Cairo and the Pyramids

24^thAugust 2018

Entry into Port Said is delayed early this morning as Immigration officials have not yet arrived on board to start processing our passports. It takes about an hour to sort everything out, and once on board, the passports are dealt with in good time. It has delayed our shore excursions by 1  hour, which is a bit concerning, as todays excursion to the Cairo is expected to last for around 13 hours. We are in our bus and on our way by 8.30am.

Port Said is a true port city, not that pretty to look at and industrialised. It is Friday today, which is the beginning of the weekend in the Middle East. The working week is Sunday to Thursday. It is also the last day of celebrations after Ramadan, so families are out for their last day of celebrations before going back to work on Sunday.

Disembarking at Port Said

Port Said apartments

Tourism has been depressed in Egypt  and everyone is visibly glad to see tourists returning. The locals are very friendly and courteous and wave at the buses going by as we pass through the streets.

Egypt's population is around 100 million, of which around 20 million live in Cairo.  The bulk of the population live in apartments as houses are unaffordable and land close to the cities expensive. Cairo's population has been growing rapidly leading to massive building of potential slums of the future around the city outskirts, very basic apartments with little infrastructure.

Cairo is our destination, and it is a 3 hour drive away. The buses have been organized in a “convoy” and we have several Police cars escorting the convoy for the whole day. Furthermore, every bus has a security guard on board. They are obviously very keen to make tourists feel safe.

Along the way we notice that the land to the east of us is quite green and there are orchards everywhere growing some mangoes and avocados. Since the construction of the Aswan dam across the Nile, Egypt has been able to extend their use of land for agriculture to include previous desert. 

Mangoes grown on irrigated land

Once in Cairo, after a bit of a bone shaking ride, we go straight to our first stop, the Egyptian Museum. The number of artifacts is overwhelming and apparently there is a lot more in storage. A new museum is under construction and is expected to open later this year. The old one will be retained and filled with some of the items from storage that cannot currently be displayed. Our guide gave us a brief 1 hour tour through the museum picking out the highlights, the greatest of which, of course , was the exhibit of artifacts from Tutankhamun's Tomb.

Egyptian Museum

Just inside the entrance, is a copy of the Rosetta Stone (the original is in the British Museum)

Entering the Museum

There is a row of sarcophagi on display

Sacrifice Altars

Statue of King Khafre (c. 2570 BC) found in the Valley of Kings

Behind his head he is protected by the wings of Horus the Falcon

There are so many displays, here a few shots of some of them

Queen Hatshepsut, Egypts longest serving Queen c. late 1400's BC

Marble Container in which Tutankhamun's organs were stored

Tutankhamun's thongs

For an additional charge, you could also visit  The Royal Mummies Hall, where the mummies of several Egyptian Royals are on display, including King Ramesses 11.

Sadly photography was not allowed in the room displaying all of the grandeur of Tutankhamun’s gold masks, jewelry etc, nor could we take photos in the Royal Mummy Hall. Nevertheless it was fascinating to see.

Next priority is lunch, and we have a lunch time cruise on the Nile organized. The ship takes about 4 bus loads, about 120 people and provided a good buffet lunch with a beer or glass of wine included.

Heading down to the wharf to our boat 

Entertainment is also included with a band, belly dancer and dancer that resembled the twirling dervishes. He put on a great performance. 

The dining room

The local beer

Belly Dancer

Twirling Dancer

The hour went quickly and before we knew it we were back on the bus and off to the plains of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo, to see the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. The sheer scale of the pyramids is breathtaking. 

The Pyramid of Cheops

The second pyramid

The third pyramid

All three

Every entrepreneur in Cairo is at the pyramids trying to fleece the last dollar out of unsuspecting tourists. Besides the usual tacky souvenirs made in China, we have camel rides, horse rides (with or without cart) opportunities to have someone to take your photo with your own camera (for a charge of course) etc. We tried to get as far away from them as possible.

No-one seems too fussed if you climb all over the pyramids

The Sphinx

We were given adequate free time to walk around the pyramids, and subsequently the Sphinx before getting back on the bus to return to Port Said, but not without the mandatory stop at a local bazaar (with special deals for us, of course). We used the toilet, at least it was free.

A number of our fellow travellers bought some “bargains”, as we boarded the bus for our return to Port Said, with Police escort. The convoy was assembled and off we went.

It was 8.30 pm when we arrived back at the ship. The Police escort was invaluable in helping us get through the busy streets that had come alive for the last night of the Muslim celebrations.

We had a late dinner and have an at sea day tomorrow, so a good chance to sleep in.

Tomorrow, we depart early morning to enter the Suez Canal and head for the port of Safarga (for access to Luxor).