February 9-16, 2019

Cheops’ Law: “Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.”

We chose Egypt – the ancient land of Pharaohs and pyramids – for our first trip of 2019.  This is the perfect type of excursion to take advantage of during our stay in the UAE.  Air travel time is less than 4 hours and two time zones away, with round trip air fare for two to Cairo at about $1000.  Expense would be a lot more from the US, as well as much more significant jet lag to contend with.  We decided using a travel service was the best for this trip. First, there are security concerns to deal with despite best efforts of the government to contain them, and second, Cairo is a sprawling, chaotic city of over 20 million people that can present a lot of travel challenges. This was a good call. We had numerous references for travel services, and ultimately chose “Memphis Tours”, a tour service rated five stars by Trip Advisor with almost 7000 reviews.  This large and very professional organization has been in business since 1955. We chose an eight-day, seven-night trip covering Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan.

I always enjoy reviewing an area before a trip for some basic history, geography, cultural, and other fun facts before we go.  Here is what I found for Egypt.

• Egypt has a population of approximately 100 million, making it the 14^th most populous country; 95% of those live within 20 kilometers of the Nile River. 
• The Nile River is the longest river on earth at 6695 km. It has its origins in Burundi, south of the equator.
• Cairo is the second largest city in Africa at 20.4 million. (Lagos, Nigeria is the largest at 21 million, I didn’t know that).
• Egypt has one of the longest histories of any country, dating back to 6000 BC. Several cultures developed independently in upper and lower Egypt before a unified kingdom was established by King Menes about 3150 BC. Some organizations classify Egypt as the oldest country with a continuous presence in the world.
• The Giza Necropolis is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the only one still in existence.
• Egypt was an early and important center of Christianity. Somewhere between the 10th and 14th century the country became an Islamic majority. Taxes on non-Muslims was an important source of revenue, however, as a result, non-Muslims were tolerated. Numbers I read varied, most sources say the country is currently about 90% Islamic and 10% Christian.
• The Coptic Christian language is believed to be the closest survivor of the ancient Egyptian language.
• After several hundred years of Ottoman then British rule, Egypt declared independence in 1922.  British occupation continued however, not ending until the 1952 revolution when the country was declared a republic.
• Although it depends almost entirely on irrigation, agriculture makes up about 20% of Egyptian exports.  Cotton is the biggest fiber crop and the leading agricultural export, followed by wheat and rice.
• Ancient Egyptians invented the toothbrush and toothpaste to take care of their teeth. They used a wide variety of ingredients to make their toothpaste including ashes, eggshells, and ground up ox hooves.
• Ancient Egyptian men and women of equivalent social status were treated as equals in the eyes of the law. Women could own, earn, buy, sell, and inherit property.
• Thirty-one dynasties ruled from Narmer (aka King Menes) circa 3150 BC to Cleopatra ending in 30 BC. The country was influenced by the Persians after they invaded Egypt in 525 BC, and later by the Ptolemaic Kingdom following conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC.  A dynasty is a series of rulers belonging to the same family.
• Hieroglyphics were used from around 3000 BC until the last known inscription in 394 AD, but the ability to read and write hieroglyphics was lost completely after that.  Understanding hieroglyphics was made possible by the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799. This stone contained an inscription made in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), and three scripts, including hieroglyphics.
• Egyptians perfected the 365-day calendar by observing the movement of Sirius through the sky, abandoning the 360 day calendar that had been in use for a millennium.  This enabled them to better predict the annual Nile flooding.
• One US dollar = 17.59 Egyptian Pounds (LE) at the time of this trip.  I list entry fees per person for individual exhibits for information. Unless indicated, these were included in the tour price.

We arrived in Cairo late in the afternoon of Saturday, February 9.  We were met by the cheerful Ahmed of Memphis Tours, who guided us swiftly through customs and on to our hotel in Giza.  He filled us in on some travel tips and details as we drove through town.  He advised us that lane markings in the street are purely decorative and serve no purpose for guiding drivers, and horn honking is merely communication, not hostile.  We were cautioned not to drink the tap water. He described a civilian justice system where thieves and other criminals caught in the act are administered a measure of justice before handing them over to the authorities just in case they don’t get it quite right.  We also discussed tipping, which is an important part of the Egyptian tourism system and is much more complex that we have seen elsewhere.  Normally trustworthy sources such as Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet varied widely on accepted amounts which seem to be due to virtually anyone providing any service at all. We also had conflicting advice on whether to tip in Egyptian pounds or US dollars.  Ahmed set us straight on that one – dollars are preferred due to the effects of inflation on the Egyptian pound.  He said service providers would tend to save any tips given in dollars and spend any received in pounds.  I looked up inflation rates in Egypt; at 21% for 2018, Ahmed’s reasoning makes perfect sense.

I made a few observations as we drove through town.  Cars seemed to be relatively evenly distributed between virtually every manufacturer on the planet – Chevrolet, Kia, Mercedes, Renault, Fiat, Toyota, VW, etc., and BYD, a Chinese manufacturer I had not heard of before.  Gasoline prices were relatively cheap at 7 LE/liter, ~ $1.5/gallon. We were told the government subsidizes gas to keep prices more affordable.  Egypt is an Islamic country, but we did drive by a couple of large Christian churches.  Most native women wore colorful hijabs, but abayas were much less common than what we have seen in the UAE.

We arrived at the “Sheraton Cairo Hotel and Casino” in Giza, a five-star rated hotel as were all our accommodations for the week.  We were cautioned, as we had been in Jordan, that the star ratings would be different than western standards, but we were perfectly pleased with our rooms and services.  We were also introduced to security protocols which included a heavy iron gate at the hotel entrance, bomb sniffing dogs that circled the car before entry, and a metal detector for patrons to walk through before entering the hotel.

The next morning, we were met in the hotel lobby by our guide for the day, Sayed Selim. As all our guides for the week were, Sayed was a trained Egyptologist and a very friendly, talkative young man.  We spent the morning at the Giza Plateau (160 LE), visiting the Great Pyramids of Cheops (also known as Khufu), Chefren, and Mykerinus.  It is hard to describe in words how amazing those structures are, that they could be built with the technology of 2500 BC. I paid for a separate ticket that allowed me to go into the interior of Cheops Pyramid to the burial chamber (360 LE).  As I worked my way through the narrow passages, it was amazing to note how precise the stone cutting of the granite blocks was. I struggle to cut a straight edge in wood with a saw; they were able to cut two-ton stones at angles so precise you can’t slip a piece of paper between them.  We continued to see the amazing Solar Boat (100 LE), an intact, full size ship that was sealed in a pit next to the pyramids at about the same time as their construction, ~2500 BC.  It was 143 feet long, built of Lebanese cedar, and had remained undisturbed since being sealed in its vault. This ship, discovered in 1954, was built as a vessel to carry the resurrected king into the afterlife with the sun god Ra.

Sayed told us that while homes and palaces may built on either the east or west side of the river, burials were always on the west, the sunset being symbolic of death.  Death was the start of the journey though, not the end. The afterlife was considered more important than their earthly life, and more time and energy was spent on preparing for the afterlife. As a result, there are virtually no remaining artifacts on daily living residences.

We left Giza Plateau and headed to the “Key of Life” papyrus shop.  We aren’t buying much in the way of souvenirs during our stay in the UAE to keep our travelling light. I have always been fascinated in papyrus though, and some authentic paper was on my list.  We received a demonstration on how the paper was made, from cutting the plant into strips, soaking and weaving them, and finally pressing the sheets into the final product. We bought some nice samples.

Our next stop was lunch by the river in Cairo.  Lunch was typical Egyptian fare of baba ganoush (coolest sounding food name ever), tzatziki, and bissara (a fava bean – split pea dip I was not familiar with), served with Pita bread and some grilled chicken and beef.  Lemonade with mint is a popular drink in the Middle East, and we enjoyed that.

Our afternoon stop was the Cairo Museum (160 LE, additional 50 LE for a photography pass). A spectacular new museum is scheduled to open in 2020, but the current museum is still quite impressive.  We entered the grounds, driving by tight security of armed guards and barriers.  The museum contains aisle after aisle of the history of thousands of years. It’s impossible to see it all in the course of a few hours, but a few exhibits really stand out.  One section that did contained the King Tutankhamun exhibit. The hallway was filled with gilded burial shrines, alabaster canopic jars, statues, chairs, and other contents of the tomb.  An inner room contained the actual nested coffins (three of them), and the famous gold mask.  To stand looking at this mask just a couple of feet away is a memory that will last a lifetime.  Unfortunately, photos aren’t allowed in the inner room.

The other exhibit that really stood out was the Mummy Room (extra 180 LE fee).  This contained several mummies at different levels of preservation, including Queen Hatshepsut and Ramses II.  Some sources suggest Ramses II was the Pharaoh who dealt with Moses. There is no biblical or archeological data to confirm this.  Still, to be in the presence of such a significant historical figure is awe inspiring.  Again, no photos were allowed in this room.

Security in the country was interesting.  At times, it was very strict – armored vehicles, bomb sniffing dogs, robust iron gates, metal detectors, frisking by officers, etc. Virtually every restaurant, hotel, or public exhibit had metal detectors and security officers present. At other times, every single person entering through a metal detector would set it off, and no one raised an eyebrow.  I asked one of our guides about this.  He simply shrugged and replied “Egypt”. 

The next morning (February 11) we were back at Cairo airport for a short flight to Luxor.  This was one of our more chaotic airport experiences, but everything sorted out well enough and we were on our way. As we approached Luxor (known to the Greeks as Thebes), I looked down and noticed the clean break between the desert and the green irrigated fields along the Nile.  The river truly is the lifeblood of the country.  We met Yasser, our guide for the next four days, and checked into our lodging on the cruise ship MS Mayfair.  After relaxing for a couple of hours, we spent the afternoon visiting Karnak (150 LE) and Luxor (140 LE) Temples.  These are each UNESCO World Heritage sites. Queen Hatshepsut had two obelisks erected at sprawling complex of Karnak.  One still stands, as the tallest surviving ancient obelisk on Earth; the other has broken in two and toppled.  Yasser also pointed out that purely Egyptian columns were topped with Lotus flowers or papyrus carvings.  Later columns with Greek or Roman influence had more Corinthian style crowns.

We started our morning on February 12 with a boat taxi ride across the river for our sunrise hot air balloon ride.  Dozens of boats provide this service.  I couldn’t help but notice all the languages being spoken as we took our ride.  We have observed English as being the closest thing to a universal language in our travels.  We need one.  It could be any language, I’m thankful it’s English.  Doing business is so much easier when people can at least communicate on a very basic level.

After a brief delay for atmospheric conditions to stabilize, we hopped in our hot air balloon baskets ($99/each extra).  These massive baskets held about 25 people.  We were lifted several hundred feet in the air for a beautiful view of the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the surrounding farms, and the desert beyond.  Some farmers burning their sugar cane fields cast a haze over an otherwise perfect morning, but we still had a good time.

Next on our itinerary was Deir Al-Bahari Temple (100 LE), also known as the Temple of Hatshepsut.  The Queen was very much unloved after her reign, partly for being a woman, partly because her heir and stepson, Thutmose III, should have been the heir many years before. As a result, he destroyed many of her sculptures and portraits. I once thought most antiquities degraded due to the ravages of time.  That is certainly true to a degree, but I’ve come to realize much damage comes from thieves, plunderers, disgruntled family, differing ethnic groups, religions, or just about anything else.

Nowhere was the consequence of thieves and robbers more substantial than in our next stop, the Valley of the Kings (200 LE). Of the over 60 tombs in the Valley, only the tomb of King Tut avoided wholesale plundering.  We visited three tombs there – Ramses IV, Merenptah, Ramses IX.  Photography passes here come in two forms – a legal pass which cost 250 LE, or the process of passing a note to the security in the tomb.  Price on this one varies. You don’t approach them, they approach you. I didn’t intend to use this method, but the tomb of Ramses IV was more colorful than I expected, and it was too late to go back out and buy a pass then. So I snapped a few pictures for 20 LE.

Our guides took us to several shops over the course of the week that dealt only in quality genuine Egyptian products.  Our stop for the day was the “Luxfour Alabaster Factory”.  Craftsmen demonstrated their trade, sitting on the ground outside the shop with various files and carving tools. I had Egyptian cotton in mind for a souvenir, but this turned out to be a nice substitute.  I bought a small basalt canopic jar set, and they threw in a cat carving as well.

We came back to our ship for the afternoon cruise up the Nile to our next stop at Edfu.  Our room had a narrow deck on it that was barely wider than the chair, but it was sufficient for me to have a fine time whiling away a few hours in the pleasant afternoon sun watching the Nile go by.  I watched the small fishing boats, powered by oars, not motors.  I saw cattle grazing along the shore, small vegetable gardens, and larger banana plantations, all made possible by the frequent irrigation pumping stations.  I watched swallows sweeping the river surface, snatching bugs invisible to my eye.  I sipped a scotch and pondered my good fortune in life.

I got up early the next morning, February 13, before sunrise.  I made a cup of coffee and sat on the deck watching the coming dawn light up the sky. Early morning fishermen set out in their boats through the mist as they must have done for countless generations.  Our first stop of the day was the Horus Temple at Edfu (140 LE).  Edfu was known as the “City of Revenge” for the revenge Horus took against Set for chopping Osiris into 42 pieces.  Osiris’s queen Isis was able to reconstruct Osiris, except for his penis, which was eaten by a catfish.  She was able to make a replacement phallus well enough to conceive Horus, who later took revenge on Set and restored the natural order in Egypt.  Hard to spin a better tale than that.

We headed on up the river to the Temple at Kom Ombo (100 LE), unique for being a dual temple.  One was for the crocodile god Sobek and the other was for the falcon god Haroeris.  Three hundred mummified crocodiles have been found in the vicinity, and several of them were on display in an unusual Crocodile Museum display.  No pictures were allowed of that interesting exhibit.

We continued to Aswan, our last stop. After our overnight stay, we boarded a small bus and headed out to the Aswan Dam (known as the ‘High Dam’ after an earlier British dam proved to be inadequate).  Yasser filled us in on details about the dam.  Completed in 1970, the dam has been a positive for flood and drought control (allowing a longer growing season) and providing reliable low-cost electricity.  On the downside, chemical fertilizers are now needed where the soil has been depleted from the lack of fresh silt each growing season, many antiquities have been lost forever, and over 160,000 Nubians were permanently displaced from their native lands.  The resulting lake is the world’s largest manmade lake – 500 km long, and the dam is an impressive engineering feat. 

Several of our guides referred to the series of 2011 Middle East events known in the west as the Arab Spring as ‘the revolution’.  I don’t discuss much about politics, religion, or the sort when I am a guest in another country, but I did ask how our hosts felt about the impact on the average Egyptian.  As members of the tourist industry, they all felt the effect, at least in their view, was bad. Tourism accounts for about 12% of the Egyptian workforce.  Tourism peaked at 14.8 million people in 2010 (by comparison, Paris had 8.2 million that year), collapsing to as low as 4.8 million in the years following the uprising in 2011. It has recovered to 8.3 million in 2017.  The decrease in income must have been sorely felt by street vendors and the like, who now aggressively ply their trade.  Although they could be quite pushy, I never felt unsafe at any point on our trip.

Our last temple to visit was at Philae (140 LE). This was also a relocated monument, and now required a short boat ride to get to it.  This temple was partially flooded before relocation, which wasn’t completed until 1980.  UNESCO played an important role in relocating all the antiquities moved as a result of the dam construction.

Our next stop was the “Essence of Life Perfume Palace” in Aswan.  This was an interesting shop that sold dozens of locally made aromatherapy oils and fragrances, as well as making a wide variety of handmade glass dispensers.  Many varieties may be easily found elsewhere, but the papyrus and lotus fragrances were said to be unique to Egypt.  We purchased a few as our tourist bag continued to swell.  Our last official tour stop was at the Unfinished Obelisk (80 LE). This is the quarry where all the obelisks in Egypt were mined.

Our last full day in Egypt started with a bonus tour we signed up for.  This was a 3-hour bus ride to the fabulous Temples at Abu Simbel ($95/each).  The site has a pair of temples – the Great Temple, dedicated to Ramses II himself, and the Small Temple, dedicated to his chief wife Queen Nefertari.  These were also relocated due to the dam construction, but unlike the other temples, these had been carved directly into the side of a mountain, greatly complicating relocation. There were ultimately elevated at the same location by about 60 meters into small manufactured mountains.  This was really an engineering masterpiece on par with the original construction, as there is no sense of relocation as you view the colossal statues of Ramses guarding the entrance and tour the temples.

We got back on our bus for the drive back to Aswan and the flight back to Cairo.  After our last night in Cairo, we caught an early flight back to Abu Dhabi.  Memphis Tours really did an amazing job at planning every detail. We would recommend them to anyone considering a similar trip to Egypt or the surrounding countries.

Total trip expenses for this trip were $6172, our most expensive yet. Certainly, Egypt can be seen for much cheaper with a little effort.  We felt using the tour group was the right approach for this trip, and there is no doubt we splurged a little in both our accommodations and our souvenirs.  Plus, this trip included additional air fare expenses from Cairo to Luxor and returning from Aswan to Cairo.