Next Stop, EGYPT!

The next stop on our cruise was to Egypt. Our port of call was Alexandria, and we were docked there for 2 days which gave us enough time to take the 3 hour drive to Cairo. We met our tour guide at the dock and our first stop was The Library of Alexandria- which is the largest and most significant library of the ancient world. We took some pictures and saw a great view of the city. After the short stop, we continued on our way to Cairo. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and kept us entertained throughout the long car ride. We passed by a lot of desert sand but also noticed new cities being constructed – which are meant to ease the overpopulation problem in Cairo, 25 million people live in that city! We crossed the Nile River into Cairo, and our first stop was the Museum of Egyptian Antiques. I’ve never been a fan of history, but ancient Egyptian history has always been fascinating to me, so this museum was one of my highlights of the trip. Our guide did a great job of explaining the artifacts found in the museum, most of which have been excavated from ancient tombs. There was everything from thrones, jewelry, art and even perfume (some of the bottles were still unopened 10 thousand years later!). There was also a room of all artifacts found in King Tutankhamen’s tomb (the boy king) - which was the only tomb not tampered with by raiders. It was really amazing how many possessions the kings were buried with and how much they prepared themselves for the “after life.” The way they prepared their bodies with mummification and the mythology of how the gods weighed their hearts and approved them for passage into the afterlife is amazing to me. After the museum, we made a stop at a jewelry store where my mom placed an order for a Kartush – a name plate with you name in hieroglyphics- and then headed to check into a hotel. The hotel was included in the tour, and it was a beautiful 5 star resort with stunning views of the great pyramids of Giza. We concluded our tour with a dinner cruise down the Nile River. There was a belly dancing show- actually, WE were the show. The belly dancer and singer pulled us on to the stage and we were dancing along with other people on the boat. It was actually pretty fun! However, I was amazed at the loop hole of belly dancing- Egypt is a Muslim country, and all the women are always dressed in traditional clothes and always covered their hair completely, yet these belly dancers are allowed to entertain in practically their underwear. Nonetheless, the dinner cruise was a cool experience, and it was kind of nice to see Muslims, tourists and belly dancers getting along. Also, the Nile at night was beautiful- you could see the Cairo and Giza skylines which made for a romantic setting. We went back to the hotel after dinner to rest up for the next day- there was a lot ahead of us!

Day two in Egypt- we woke up at the crack of dawn to get in as much sightseeing as possible. Our same tour guide picked us up from the hotel and we drove straight to the Mohammed Ali Alabaster Mosque. On our way to the mosque, I noticed how dirty the streets of Cairo were. I heard that it was a dirty city, but I wasn’t expecting the amount of garbage that I saw in the streets and in the rivers. You’d think that people just throw trash out of their windows. We passed over the Nile river the night before for the dinner cruise, and there we tons of people sitting on the bridge and enjoying each other’s company- the next day, all of the garbage was left behind and the bridges were just disgusting. Even the water used for irrigation was piled with garbage- there were a few spots where we even saw the garbage burning, I guess that’s the only way to get rid of it. The mosque was a nice site to see, it was a copy of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey- which I saw a couple of years ago. Our tour guide even showed us how the Muslims pray, and I learned that every person’s prayer is different from one another. After the mosque, we drove to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt to see the colossal statue of Ramses II. The statues were displayed in an open air museum, and were enormous. There were many statues of the gods as well as a sphinx, said to be the second largest next to the famous one in Giza. Everything was so perfectly preserved from being buried under the sand that it’s amazing to believe that they are 10 thousand years old. On top of that, many of the statues, including the famous Ramses II, are made out of granite from Mt. Sinai- meaning ancient Egyptians trekked huge stone blocks for miles to get the statues where they are today. It was really incredible. And the statues were carved so perfectly, it’s like the ancient Egyptians had their own Michelangelo! After Memphis, we drove to Sakkara, Memphis’ massive necropolis, where we visited Egypt’s first pyramids. They were considerably older looking and shaped differently that the ones you would imagine from Giza. Our tour guide took us to the Step Pyramid of King Djoser that was designed by Imhotep, and explained to us the history behind its design. We were also able to view the tomb and walk around the archeological site. After that we stopped for a quick lunch (barbeque, also included and absolutely delicious!) before heading to the main attraction, the Pyramids of Giza. The drive there was exciting. We were sharing the road with people on horses and donkeys with a wheelbarrow of goods being tugged along. You really felt like you were in a third world country, and it was funny to see. But I was glad to be in my air-conditioned van! We finally arrived at the pyramids of Giza, and they were just massive and beautiful structures. Again, the Egyptians had to carry stone for miles to construct these ancient tombs. You felt so small standing next to them and knowing all the history, myths and treasures that these structures held behind their walls. And of course, they were standing strong like they were built yesterday. We drove to see a panoramic view of all three pyramids on top of a hill and from there took a camel ride. Can you see me trekking through the desert on a camel? Yeah, I can’t either. It was a scary experience; camels are not smooth riding animals! But it was hilarious when it was time for my parents to get on! But it’s something I had to do for the story. A desert vacation wouldn’t be complete without a ride on a camel. After our adventures, we made one last stop at the Sphinx, where you could also see the pyramids in the background. The Sphinx, however, was a lot smaller than I thought it would be- but mysterious none the less.
That concluded our tour of ancient Egypt. On our way back to the port in Alexandria, our tour guide brought us back to the jewelry store so my mom could pick up her Kartush, and also to the Papyrus store in the same building. They gave us a brief demonstration of ancient paper making there and my dad picked up a few pictures made on paper from reeds from the Nile. We also stopped at a store that sold Egyptian cotton (not buying anything though, since the material is so expensive) and to a perfume factory. I didn’t know that Egypt was so famous for their perfumes. The recipes found in the ancient tombs for the unopened perfume bottles that we saw are still the ones used today. They make the pure essence for all the brand name perfumes, and then sell it to company’s who dilute it with alcohol, put it in a fancy bottle and sell it for twice the price. I, of course, bought the pure essence Tutankhamen, or Calvin Klein’s Eternity. After that last pit stop, we took the 3 hour drive back to the port and were back on board ship by dinnertime. I’m so lucky to have seen these ancient ruins that some people never get a chance to see in their lifetimes; Egypt was truly an incredible experience.