Intro To Cairo

There was a slight hiccup on the flight from Casablanca when I managed to drop the little Apple tool for opening the SIM tray on my iPhone - just a fancy paper clip really, but very useful none the less. Fortunately once we'd stopped at the disembarkation gate and I was able to get down and have a real scrounge around on the floor I found it.

So things were looking good on our arrival at Cairo Airport. The plane was on time, no crowds, and no queue at immigration. However we hadn't spotted where to buy the Egyptian visa for US$25, needed to get through the immigration counter. Turned out it was at a kiosk labelled "Bank" rather than something helpful like "Get your Visa here." But it was less than 30 seconds back to the "Bank" where there was also no queue.

We were through immigration in no time, so Laura went on to retrieve our luggage while I got the low down on deals for a local SIM card (from Orange), extracted some local currency from a nearby ATM and had my new SIM card installed and enabled. Only 20GB of data available for our two and a bit weeks in Egypt, but I'd used only a fraction of the 50GB of data I'd had at my disposal from Orange in Morocco so I didn't foresee any problems.

Then it was just a matter of locating the driver from the Osiris Hotel for our free airport transfer. And this is where things didn't go to plan. Despite having sent them an email from Casablanca this morning to confirm our arrival time there was no pickup driver to be found. After double checking the lines of people holding up welcome signs, and fighting off a few taxi drivers anxious for our business, I was eventually able to ring the hotel and speak to the chappy on the reception night shift. He was apologetic but wasn't aware of any pickup being arranged and advised that it was not possible to arrange one now. He said we'd have to get a taxi and advised that it should cost no more than EGP200 (AU$15.75). Despite our best haggling, the lowest price we could eventually agree on (after walking off towards a "bus stop" that may or may not have existed) was EGP220, which we figured was near enough.

And what a drive it was. It started well until we were out of the airport precinct and onto the motorway - then things ground to a halt. There were six lanes of traffic (not sure how many were actually marked on the roadway!) and all of them were crawling at a snail's pace. Or at least whichever one we were in was - most of the others seemed to be managing a slightly better pace for much of the time. After about 45 minutes of this, and a pit stop for the driver, the traffic suddenly cleared and the drive went from moribund to hectic. I couldn't help thinking that if there was anything to the theory of karma and rebirth then Cairo taxi drivers must have done something pretty bad to land in this hell. However you couldn't help but admire the skill of changing lanes at speed with clearances of a few centimetres while producing a seemingly random sequence of beeps on the car horn. We eventually rocketed through a couple of road tunnels before emerging in the vicinity of our hotel, where (according to my reading of Google Maps), the driver did a bit of circling before finding our hotel. And it only took about 1 hour 15 minutes from the airport.

The Osiris Hotel itself had a slightly unusual location, occupying the top floor and rooftop terrace of a 12 story building known as "The Mall". Not that it appeared to be like any "mall" that I'm familiar with - we never did get an inkling of what was on the other 11 floors. The guy on reception was very apologetic about the missed pickup, and promised some compensation, but at least they had our room ready. We hadn't had much in the way of dinner but Laura, being tired, contented herself with some fruit and snacks we had with us while I ventured to the terrace upstairs where I was able to order a roast beef roll - that proved to be of modest proportions by the time it eventually arrived.

After a good night's sleep and breakfast at the upstairs terrace, we set out on our first day of exploring Cairo. It was only about a five minute walk to the nearest metro station and on the way we couldn't help but notice that most of the shops we passed - often five or six shops in a row - were selling glasses. Apparently we were staying in Cairo's "Opticians' Quarter"! The metro was pretty easy to work out, and unless you are going a long way the fare zone is only EGP3 (AU$0.45). We were only going one stop to Sadat Station which was the closest to the Egyptian Museum, so needed to pay EGP6. I handed the ticket seller EGP10 but he kept insisting he needed the exact money - he couldn't give change. We found an EGP5 pound note but had no ones. And so we had our first experience of Egyptian kindness - the man behind us in the queue gave us the extra pound.

As we made our way to the Egyptian Museum we were hailed by a local chap who suggested we would be better off going to the museum in the afternoon as it tends to be crowded out with tour groups in the morning - and we could see that there was indeed a long queue at the front door. Of course as an alternative he suggested we check out a "Government" shop over the road which sold various souvenirs and artifacts, etc. He helped us cross the busy road - explaining that the basic rule for pedestrians in Egypt was to wait for half a gap, step into the traffic and "Once you start, don't stop", as cars would actually then slow down and swerve to let you through, usually accompanied by a toot of their horns.This lesson was to serve us well during our time in Egypt.

The shop itself was actually quite interesting and Laura was taken by some of the less traditional images available on papyrus, but we felt it was too early in out stay to commit to those particular items at the non-negotiable "Government" price. Instead we changed plans slightly and set off to do a walk through the Garden District down to the Coptic area, with the aim of coming back to see the museum this afternoon.

The famous Nile with falucca under sail.

We walked to the banks of the famous Nile River  - wide and impressive - and headed south along the promenade. We were occasionally greeted by groups of school kids or young guys, who somehow managed to spot that we were not locals, and wanted to practice their English with questions like "What's you name?" and "Where are you from?". When we reached the bridge to Rhoda Island we crossed onto it and continued south. We had to divert away from the shore to go around the Prince Mohammed Ali Palace as we didn't have the time or inclination to look through it. At one point we found ourselves entering a little garden area on the edge of the island. We gather it wasn't meant to be open to the public but the nice chap working there ushered us in to look at all the plants growing in the hot house.

Ornate canopy on footbridge from Rhoda Island.

When we reached the end of the island - or at least the last bridge back to the east bank of the river - we walked across and started weaving our way through the streets to the Coptic area. We found ourselves in a little product market street before crossing the metro line via a footbridge and continuing on past a line of shops to the swank, new looking Souq Al Fustat. This modern market complex features some interesting boutiques focused on modern Egyptian handicrafts. The shops looked to be aimed at the tourist trade, so the prices tended to be "upmarket", as admittedly was the quality of the craft goods. There was also what looked to be a fairly pricey restaurant. We admired some of the craft work, but found no lizards.

Murals at Souq Al Fustat.

We returned to the street we'd just walked up as I thought I'd seen a possible venue for lunch - which was by now a bit overdue. Before we could reach it, however Laura was coaxed into a little craft/souvenir shop by a gregarious chap who said he was celebrating the birth of his daughter the day before. Before we left he gave us a small model of a scarab beetle each as a symbol of good luck (the scarab beetle being one of the depictions of the ancient Egyptian sun god Ra). We then went into the little restaurant next door where we tried koshari (rice, pasta, lentils and chick peas topped with fried onion and tomato salsa). It was delicious.

School boys practicing English.

Sufficiently fortified we walked up the street to the Mar Girgis metro station to head back to the Egyptian Museum. Unfortunately we just missed a train, which meant that we had about 10 minutes to be entertained by a group of school boys on the opposite platform who amused themselves (and some other locals waiting for the train) by practising their English on us. One, who claimed to be aged 30, had to be corrected by another passenger, amid some laughter, that he meant 13! However our train did eventually come and put an end to these hi-jinks and it was only four stops back to Sadat metro station where we'd started our walk.

It was a five minute walk from the metro to the Egyptian Museum and, true to our helper's pronouncement this morning, there was no longer a queue to get in. Though there was still the entry fee of EGP120 (AU$9.50) to negotiate, plus EGP150 for the Royal Mummies Hall and another EGP50 to take in a camera. We went upstairs to see the Royal Mummies exhibition first, which was in two parts - one in the south-east corner and the other in the south-west corner. (In between was supposed to be where the mummified animals were that we'd have liked to see, but this section seemed to be closed off).

The royal mummies were interesting, if slightly creepy looking in some cases with tortured expressions and black looking skin. No photos allowed, so you'll have to take my word for it. Modern scanning technologies have enabled researchers to identify things such as likely cause of death, dental health, arthritis, broken bones and weight. Most of them seemed to be relatively short of stature, which of course is not uncommon for people of so long ago.

One of the decorative burial masks.

Momma cat rests while kittens play!

Horus and Anubis anoint a pharaoh.

We then moved on to look as the numerous other items of interest, including of course the famous King Tutankhamen's death mask. It looked as impressive as you'd imagine (no photos allowed). There were many other burial masks that were impressive in their own right, as well as statues large and small and detailed carvings made from wood and stone - many featuring the falcon headed god Horus or the jackal headed god Anubis, and some a little on the phallic side! It is mind boggling to consider just how ancient some of these artifacts are. True to the ancient Egyptian fascination with cats there was even a catch with half a dozen kittens in one of the display rooms.

Figurines depicting a funeral procession.

My, My!

Once we were museum-ed out we decided we might as well walk back to our hotel since it really wasn't that far. Along the way we spotted the Oldish Cafe and decided to give it a try since it was dinner time. I was sufficiently tempted to order the "chocolate milkshake", which turned out to be what I'd call a "chocolate sundae". A bit hard to drink and not really the thirst quencher I'd envisaged!  Otherwise the meal was satisfactory. The final bill was more than we'd expected because we hadn't factored in the 12% service charge and the 14% VAT - a feature of all the more upmarket eateries in Egypt. With dinner taken care of we just bought some water from the little shop near our hotel and retired to rest up to for the next day - when we were off to see some big pointy things out on the Giza Plateau.

We made breakfast a little earlier the next morning - aiming to get an early start - but still some of the breakfast options had run out. Maybe because it was a Friday which, as the Islamic sabbath, is the start of the Egyptian weekend. As for our day's plan, we had decided not to splash out on an expensive taxi ride to get to the pyramids at Giza, but to try the adventure of getting there via public transport. The first step was to go back to our "local" metro station (Naguib) and travel seven stops to Giza station. This left us still several kilometres from the pyramids and we aimed to catch either a number 900 or 997 bus (if they still existed) or just one of the mini-vans. However on our way out of the station a local chap (I think his name was Mohammed) took us under his wing as he said he was headed that way himself. He shepherded us onto one of the local mini-buses which cost only EGP3 each (AU$0.24) that took us most of the way. He then had us transfer to a tuk-tuk which took us to where we could have boarded a camel to ride to the pyramids. However we insisted that we didn't want a camel ride, so our "guide" hopped out and let the tuk-tuk driver take us to the "proper" entrance, where we (over)paid the tuk-tuk driver EGP20 (the most expensive part of our trip to the pyramids).

The sight which greeted us on entry to the Pyramids precinct.

And so just before 10:00am we found ourselves at the eastern entrance to the Pyramids precinct, where as far as we could tell we were the only non-Egyptians going in. We could only buy entrance tickets and were told that if we wanted to actually go into the Great Pyramid of Khufu we could buy tickets for that "inside". So we went on in - and were immediately met with the spectacular view of the Sphinx with a line of pyramids behind. No matter that we had seen picture of the pyramids and the sphinx probably hundreds of times in our lives, there was still something breathtaking about seeing them right there in front of us for the first time.

Valley Temple of Kafre.

Your guessed it - the Sphinx!

We made our way towards the Sphinx first, since it was right in front of us anyway. We passed through the Valley Temple of Kafre on the way. The Sphinx itself was not built like the pyramids but carved directly out of the bedrock and marks the start of the ceremonial causeway up to the Pyramid of Kafre, the son of  Khufu who built the largest pyramid next to it. There has long been speculation about whose face is represented on the Sphinx but the latest research, using 3D imaging technology, suggests that it is of Kafre himself. One surprising thing about the Sphinx when you see it up close is just how small it actually is. It is still 73 metres long and 20 metres high of course, so it's not really small, but somehow we expected it to be much larger than it seemed.

L to R: Pyramid of Queens, Menkaure, Kafre, Henutsen, Khufu & Meritetis I.

After checking out the Sphinx we made our way up to our right to get to the Pyramid of Khufu, the largest of the three big ones, along the way declining the kind offers from numerous horse & buggy drivers to chauffeur us around for a "modest" sum. We detoured to look through the remains of some of the queens' pyramids on the eastern side of Khufu. From here I was able to take a wide angle shot that included not only the three main pyramids of Khufu, Kafre and Menkaure but also the Pyramid of Queens, Pyramid of Queen Henutsen and Pyramid of Queen Meritetis I.

The scale of the blocks.

Looking down the main shaft.

Moving around to the northern face of Khufu, where the entrance to the burial chamber is locate, we learned that tickets for this are not sold "inside" but outside at the main tourist entrance nearby. Luckily we were allowed to go out and buy two tickets (@ EGP300 or AU$23.65 each) and made it back to enter before it closed for lunch at noon. Of course I had to leave my camera with the chap at the entrance because of the "no photography" rule, but like nearly everyone else with a smart phone I subsequently able to sneak a few pictures while inside. The entry way actually starts via a rough passageway that the tomb robbers made to access the main shaft to the burial chamber, which is situated approximately in the middle of the pyramid. The climb up the stairs in the main shaft was pretty hot work as it was quite stuffy inside, so we got pretty sweaty. Once we reached the level of the burial chamber I had to walk the last 10 metres on my knees through the low passage that enters the actual burial chamber. I have to say that the chamber itself didn't seem that spectacular. It was quite large and not particularly well lit, and contained only the empty stone sarcophagus in which Khufu's mummified body is presumed to have been interred before the tomb robbers got to it. Still it was fascinating to be here and think about how it must have looked when in mint condition over 4,600 years ago. That's a seriously long time in terms of human

history.

Khufu's burial ship.

Exiting from Khufu's pyramid we continued anti-clockwise around it until we reached the Giza Solar Boat Museum on the southern side of the pyramid, which houses one of Khufu's burial ships. It was found disassembled in 1,224 pieces laid out in a logical order in a burial pit underneath where the museum now stands. Now reassembled and on display since 1982, it measures approximately 43 metres x 6 metres and weighs about 16 tonnes. Laura decided it didn't sound that interesting to her so she was happy to save us the EGP80 for a second ticket and just wait in the nicely air conditioned foyer while I went in for a look. Meanwhile I had to don special shoe covers, to make sure no sand gets into the museum, and buy a photo pass for EGP50 so I could take my camera in. It was an impressive looking boat and not surprisingly it is considered the oldest intact ship from antiquity. There is still some conjecture about whether it was actually used to transport Khufu's body across the Nile to be buried in the Pyramid but it was clearly buried for his use in the afterlife.

Pyramid of Kafre.

Resuming our stroll we went next for a closer look at the Pyramid of Kafre. Although not quite as high as his father Khufu's pyramid (136m as against 146m, before it lost 8 metres to erosion), Kafre's still has intact at the top some of the smooth limestone cladding that once covered both pyramids. The means that the pyramids would have looked blindingly white when in mint condition. Kafre's pyramid is currently closed for renovations so going inside to see the burial chamber - which unlike Khufu's is located below ground level - was not an option.

Pyramid of Menkaure, showing scare from attempted demolition.

Instead we continued around it and on to the third of the major pyramids at Giza, that of Menkaure. With an original height of 65 metres it is by far the smallest of the three major pyramids at Giza. It contains a large gash in the northern face where Saladin's heir tried to demolish it in the 12th century. Fortunately his workmen found destroying it no easier than building it - otherwise he'd planned to continue on to demolish the other two. After circling the pyramid to see the remains of the Queen's Pyramid and the funerary temple we headed back towards the great pyramid.

Obligatory shot of camel in foreground!

It was now after 1:00pm and we'd guess approaching 40◦C so it was a hot walk back. After one last look at the majesty of Khufu's pyramid we headed for the exit a bit after 1:30pm. There was nothing tempting or reasonably priced for lunch at the couple of little shops outside so we decided to just get a taxi back to the Giza metro station. The bidding started at EGP80 but we eventually agreed on a fare of EGP30 (AU$2.40). We were on the metro platform by 2:15pm and back at our "home" station about 20 minutes later.

The first thing we did was buy ourselves the ice creams we'd been craving for the last couple of hours, and then managed to resist the temptation for seconds! We did notice a nice looking seafood restaurant that we decided to try out later. Back at the Osiris Hotel we went to the Terrace upstairs and had a rather late lunch. Thereafter we were content to relax in our air conditioned room and re-hydrate after our day's excursion to the Giza plateau.

Cute window sill in restaurant.

There was rice with the fish.

We did go back to the seafood restaurant later, and although the waitress didn't speak much English, with the aid of a pictorial menu we were able to order a very nice grilled fish and some fried calamari (which the waitress described as "Like KFC"!). Both were delicious.

Then it was time to stock up with bottled water and pack up ready for the start of our Western Desert adventure tomorrow.