Palnitkar Family Trip to Egypt – Dec 13 – Dec 19, 2018

Thursday, Dec 13, 2018 – Cairo


We landed in Cairo at 6 am on Thu, Dec 13. We got an Egyptian visa for $25.

We went to Townview Hotel at Tahrir Square. Not a great hotel. Room was alright, but the access was a little odd. We could not really find a taxi at Egypt airport. Therefore, we took the local bus from the airport to the hotel. Cost was 32 EGP (about 120 Rupees).

We kept our luggage at the hotel and immediately left to explore the city. Uber is easily available in Egypt. For the first two days, we did not have internet. So we simply found the rates on Uber and paid the taxi driver. The general rule of thumb was to pay Rs. 8 per km. Find the distance on Google offline maps.

We started off with the Egyptian National Museum. This is a museum full of treasures from all over Egypt. It had actual mummies from the 3,500 years ago. Totally fascinating. We just wished we had seen the museum after visiting the rest of Egypt. Then we would understand the significance of the exhibits better. It would be a lot more interesting. It took us about 1.5 hours to explore the museum. It hmainly had archaelogical exhibits.

Next we went to the Cairo Citadel (Fortress) by taxi. The Saladin Citadel of Cairo is a medieval Islamic fortification in Cairo, Egypt. The location, on Mokattam hill near the center of Cairo, was once famous for its fresh breeze and grand views of the city. It is now a preserved historic site, with mosques and museums. In 1976, it was proclaimed by UNESCO as a part of the World Heritage Site Historic Cairo (Islamic Cairo) which was “the new centre of the Islamic world, reaching its golden age in the 14th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Citadel

Mosque of Muhammad Ali inside the Citadel.

We also visited the Egyptian National Military Museum which had military equipment on display. Of course, they would not admit that they had lost the 6-day war of 1967 against Israel.

Next we visited Coptic Cairo (Old Christian Cairo).  Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed in Christian tradition that the Holy Family visited this area and stayed at the site of Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga). Coptic Cairo was a stronghold for Christianity in Egypt until the Islamic era, though most of the current buildings of the churches in Coptic Cairo were built after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_Cairo

We ended our day at the Khan El Khalili Market. Khan el-Khalili is a major souk in the historic center of Islamic Cairo. The bazaar district is one of Cairo’s main attractions for tourists and Egyptians alike. Cairo was very much India. The market was very similar to the ones in India. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_el-Khalili for details.

Next to the market was The Al Hussain Mosque. The Al-Hussain Mosque  is a mosque built in 1154. It is considered to be one of the holiest Islamic sites in Egypt.

Friday, Dec 14, 2018 – Cairo, Giza

We started the day by going to the pyramids of Giza. Giza is a suburb of Cairo, about 13 km from the city center. We took an Uber to Giza. Uber is dirt cheap in Egypt, similar to the prices in India.

The Giza pyramid complex is an archaeological site on the Giza Plateau, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It includes the three Great Pyramids (Khufu/Cheops, Khafre/Chephren and Menkaure/Mykerinos), the Great Sphinx, several cemeteries, a workers’ village and an industrial complex. It is located in the Western Desert, approximately 9 km  west of the Nile river at the old town of Giza, and about 13 km southwest of Cairo city centre. See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/archaeology/giza-pyramids/

The pyramids, which have historically been common as emblems of ancient Egypt in the Western imagination were popularised in Hellenistic times, when the Great Pyramid was listed by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is by far the oldest of the ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence. These pyramids are cool because pyramids are hard to construct and these were constructed about 4,500 years ago.

There are horse carts, taxis within the Giza complex. But we walked around.

Next we ate Kushari that originated in the 19th century in Egypt. Kushari is an Egyptian dish originally made in the 19th century, made of rice, macaroni, and lentils mixed together, topped with a spiced tomato sauce and garlic vinegar, and garnished with chickpeas and crispy fried onions.  The dish was very delicious.

Sprinklings of garlic juice, garlic vinegar, and hot sauce are optional. The hot sauce was just amazing. A small kushari cost about 10 EGP, about 40 Rupees and we could not finish the portion 🙂

We then walked to Al Azhar park which is a large park in Cairo. The top of the hill has great views of Cairo.

Cairo was a very multi-cultural place with the British occupation. Here was an example with Miami theater.

On Friday evening at around 4 pm, we took a taxi to Cairo airport to fly to Aswan, Egypt. Aswan is about 1,000 km south of Cairo. Our flight landed in Aswan at 9.15 pm.

We took a taxi from Aswan airport to our AirBnb guesthouse on Elephantine Island. We had to take a ferry to cross from the mainland to the island. We reached the guesthouse at approximate 10.30 pm.

Saturday, Dec 15, 2018 – Aswan

We were staying at the Mango Guest House. This is a delightful accommodation on Elephantine Island. Simple but highly recommended. The garden was delightful. We had a simple breakfast in the garden.

We then went on to visit Aswan High Dam. There are two dams on the Nile at Aswan, the low dam and the high dam.

The Aswan High Dam, is an embankment dam built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan Low Dam initially completed in 1902 downstream. Based on the success of the Low Dam, then at its maximum utilization, construction of the High Dam became a key objective of the government following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952; with its ability to better control flooding, provide increased water storage for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity the dam was seen as pivotal to Egypt’s planned industrialization. Like the earlier implementation, the High Dam has had a significant effect on the economy and culture of Egypt.

While the dam is of great significance, the visit to the dam was not very interesting. It is not a grand or majestic. There are no good viewing stations.

This is the Russia – Egypt friendship monument built at the time of the Aswan high dam.

We then proceeded to the temple of Philae. It is on an island created by the reservoir of the Aswan dam. We had to take a boat from the drop off point to the temple.

Temple of Philae was originally built in 300 BC.  Philae was said to be one of the burying-places of Osiris, it was held in high reverence both by the Egyptians to the north and the Nubians (often referred to as “Ethiopians” in Greek) to the south.

In the afternoon, we took a felluca ride. A felluca is a comfortable passenger ferry boat. We had a delicious lunch on the boat. We spent the afternoon on the boat ferrying around at various spots on the Nile river on Aswan.

We got off from the boat and saw the St Simeon monastery complex. The ruins of the old Christian monastery, the largest ancient Coptic architecture complex in Egypt, known as the monastery of St. Simeon, are located in the Aswan desert, in 700 meters from the west bank of the Nile, opposite to the island of Elephantine. It was built in the 11th century AD. We had to walk about 1 km through the sand to reach the monastery.

We also visited the Mausoleum of Aga Khan. It is the mausoleum of Aga Khan III, Sir Sultan Muhammed Shah, who died in 1957. The mausoleum is located at Aswan, along the Nile of Egypt, since Egypt was formerly the centre of power of the Fatimids.

The mausoleum is built in the style of the Fatimid tombs in Cairo. It is built of pink limestone, while the tomb is built of white Carrara marble. The Aga Khan was buried there two years after he died, since he used to spend part of the winter season living in a nearby villa.

A red rose is laid on the Aga Khan’s tomb every day–a practice first started by the Aga Khan’s wife, Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan.

We then got back on to the felluca and took turns at rowing back to the Mango Guest House on Elephantine Island.

In the night, I visited the Nubian museum in Aswan. It is an archaelogical museum dedicated to the Nubians, people from southern Egypt (closer to Sudan). It is a very nice museum.

In Aswan, the southern part of Egypt, we saw more people with African features than Arabic features. I guess, it is a part of being in Africa rather than Arabia. We thought it was interesting.

Sunday, Dec 16, 2018 – Aswan to Luxor –  Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples
We hired a car to drive us from Aswan to Luxor (distance 238 km). Cost was about 450 Egyptian Pounds (about 25 dollars).

The first stop was the temple in Kom Ombo. The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple  constructed during the Ptolemaic dynasty, 180–47 BC. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor and Khonsu.[2] Meanwhile, the northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris.  The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis. We did not like it too much. Construction was going on.

We then continued on to Edfu where we liked the temple quite a bit. These structures were called temples because they were before Christianity or Islam and they were not Jewish. They were Pagan temples (pretty much a name for a religion which is not one of those three 🙂 ).

The Temple of Edfu was built between 237 and 57 BC dedicated to the chief god Horus, who was also identified as Apollo  It is one of the best preserved shrines in Egypt.

We then continued on to Luxor and went to our AirBnb on the West Bank of Nile. The days were hot. So in the evening, when it cooled down, we went to Luxor temple which is on the East Bank of Nile. To get from the West Bank to the East Bank of Nile, you have to take a ferry boat which is a short 5 minute ride.

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was constructed approximately 1400 BC. The temple is made from Nubian sandstone. (Nubia is the southern region of Egypt)

Monday, Dec 17, 2018 – Valley of Kings, Hatshepsut, Memnon, Karnak

We started the day by visiting the Valley of Kings. This is where all the important kings of Egypt were mummified and buried. The mummies have now been preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. But the tombs were very interesting because they had intricate carvings and objects which the dead person was supposed to carry to their afterlife. This is definitely a great place to go.

We then visited the temple of Hatshepsut. It is dedicated to Queen Hatshepsut who came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC. Her understanding of religion allowed her to establish herself as the God’s Wife of Amen.[7] Officially, she ruled jointly with Tuthmosis III, who had ascended to the throne the previous year as a child of about two years old. Hatshepsut was the chief wife of Tuthmosis II, Thutmose III’s father. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty. Pretty good example of woman power in that time!

We then quickly stopped at the Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, standing since 1350 BC.

We then headed out to the temple of Karnak in Luxor at around 2.30 pm. We also hired a guide to tell us about the temple. The area around Karnak was the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the monumental city of Thebes. This is one of the most famous temples in Luxor. It was featured in the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

We finished seeing the Temple of Karnak. Then we headed out to Luxor Airport where we were going to catch an 11 pm flight to Cairo. The flight landed in Cairo at 12.10 am. We reached our AirBnb at 2 am.

Tuesday, Dec 18, 2018 – Suez Canal

I had always wanted to see the Suez Canal. It was completed in 1869 and is considered one of the most amazing feats of engineering at that time. It connects the Mediterranean sea to the Red Sea, significantly cutting the sailing time from Europe to India. So we decided to dedicate a day to seeing the Suez. We took a train from Cairo to Port Said, a 5 hour journey. We started at 6 am in the morning and reached Port Said at 11.15 am. We traveled in AC 2nd Class which was similar to Indian trains, but a little more dirty. But the cost was cheap about 33 EGP (about Rs. 130 per person).

The train tracks went alongside the Suez Canal for almost 50 km all the way to Port Said. It was very cool to see the ships sailing through the Suez.

We landed at Port Said train station at 11.15 am.

The city of Port Said (pronounced Sayeed) was not very classy. We had expected nice walkways and promenades. But that was not to be. The city was quite dirty and shabby. Suez was great, but the city was not cool.

We went to the Ferdinand de Lesseps monument. He was the architect of the Suez Canal.

Here is picture at Port Said which is at the head of the Suez Canal on the Mediterranean Sea. The City of Suez is on the southern end of the canal.

It was cool to see ships sailing through the Suez Canal. But it was a 10.5 hour train journey just to see Suez 🙂

We took the 1 pm train back from Port Said (Sayeed) and finally arrived back in Cairo at 6.10 pm. This is a photo of the Ramses station in Cairo (everything is named after Pharaohs).

We then chilled a little bit.

The next day on Wed, Dec 19, we took the morning flight from Cairo Airport to Beirut Lebanon at 8.00 am. This was the end of our wonderful Egypt trip from Dec 13 – Dec 19, 2018.

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If you are interested in all the countries on our trip, here are the links.
Egypt Trip – Dec 13 – 19, 2018               Blog     Photos Only

Lebanon Trip – Dec 19 – 21, 2018          Blog      Photos Only

Jordan Trip – Dec 21 – 25, 2018              Blog      Photos Only

Israel Trip – Dec 26 – 31, 2018                Blog      Photos Only