In December and January, my dad and I spent some time in Egypt. He'd been to the odd beach resort there before and I'd popped by Cairo for work a while ago, but it was time to go explore the ancient civilisation.
We did a lot of walking - around the Islamic areas visiting some mosques and bazaars especially. And there are a lot of mosques in Cairo, most of which are very impressive, some of which also have great views over Cairo. We also visited the museum, where there are endless piles of artefacts. Walking around the museum, you pass sarcophagus after sarcophagus, stone sculpture after stone sculpture, and upstairs plenty of mummies in the side-section (which had some interesting descriptions and really made me in awe of the technique of mummification). The museum could be much better, but it could also be worse. A new museum is under construction and should be ready within a year so we'll have to go back and visit another time. Also upstairs was the Tutankhamen exhibit with all the contents from the tomb, including the famous golden mask that was placed over the body. It really is quite stunning, though photos of it are forbidden.
Cairo traffic is pretty bad but we mostly walked, with the odd subway ride and some taxis too. Few restaurants served alcohol , but they did alow you to bring alcohol in if you wanted to. The leafy parts of Cairo are pleasent, and there are some nice little cafes hidden in strange places. Many of the nice old buildings have been somewhat abandoned unfortunately. It is a very dusty city without much green, and not a place where there are many places to go for a run. We did find one Palace that was quiet and green and was worth a good look around, even though it is not used. The architecture was incredible; so was that of some of the Churches and even the synagogue (a church that was converted into a synagogue actually).
We did an evening watching the pyramid light show which really was not worth it, whether you pay a lot to watch it up close, or watch from a hotel balcony nearby (it is also cold in the evenings in Cairo at this time of year). Visiting the actual pyramids themselves during the daytime of course was special. Standing on the steps of these absolutely enormous entities is just incredible. The mind boggles at why anyone would think it necessary to build these things that have no practical purpose (the symbolic nature of a pharaoh being powerful, living in the after life and having all those around see their power don't seem very practical reasons to me). We went inside some of the smaller ones that are mostly below ground, and one of the bigger ones - quite exciting climbing in these tiny tunnels, and trying not to think of the millions of tons of rocks above you that could cave in (though probably won't since they hadn't for the previous 5,000 years)!
It is certainly pretty touristy and there are a lot of people inside, outside and on the lower steps of the pyramids. A lot do take camel rides into the desert (we mostly walked, but did hop on a camel for a few minutes). It is quite something to see and just stand in awe of, and imagine how they could have ebeen built nowadays, let alone back then with just boats and wooden rollers, and lots of people to move all the rocks.
Whilst in Cairo we ate at a variety of different places, including the odd 5-star hotel since they had football on, and we thought they would have some heating (though they generally didn't). We also had some more local food on the streets, but I think we really needed a local to help us have the best culinary experience there. Probably some of the best food was in some more modern, boutique restaurants that we went to.
No comments:
Post a Comment