Diamonds in the Rough of Cairo

After landing in Cairo we are excited to get through customs and see what this ancient country has to offer. Coming in on the plane we are stunned by how massive Cairo is. We learn that Cairo has 25 million people living in it! Massive.

We meet our guide Ahmed in the main hall and he takes us through some of the need to know information about Cairo and Egypt and what the next few days will look like. We pile into the waiting bus and head through towards the hotel. The motorways are really quiet and Ahmed explains its Friday, the day off, so the roads are very very quiet but they’re usually choked with traffic.

After checking in we decide to go straight to Cairo Museum. It’s meant to hold some of the most magnificent artefacts from Egyptian history and the highlight is Tutankhamen’s death mask and coffins. Ahmed is not so sure we should go given its Friday. Friday is known as ‘riot day’ in Egypt as everyone has the day off so has time to go and make a scene somewhere. We are adamant about going so with Ahmeds advice to get in the nearest taxi and leave immediately if anything happens in the back of minds we cram into a Neolithic period taxi and crawl away.

Our ancient taxi takes us over the bridge and pulls up outside what looks like a fortress. There are rows of 2 metre high barbed wire, a dozen riot vans covered in armour and men in black carrying automatic weapons around. ‘This can’t be the place’ we say to the driver, ‘yes yes this museum’ is the reply. Sure enough peeking over the high fence is the top of the classic museum building. We get out and make our way through the first security check point, past the riot vans to find no less than 17 tanks with soldiers sitting in them ready to go. At this point we’re not sure if we’re safe or stupid, we’ll either die or be in the safest place in Cairo. Regardless the soldiers and riot police are bored silly, you can see they’ve been there for hours just sitting around and probably not for the first time. Some of them smile and pose for photos whilst others shout at us ‘no photos’. Looming over us from behind is the burnt out shell of the former political party’s HQ. A hulking charred ruin it’s a stark reminder of the turmoil the nation has recently been through, if the tanks and guns weren’t reminder enough.

We couldnt resist the photo opp, theres a first time for everything!

Welcome to the Museum!

The magic hidden behind the oodles of army men and guns

You can see the former politcal party HQ on the left - needless to say people werent happy

Past the tanks is the entrance the museum itself. Another security check and the pestering begins. ‘Hey do you want a guide?’ ‘You need a guide, very big museum’ and so on. Waving them away we think we can handle ourselves. At the entrance to museum we’re told ‘no camera inside the museum’. This is not really cool as all four of us have cameras on us that we don’t really want to leave anywhere. We try and go in with them in our bags but they have an X-ray machine like an airport so we get turned around and told to check our cameras. There is a cloakroom that we can leave our things at ‘for free’ and collect when we come out. Museum entrance take two, and after our third security check we’re finally inside the museum.

 

The museum itself was built in 1902 during the British colonial period and it seems like not a lick has changed since. A fine layer of dust covers everything we see. There is a single not very clear map, no information, no signage, no clear direction of visit, nothing to help you enjoy your visit. After we’re shouted at for trying to take camera phone photo of the map we decide it is indeed too big to DIY and Nicole buys a guidebook from a small booth. It’s full of misspellings and its artefact locations aren’t quite right but it’s better than wandering aimlessly. We quickly get lost and end up wandering anyway, there is nothing to help you get around so we just look at whatever looks cool. You’re lucky if there’s a handwritten or typewriter era tag on a case that gives a single sentence description. Fumbling through everything with our book and poor notes is half the fun though and taking in the incredible statues, mummies, sarcophaguses and other relics from the ancient times is mesmerising. When we don’t have information we just make up our own stories about what we’re looking at.

Whilst walking around we see a guy with a camera and learn the first lesson of Egypt. Everything is available at a price. Baksheesh will get you anything you want.

Eventually we find Tutankhamen’s special room. It’s secured with a steel door and a man who constantly sits and watches the mask. Not really the high tech stuff you would think you would have on irreplaceable national treasures. The mask itself. What can I say? It is spectacular. The craftsmanship and flawlessness of the pieces is incredible. The inner coffin is 110 kilos of solid gold. Impossibly opulent by today’s standards. The workmanship is seamless and the embossed precious stones gleam like they were fitted yesterday. Absolutely mesmerising to pore over it and take in the details and splendour. 

It really is a shame about the condition of the museum. We are told later that a new one is in the works next to the Giza pyramids but its completion date shifts more often than the desert sand. Sadly with the nation in the way it is we can’t see it being completed any time soon.

Whilst at the museum we pop out to get some lunch and notice that the gift shop is completely packed up and closed, not even a tacky key chain for sale. Another sign of the times. When we get out on the streets of Cairo the three girls cause a bit of a sensation. Turning heads, catcalls and even a guy parking his scooter and approaching them to ‘come for a ride with him.’ Plenty of sleazy grins and sleazier comments at times causing frustration and uneasiness amongst the group.

When we finish up at the museum we seek out another cab and end up in an ancient Mercedes after negotiating with the taxi boss. Riding through thick Cairo traffic in this ancient tank is comical. We see ridiculous things like 3 men on a tiny motorcycle and another with 2 kids on it doing wheelies across three lanes of traffic. Again when we get to the hotel the hand is out for baksheesh.

Saqqara Day Trip

Our first organised day trip out in Egypt we head to Saqqara, the site of the first and oldest pyramid. It was built in what would become a necropolis on the west side of the Nile because the setting sun to the ancient Egyptians symbolised death. From this pyramid a huge necropolis with hundreds of tombs began to sprawl across the desert, many remaining undiscovered today.

On arrival the downtown in tourists is obvious, there is a huge car park and bus parking area that is completely deserted. We are the only group minibus there. Ahmed takes us through and gives a rundown on how the Egyptian burial system evolved from basic holes in the ground to mastabas to pyramids and then to hidden tombs. Inside the gate is an impressive museum with relics, mummies and artefacts.

Up the top with the pyramid we are unsurprised to see it has scaffolding on it. It’s one of the oldest standing manmade structures in the world so naturally it needs fixing and maintenance. In the far distance we can see the ‘bent’ pyramid, it does not rise in one continuous angle and another pyramid. There are the usual touts with camel and donkey rides, papyrus and other knock off trinkets and we are hounded by them relentlessly, business is obviously bad.

Steps up to heaven

Standing next to our first pyramid you can’t help but feel dwarfed by such an immense stack of stone. Thinking about men building it nearly 4000 years ago boggles the mind as some of the blocks of rock are up to 30 tonnes each, heavier than a garbage truck!

All that remains of the giant wall that surrounded this pyramid and its grounds

After having a good gaze at the pyramid and batting away the touts we descended into a tomb and once again, no photos… but you can if you pay me. We ended up in some sort of frantic shouting match between us and our ‘guide’ as the girls spread into different rooms to take photos and him screaming ‘BAKSHEESH NO PHOTO!’ The experience in being in a subterranean tomb was dampened somewhat by this. Seeing the figure carvings on the walls along with the kartushs and hieroglyphs was incredible.

Ascending back out of the hole in the ground we went to an above ground tomb and saw raised reliefs on the walls still with original paint on them from thousands of years ago, this time we can take photos and have a much better experience. The detail and quality of work is incredible.

On our way out of the site we are asked to be interviewed by a travel show about being tourists in Egypt and what our experiences so far have been. Given we had been in the country for hardly 2 days we were a little apprehensive but we all had our 2 minutes of fame and answered questions as candidly and honestly as we could, including how it feels to be a woman on the streets of Cairo. We did get details from them to look up the interviews on their Youtube channel but alas we could not find it when we looked later.

Amy hanging out on a wall, talking about what touring Egypt as a women is really like

As you can see Rosie was born to be in front of a camera!

Departing from Saqqara we went to Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt. There are thousands of monuments, statues and artefacts that have been dug up near and around Memphis. The single most impressive thing we saw was a 13 metre statue of Ramses II laid down horizontally. Going up a level and looking down on this massive carved statue was striking. Even with the shins down missing the thing is enormous. Sadly at this site it’s not too well put together and most of the things sit outside in the weather and there’s no cover. Business is bad here too with only three of twenty tourist booths opens selling merchandise and the sellers hound and pursue us right to the van until we slide the door closed in their faces. You feel bad about it but you can’t buy junk for the sake of helping someone out.

This photo does not do this statue justice, it is incredible!

Cairo is dirty, actually it’s pretty damn filthy in parts. There is rubbish everywhere and the occasional flock of animals eating garbage on the ground. The shepherds cannot afford feed and there is no public grass to feed them on so they wander them through the city feeding through the piles of trash that lie discarded in the middle of the streets. The canals from the Nile are also full of trash to the point the government is enclosing them so the dumping stops. When you learn that there is absolutely no rubbish infrastructure it’s understandable why people just dump everything on the ground. 25 million people. No waste infrastructure. It’s hard to believe the city doesn’t have constant plagues.

On the ring road back into the city centre there is a thick sprawl of brick high rise mansions. These structures are clustered together as far as you can see, 360 degrees around you all look unfinished and uninhabited. In Egypt no one cares about external appearances so there are entire city areas of just unfinished looking buildings that are unpainted or not rendered making the whole area look like a shanty town, but these areas are fully populated.

On our way back to the hotel we went into a beautiful cake shop and chose a Snickers cake for Simons birthday celebration that night.

Meeting the new Team and Birthday

In the afternoon we met the new group that would be joining us for two weeks around Egypt comprised of two guys travelling from the UK and two girl’s one from China and another from Spain.

After getting the two week run down on everything we would see and do we got both groups together and went out for dinner but also searching for beer. Turns out Cairo is dry. We could not find a bar or restaurant serving alcohol anywhere so we ended up at a local place and had a good meal while getting to know everyone a little better.

Whilst walking back Ahmed found a hotel with beer so we bought some takeaways and smuggled them back to the hotel but could not drink in public so we had a party in our hotel room. It was cosy but we had some plates and forks brought up and we had a great evening indulging in rich cake and frosty cold beer. It was the perfect ending to a very memorable birthday.

Pyramids of Giza

Fortunately we only had the one beer and managed to rise early for our last day trip with our Jordan companions and first with some of our new ones. We were off to one of the most recognisable and mysterious landmarks in the world, The Pyramids of Giza.

The size is just incredible. You see them looming over the regular buildings in Giza from a long distance away and as you approach them the sheer immensity of their size is almost overwhelming. The three pyramids go up (or down) in size and depending on the viewpoint the second can look bigger than the first due it being built on a higher plane. The largest pyramid is built from over two million blocks stone. Mind blowing.

A nice idea of scale

We have arrived early but it’s obvious they’re not expecting many people, only one security screening point out of twenty is open. The huge area of space for parking is almost empty and the viewing areas are almost vacant. Ahmed says it’s not quiet it’s completely dead before taking us through the history of these three pyramids. Basically a Pharaoh wanted to be the biggest and best pharaoh ever so he built this super monument to himself, and a smaller one for his son the prince to house them after they die. These great pyramids sure are spectacular to look at but they are a huge beacon ‘lots of gold and treasure is here’. Subsequently Pharaohs took to hiding their tombs in the Valley of the Kings in an attempt to prevent robbery.

Walking around the pyramids you come across the usual ‘free’ animal rides, papyrus and postcard sellers, trinkets and such but we wave them away as we gape in awe up to the summit. The Ottomans actually re-used the top part of the largest pyramid for walls and fortification so now a simple steel beam marks the original height.

You can’t visit the pyramids without stopping and checking out the Sphinx. This massive part human, part lion is not as big as we thought or as intact but still incredibly pretty. It was built to ward evil away and keep the pharaohs safe in their afterlife. Nowadays though it’s mainly for tourists to take ridiculous photos…

I love the perplexed look on this young dudes face.

The afternoon was really chilled out the rest of the Jordan group. We had a nice lunch and said our goodbyes. It was really very sad for us as we made super great friends with everyone and had such a great time getting around together.

That night we transferred with Ahmed and our new group to the Giza train station to get the overnight train to Aswan, the deep south of Egypt.

Lessons Learnt

• Negotiate everything upfront and if you really want something ‘not allowed’ see if you can negotiate with them.
• Being covered neck to ankles does not stop unwanted attention towards Amy. Not engaging and a thick skin seems to work best.
•  Egypt is not as developed as we thought it was. It is actually 3^rd world.
• We have good buying power in Egypt. Food and water very affordable.
• Always have a hotel business card to give taxi drivers. There’s no guarantee they speak English or that you are pronouncing Arabic places correctly.

Parting Thoughts

Cairo is a massive city but really in its current state offers little beyond the clichés. The museum and pyramids are doable in a day and the rest is pretty much like Amman, except dirtier. Given the political situation there is very little tourism so there are no tourist traps and the sellers desperation means hard negotiating power. It’s sad but true. Cairo has a lot to offer, but at the moment, they are having a hard time showing it off to its best ability. Although you could do the highlights in a day, the things you will see are truly magical and breathtaking. 

Simon and Amy