Wednesday, 2 July 2025

Egypt - Friday 16th May - Cairo and Pyramids at last!

Finally, after years of planning and paying off this trip we have made it to the pyramids.

Its HOT!

Its over 40 degrees, even the locals say its a heatwave.

Tomb of Kagemni

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So, this our first tomb of many, many.

This one is interesting as it is beautifully decorated with some of the colour remaining.

All the things this nobleman will need in the afterlife.

Lots of fishing, cattle and birds, ducks and geese.

I hope they have included someone to do all the plucking.

This above must be the blokes who do the plucking.

Every inch was covered in pictures and hieroglyphs.

Unlike many other tombs this one hasn't had vandals defacing it.

NOW LETS DANCE!

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues. ( thanks D Bowie).

King Teti

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تتى

The next one has this long sloped tunnel to climb down with rungs.

So you are hunched over and walking down sideways. But I managed it even with my dodgy hip.

Getting back up the ramp again was a struggle but I did it slowly, (otherwise I would still be down there)!

Now this isn't me below, but I wanted to remember how steep the climb was and it definitely wasn't 40 degrees the day these people visited. No way I could take photos and concentrate on not falling down the ramp.

Thank you to the nice You Tuber for the pic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8neIYzoxOo

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

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هرم سقاره المدرج

All that sand...

in my shoes...

This, above, is the processional colonnade leading to the pyramid.

Egyptian Weaving School

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Ah ha, this is the bit where they are trying to sell us stuff.

Our next stop was a rug showroom and some of the pieces were beautiful.

Yes, we did buy a tiny little yellow rug which after we worked out the exchange rate, cost us close to $300!

When I finally get it up on a wall I'll take a photo and add it to this post.

Giza Pyramids

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اهرامات الجيزه

The Giza pyramid complex (also called the Giza necropolis) in Egypt is home to the Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure, along with their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. All were built during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, between c. 2600 – c. 2500 BC

Click above for a link to Wikipedia.

Before you ask, no we didn't ride a camel.

Others in our group did, and it was basically hop on - take a photo - 5 dolla.

I couldn't have got my hip over a camel, and I've ridden a camel properly in Alice Springs, memorable blisters I can tell you.

I've told them we can send some camels to Egypt, as they are a feral pest in Australia.

Imagine all those soldiers climbing up and sitting up there!

I had more problems getting up and down the bus steps than I did walking around the tourist sights.

But I found if I took 2 anti-inflammatories, plus regular panadol during a big day it helped a lot.

Did I mention it was HOT!

By late afternoon it was excruciating.

So lets get hot at the Sphinx..

The Great Sphinx of Giza

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ابو الهول

Well, been there, done that.

It was beautiful, amazing and HOT!

Please let me know if I've got the Egyptian Arabic wrong.

Tomorrow we have a very early start and we are on a little plane to Luxor.

Where the word luxury comes from.

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

Egypt - Thursday 15th May - Cairo

YAY, Our first tour day.

There are about 80 people on the tour. All American apart from ourselves (THE Australians) and an English couple. This morning was a welcome briefing about the tour then we piled onto buses for our first tours.

Muhammad Ali Mosque aka The Alabaster Mosque (مسجد محمد علي)

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I'm sorry Cairo, but I think the Mosques in Istanbul are so much better.

Interestingly, no taking your shoes off any more, they gave out disposable bootees to cover your shoes.

The tomb of Muhammad Ali is also in this Mosque, and I'm talking about the governor of Egypt in the 19th century, not the boxer. (although I think there might be an Islamic link).

And now some thoughts from my jottings about Cairo.

There are more than 22 million people living in this city (and growing every hour).

In Australia there are 28 million in total. (I just googled that).

The place is falling apart.

Everyone lives in a flat, no houses. They are dirty and crumbling. The desert dust being so close doesn't help. If there was an earthquake the whole city would collapse.

No big skyscrapers with shiny windows, because the windows would need to be washed every day.

I'd like to look inside one of the flats, because even though they look like a tip on the outside it wouldn't surprise me if some of them are really luxurious and modern on the inside.

This made me laugh.

They disguise the mobile telephone towers as palm trees in case they are a blot on the landscape....

From the motorways you can see the roofs and they are the place to dump the broken furniture and other rubbish. Don't start me on the satellite dishes on the roofs, there must be 22 million of them.

They say, they are building a new capital city, which doesn't have a name yet. They hope to move people out of Cairo. Now, dear grand kids, let me know by telekinesis if this new city materialised...