excited as can be. Its still unimaginable that the Pyramids – the structures all of 4500 years old, wonders of the ancient world are just across the road. The whole area around the Pyramids or at least the area approaching the Pyramids is hotels, shops, houses and so on. It would have been desert some decades ago but the tourist industry has transformed this area. We were taken as scheduled from the hotel to the Pyramids. It’s like just 5 minutes away, through the security check and then up a surprising slope of sand and you are at the entrance. At 9.30 there were already tour buses and around a 100 folks scattered around the structures. Our guide very briefly spoke about how the Pyramids were built and who they were for…things we had read up on in advance. There is a separate fee of LE 100 for going inside the Pyramids which we did not opt for, having read that there is nothing to see inside (those who are interested – they only allow you inside at around 9 in the morning and noon) we were hesitant with all the crouching that was involved. You can climb some of the Pyramids and take tons of pictures. It sure is like a mountain suddenly planted in the desert, the second and third pyramids (of Khafre & Menkaure) which are somewhat smaller in size are behind the largest pyramid (Cheops) and we opted to be taken in the van (due to the ac, it was 97 degrees) to them. It’s just a 3 minute ride and perhaps a 5 minute walk. Here the guide prompted us to take a camel ride as there is a huge open space behind the three pyramids and it would be a good experience. Normally I do not like to take rides on animals as I think of it as exploitation and I’d already done a camel ride in Dubai which I did not enjoy (the camel having taken much longer than needed to complete its rise and descent making me hang on awkwardly). But we agreed to it as we did want to go into that open desert and click some pics and he assured us it would be a short ride. The camel owner supposedly was a genuine Bedouin and he asked for LE 150 per person which sounded on the higher side but the guide said was ok. The ride was better than the earlier one and the view of the Pyramids is spectacular – do try this if you can, it’s a long walk but I am not sure if cars can go into this area. When you type in “pyramids of Giza” on google – the images you get are all taken from this angle. The camel man or person who takes us around on a camel took some of the pictures and he very directly asked for baksheesh or a tip, this was the first time this was so directly put to us and he mentioned that the payment made for camels did not include the tips for him and his son (a boy of around 11 years) I gave him 30 pounds each which he indicated was on the lower side, but from what I read was around the right amount. This is a hard decision to make as LE 30 is not a very large amount and you hear from everyone that the tourist industry is down and they are not making any money, but you also don’t want to tip excessively especially if the service was not exceptional. It had gotten hot by now but I wanted to see the Ship Museum – this is a museum with an exhibit of a ship buried to carry the soul of the pharaoh in the afterlife. This cost LE 50 and was not part of our itinerary – the museum is right next to one of the Pyramids (amazing they could build so close) and it was nice to see such a huge well preserved ship. Apparently it was never assembled or used on actual water in real life. The museum has AC and restrooms which was another plus. From here we were bussed to the Sphinx, I always imagined the Sphinx was just next to the Pyramids and visiting them would mean stumbling over the iconic Sphinx.
Its actually a few minutes’ drive away, the location has the pyramids in the background but it is not close. The Sphinx has its own temple and enclosure (one of the oldest temples in Egypt) and as the Nile flowed very close to the Sphinx (now dry) all the construction material was floated down here. This was the most crowded of all the locations in Egypt. The space opened to tourists is a platform on the left side of the Sphinx, a few feet away from it while it is at a lower level from the platform. So you have a lot of folks trying to get into the same spot to take pictures. There were around 60 people on this narrow platform so it got hectic. I just wanted to sit for a few minutes and take in this sight, the very mysterious Sphinx, so ancient that everyone who has been to Egypt has been here – for the last 2000 years at least!


After that bit of excitement our guide whisked us off to our next stop the older necropolis at Sakkara. But first he added I’ll take you to an excellent place which is recognized by the government, very good papyrus and so on. Let me add here that we rarely like these stops where on a tour you are taken into a store and obliged to buy something. We hardly are shoppers and only look at thing very rarely buying. This was a surprise stop but we went along with it. Apparently or at least this was the sales pitch at the store, most vendors use banana leaf to make their papyrus which is supposedly cheaper to use and assuredly a lower kind of papyrus. Here he assured us only genuine papyrus is used and then he took us through the whole process starting from the raw product – a papyrus stalk I guess you would call it. This was interesting as was the end product, I can’t deny that the painting was beautiful and they covered every possible period. Pharaohs, Tutankhamen & Nefertiti, famous motifs like Tutankhamen seated or the eye of Horus as well as Arabic script, paintings of Islamic Cairo, Christian themes everything possible existed and also all sorts of sizes. He even took us into a room and switched off the lights to show how some papyrus had a underlying image which glowed, Pyramids when the lights are off and Nefertiti glowing in the dark all on the same papyrus. We were not looking for anything that glowed so we went with a midsized image of Maat the winged goddess of justice. We’d looked at papyrus at the stores in front of Mena house and these versions looked more appealing. I am not sure if I’d been charged more than normal as we’d paid the price he mentioned. I am terrible at bargaining and can never ever haggle for a better price, however I am very pleased with the papyrus, I’ve now had it nicely framed and it looks wonderful. Carrying these around is also easy as they wrap them into a light easy to carry pack.
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Old Nov 16th, 2016, 01:37 PM
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Wow!!
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Old Nov 16th, 2016, 03:33 PM
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Fantastic reporting. I am a bit surprised at your mention of crowds at the Pyramids and at the Sphinx given that everything I've read discusses reduced visitor numbers. I can only imagine what these places were like prior to the Arab Spring.
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Old Nov 17th, 2016, 06:26 AM
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Post this detour we drove down to Sakkara which is about an hour away from Giza. From what we could see Egypt is similar to some other countries without a (or perhaps a very efficient) functioning waste collection and disposal system. There was litter throughout the road. Not like heaps of it but sufficient enough to notice. We were also informed in our chats with the guide that most Egyptians learn English as a second language at school but they do not have any way to practice what they learn so forget it completely. A lot of people we met did not know English, especially at stores where we wanted to know what a specific item was; we made do with pointing at things and similar gestures. Those in the tourism industry however speak sufficient English and in some cases, German, Dutch and Chinese as well. Our driver in Cairo for example only understood what we were saying he could not speak English at all and depended on the guide. However our guide could speak very good English and apparently Dutch as well.
It was mid-day by the time we got to Sakkara, we first stopped at the pyramid of Pharaoh Teti, its actually a small pyramid but important because it’s one of the earliest with engravings inside (The pyramids at Giza do not have any engravings what so ever). It looks more like a mound of sand now rather than a pyramid as the outer stone has fallen away and the insides were not built with stone. But the burial chamber underneath and the passage way to it were intact. The entrance was free, so we crouched through the initial passageway which is a slope downwards into the earth. Its may have been around 4 feet high and then we come to a small room which leads to another horizontal passageway which is leads to the burial chamber. Again crouch for a few meters and finally we could stand in the chamber itself. Here as we were told the wall was covered with inscriptions recording the life and doings of Teti of so long ago. What was amazing was the huge Sarcophagus which was still in place, though the mummy had long gone. How they moved this huge huge stone inside this chamber was a wonder in itself. We were now right below the Pyramid with tons of stone and sand brick on top of us – a great thing to be conscious of! The chamber itself was not small – and could easily hold around 30 people with comfort. But it sure was exciting to go deep inside a pyramid, we met three tourists going back to the entrance else this pyramid was completely deserted.
Apparently the queens and family members and even ministers and noblemen would want to be buried around the king – as he was sacred and being near to him may rub of some of the magic on them. There are no visible tombs though around this pyramid except for something which looks like a temple of some sort. We were informed it was the tomb or Mastaba of a noble called Kagemni, and some amount of restoration had taken place. This was one of the few places we were told not to take pictures in all of Egypt. The tomb itself is very beautiful with excellent paintings of daily life – animals being fed, food stuffs and hunting scenes. Supposedly at this time in Egypt the nobles had become as powerful as or even richer than the king and hence could have really fancy tombs. Per our guide there are a lot of tombs and temples that could still be unearthed in and around Sakkara.
Our last monument at Sakkara was the step pyramid – the first real pyramid in Egypt. Some of the outer temple and building leading up to the pyramid itself was restored in the nineteenth century. We had only 2 other people/tourists at the entire site. And a few camel, horse ride vendors. The pyramid itself is undergoing some sort of restoration and is currently surrounded by scaffolding. It’s a long walk from the entrance to the Pyramid and most of it was in the hot sun. The whole site seems to be right in the middle of the desert. Due to the heat and no shade available we stopped here very briefly and also did a quick look at the Imhotep museum also located at Sakkara. A small museum dedicated to the maverick engineer who came up with the idea of pyramids. Again a big plus was AC & washrooms. Before the day ended our guide enticed us to another store which he termed was a must see/buy in Cairo. Perfumes from another authorized vendor it turned out. This was something I was not very keen on yet we sat through the whole explanation & testing process and eventually bought two vials of 100 mg for $45 each just to get the whole thing finished, the fact that the salesman threw in another vial of 50 mg of a third perfume and a perfume bottle for free kind of makes me think we paid more for the 2 bottles. We eventually got back to our hotel (around 4pm) and had an early dinner at a restaurant called Felfela right next to Le Meridian on the pyramids road. I tried my first stuffed pigeon (not very delicious) and some local beans called Ful with various combinations of bread and sides. It was here while browsing Fodor’s I realized the store we bought the perfumes from was the same one Neo12 had warned about “Siwa” luckily for us when we checked the bottles later they were not diluted nor different from what was chosen.
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Old Nov 17th, 2016, 06:34 AM
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Thanks BigSkyDave1, hope that was a wow in a good way

Tripplaner001 thank you and I've heard of folks doing the Israel-Jordan-Egypt trip and just choosing to see the Pyramids in Egypt and nothing else...so could be this and other reasons make these the most visited sites... before the arab spring per our guide there used to be long lines and huge really huge crowds, lots of cruises with hundreds of visitors each - he sounded understandably upset it was not the same now.

please let me know if I am being too detailed - this is a first for me.
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Old Nov 17th, 2016, 10:01 AM
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Thank you again. I for one am very appreciative of the details; it helps me paint a clearer picture of the sights you visited.
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Old Nov 20th, 2016, 10:27 AM
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The second day was to be a mix of Islamic Cairo and the Egyptian museum with the treasures of Tutankhamen’s tomb. I’d originally not planned Islamic Cairo but since there was so much time left the second day we added a few sites. We started early at 8am and to really busy streets – cars moving slowly as far as the eyes could see. In such traffic we reached the Cairo Citadel a small hilltop fortification in an hour and that despite it being not too far from Giza. I have no knowledge of medieval Egyptian history so we completely depended on our guide, as per him this was built by Sultan Saladin who was not an Egyptian but was leading the war against the crusaders. He had eventually ruled over Egypt and this was his stronghold. All subsequent rulers till the last kings of Egypt in the early 1900’s lived and ruled from here. The Egyptian military still has a presence here as there is a military museum at the citadel. The main attraction so to speak here is the mosque of Muhammed Ali. I have visited very few mosques till now so wasn’t sure what to expect. This particular mosque was built some 200 years ago by the then ruler of Egypt and apparently he had wanted it built in a Turkish style. We had to remove our footwear and hand it over to a keeper who did not charge anything for this. The whole place was empty inside and outside with only a total of about 5 people and I weren’t sure if they were worshipers or caretakers. The highlight of this place is the roof or domes which are decorated and gilded and with inscriptions in Arabic as well as huge chandeliers. The courtyard to this place has a huge fountain which was not active when we went and a clock gifted by the French in exchange of the obelisk standing in Paris. Per our guide not many people come to pray here as they would need to buy an entry ticket. When we came out of the mosque post taking multiple pictures of the roof we had excellent views of the city – it is a citadel after all, and just below was the Mosque of Sultan Hassan our next destination. This building looks like a fortification, but is actually a structure of multiple functions – It apparently had two schools or that much maligned word “madrasas” though I am not sure what happened to them now. This is a much bigger structure than the mosque we had visited and it fit the mood of what a religious place should be. Architecturally also it is a very fine example of Islamic building, with huge arches, there is actually a very large open space inside the building and then after that is where the worshipers would offer prayers. The imam or priest has a small staircase with a door of its own leading to the pulpit with a very ornate door. The whole place was very well decorated in beautiful colors and geometric designs. What I can remember about the backstory is that this mosque was built around 700 years ago by the Mamluk’s a dynasty of slaves who rose to power and eventually ruled in the name of the Ottomans. I liked this mosque better than the earlier one, and again we had just 5 people here as well. Three of them tourists for sure who sat absorbing the peace and quiet at the open area. There is again military presence outside this mosque, with a small army truck and soldiers.

From here the famous Khan-El-Khalili market was not too far away. Five minutes in our mini bus and we were at one the entrances of the market. During all this travel around Cairo we were able to observe the attire of women, it being an Islamic country we were not sure if the head to toe covering was the rule. What we found is a majority of women only covered their head, in the not a strand of hair visible type of cover. A few did have the head to toe black cover and a few did not bother with any covering at all. They dressed in a modern way. Happier still was that women drove, women with hair covered drove as did women completely in black. Surprising given its neighbor Saudi Arabia still has to reach this far in women's rights. In the stores we had visited there had been a few female assistants especially in the perfumery. So some progress at last in Egypt.
We had started at what our guide said was an old gate of Cairo, and this led to a street which eventually merged into the market. Along the way you had parks and open spaces, Mosques and old buildings. A lot of people taking walks or relaxing and gossiping. Old men and women. Young girls and children. It’s a good place to people watch and as we went along the street we found buildings of architectural interest as well. This street had a lot of buildings which were water dispensers or places people and travelers would come to collect water. I was not too favorable of our guide in a market with his inclination to take us on shopping detours. But he was hungry as we had started early and he bought snacks from the street stalls and offered us as well. First some fruits in a plastic cup, them some sugar cane juice in a plastic bag and finally some Ful (beans) with flat bread. It was like a eating stroll in the Egyptian market and thankfully we did not have any after effects. We spent an hour in the place. The actual market it self being full of every kind of merchandise, lots of plastic things for sure. Tons of Hukkah’s for tourists or locals I wonder. Spices, clothes and Egyptian (am sure made in China) souvenirs. The whole place is busy with lots of locals and very few tourists that I could see. Having roamed the market and seen all that we could we headed to our next destination – the Egyptian Museum.

Our Guide thought two hours was more than enough for the Egyptian museum but I was not sure. Its right in the center of Cairo, at the heart of the famous Tahrir square where the Arab spring demonstrations went on for weeks. The museum tries to cover all periods of history starting from the earliest dynasties and ending with the Greek-Roman period. If you are not a museum person just head to the first floor where the treasures of the boy kings tomb are displayed. We did a brief tour of the early dynasties and then headed to the Tutankhamen rooms. It takes up quite a lot of the first floor. Out side you have the shrines in the tomb, the furniture and beds used by the king all gilded and so amazingly ancient. This is truly what a treasure is. The actual funerary mask which has become an iconic image is in a separate room which is temperature controlled and also displays jewelry that was also found. The museum allows for photography for I think LE 50. So I started clicking pictures of the huge golden sarcophagus the famous one where the king is holding the scepters in his hands which are crossed. Here the guard notified me that pictures were not allowed in this room, looking at the ticket I realized that was correct, King Tut’s room and the royal mummies were not open for pictures. Thankfully he did not delete what I had already clicked – something I have heard happening. The jewelry is out of this world beautiful. The face mask so realistic and yet exotic no wonder these items have captured the imagination of the world. There were a lot of things discovered in King Tut’s tomb – from gilded sandals to chairs and statues. There is also a display of items that were stolen during the revolution – some 40 items, mostly from the first floor. Some half of these have been recovered where as the remaining may be lost for ever. The recovered items are also somewhat damaged as the display showed before and after images.

Next to the King Tut room is the Tanis Silver room again similar treasures from a different period but mostly in silver which apparently was more precious than gold in the olden times, you have two funerary masks in this room all in solid silver. On the same floor is the Royal Mummies room. To see the mummies there is a separate ticket of LE 100 which I bought, I think there are around 6 of them in the room and mostly from around the same period. Hatshepsut, Ramses 2 who built all the great monuments across Egypt and who has some hair left on his head (I thought Pharaoh’s shaved their head) I just wanted to see these god-kings whose names will be repeated time and again during our trip to Egypt. All of them were short – not sure if it is due to the process they undergo and most of them were realistic and looked capable of suddenly sitting up.

Next to the royal mummies was the animal mummies, a much sadder story indeed. Some of the animals mummified like a cow – was revered during her life time (reminds me of india) others were not so lucky. Apparently a belief in ancient Egypt was that your prayers or wishes would come true if you offered a mummified animal that the god liked – so it could be a cat or a monkey or ducks. And the prayers will be in effect as long as the mummy survived or basically for ever. Unfortunately this gave rise to a business of breeding and selling animals for this purpose – very grisly.

We spent another hour looking at huge statues, beautiful paintings and even whole shrines at the ground floor. I wish the Egyptian museum had an audio aid else we are dependent on what our guide wants to tell us. If you like ancient Egyptian history spend at least 2 hours here – it covers every period and has some very beautiful pieces. And it is true that the museum has two times more pieces in storage than on display due to lack of space. Outside there was art shop which had recreations of the furniture from King Tut’s tomb even a full sized bed – we didn’t wait to inquire but if you fancy a full sized gilded bed this is the place to come.

We then got back to our hotel for yet another early dinner at Felfela – this time we tried their Shwarma’s which were delicious before we left for the airport and our next city – Luxor.
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Old Nov 20th, 2016, 06:52 PM
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So enjoying all the details of your report!
We loved the Tanis Silver room at the National Museum.
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Old Nov 21st, 2016, 03:14 PM
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Very nice and detailed trip report Leo_A. We are using Djed for our trip in March 2017. It sounds like you were fairly happy with them correct?
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Old Nov 22nd, 2016, 07:35 AM
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Thanks Welltraveledbrit & Thrill22

Yes Thrill22 we were very happy with Djed, it was a hassle free trip which is what we wanted, any changes and modifications you want them to make on anything go ahead and ask they were quick to respond
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