Postcards From Cairo

· by · Bookmark the permalink. ·

Evocative Egypt!

Did you know that Egyptians call their country Misr?

And that Egyptians created “paper” using the papyrus stem? By 3100 BC Egyptians began to chronicle their history with the written word.

Did you know that Egypt has the oldest standing manmade structures?

Egypt is amazing.

We saw and learned so much – and took hundreds of photos and videos.

Egypt is overwhelming.

Volumes have been written of Egypt’s long history of 3 periods, 30 dynasties, gods and goddesses without number, Hittite, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Napoleonic, Christian and Islamic periods. Therefore it is impossible for me to become an Egyptologist over a 10-day tour and write a knowledgeable blog.

Today I share with you only our first two days of our Egyptian itinerary touring in and around Cairo and the briefest amount of information. It is most difficult to limit which photos to share.

Day One we drove to the ancient royal necropolis of Dahshur to drive by some of the Egyptians’ earliest attempts at pyramid construction. Not all have survived; some being scavaged for building material.

The Black Pyramid (c. 1860 BC – 1814 BC.) is a later pyramid named for its dark, decaying appearance as a rubble mound is encased in limestone but constructed of mud brick and clay instead of stone. The Bent Pyramid built by Pharoah Sneferu (c. 2600 BC) was the unsuccessful first attempt to build a smooth-sided pyramid. Miscalculations caused them to change its angle. Learning from his mistakes, he went on to build the successful smooth-sided Red Pyramid (not pictured.) King Sneferu’s son Khufu utilized his father’s research to design and guide the building process of a pyramid to completion which we know as the Great Pyramid of Giza.
A date palm orchard. The dates are harvested by hand.

We stopped at a family farm where they demonstrated the baking of their daily bread, harvesting of dates, and weaving of palm fronds into baskets.

Fresh bread is baked daily in a stone oven,
We were treated to a typical Egyptian breakfast of the fresh bread and date syrup, the Egyptian bean dish ful, fava bean falafel, tomatoes, cucumber, dates and Turkish coffee or mint tea.

Saqqara aka Sakkara is the biggest and oldest cemetery in the world.

The Step Pyramid of Djoser is the earliest colossal stone building in Egypt built in the 27th century BC for Pharoah Djoser. The architect was Imhotep who was the first to experiment large scale building with cut stone instead of mud brick.
In a noble’s tomb we saw this scene of a sled with large jars of perfume being pulled by two men as one pours oil to make it slide more easily is carved and painted on the stone walls of the Saqqara burial complex.c.2700 BC.

Memphis was founded in 3100 BC as the first unified capital of Egypt. Most of ancient Memphis remains unexcavated due to an entire existing city built over it.

The alabaster sphinx at Memphis was carved around 1700 and 1400 BC and measures 26 feet long and 13 feet high and is the second largest sphinx discovered after the Great Sphinx of Giza.
The 180 tonne colossal statue of Ramses II (c. 1303 BC – 1213 BC) is 33 feet in length and was carved from one block of limestone. It was discovered in Memphis lying face down in marshy ground in 1821 AD and not moved until 1887 when a British army engineer succeeded in raising and moving the colossal statue using a system of pulleys and levers to its current location.
The cartouche is an oval containing hieroglyphs and are to be used only for the names of royal pharaohs. Pharaohs can have up to 5 names including their birth name and their royal name. The cartouche is helpful to identify tombs, statutes and artwork and this statue of Ramses II has several cartouches.

The Grand Finale of Day One was to stop and actually walk right up to and touch The Great Pyramid named by Antipater of Sidon as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is the oldest of the Ancient Wonders and the only one still in existence.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu (aka Cheops) and the Pyramid of Khafre (aka Chephren) are the largest of all Egyptian pyramids. The third one is the smaller Pyramid of Menkaure (aka Mycerinus). All three pyramids as well as the Great Sphinx were built in the Giza Plateau necropolis between 2600 and 2500 BC.

Why the confusing double names? Through history they have become known by both the Egyptian and Greek versions of their names.

Day Two we checked out of the hotel. Our guide and driver met us and the plan was to drop us of at Cairo International Airport after another full day of touring. We began with a three hour visit to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, built in 1902, houses more than 120,000 artifacts. There were two earlier Egyptian museum collections. One was gifted to the Archduke of Austria in 1855 and the other flooded in 1878.
One of the most iconic Egyptian statues is this carved in diorite statue of King Khafre (Chephren) builder of the second pyramid of Giza circa 2500 BC. One wonders what tools the ancient artists used to carve and polish these finely detailed statues.
The Scribe.

King Tut’s Treasures

King Tutankhamun lived c. 1341 BC – c. 1323 BC ascended the throne when 8 or 9 years of age and died 9 years later.

The Egyptian Museum has over 5000 artifacts from the tomb of King Tutankhamun which was discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. Through the ages most pharaoh’s tombs had been plundered by grave-robbers making the discovery of this mostly intact tomb the most important archeological find of all time. Among the treasure were thousands of golden objects including the iconic gold burial mask, gold jewelry, and golden nesting caskets which were not allowed to be photographed.

Alabaster Canopic Jars holding the mummified organs from the Tomb of King Tutankamen.
This gilded chest contained one of King Tutankamen’s golden thrones.
There is a figure is on each side of the chest. This one is SeLket, one of the 4 protective goddesses identified by the scorpion on the head.
Koshary is Egypt’s national dish and a widely popular street food of layered fried rice, vermicelli, and brown lentils, and topped with a zesty tomato sauce, garlic vinegar and garnished with chickpeas and crispy fried onions and optional hot sauce. Carb heavy, but I loved it!

After a delicious lunch we visited Old Cairo, including Coptic Christian Cairo, Islamic Cairo, and the Khan El Khalili bazaar. In 1979, UNESCO designated Old Cairo as a World Heritage site.

One of the oldest Christian churches in Egypt – built in the 3rd century- The Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church. Also called “The Hanging (or suspended) Church” because it was constructed between towers of the ancient Roman Babylon Fortress built around 30 BC with the arrival of Emperor Augustus in Egypt.
Interior of Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church built in the 4th century. It is traditionally believed to have been built on the spot where the Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus Christ, rested in a cave at the end of their journey into Egypt. They may have lived here while Joseph worked at the fortress.
El Moezz Street is the oldest street in Cairo which is the biggest open-air museum of medievel Islamic architecture, flanked by mosques, madrasas, public baths, etc.
This ornate building housed a public bath in Old Cairo built over a huge cistern.
A mosque.
An antique shop?
One of the gates to the old city of Cairo.

When researching Egyptian vacations, it became apparent that a guide would make it easier, safer, and better in so many ways. Still desiring our independence (rather than joining a group tour) I opted to hire a private guide in Cairo.

I was referred to Zeinab Wahby of Nobatia Tours who put together the itinerary. She included a representative to meet us at the gate at Cairo International Airport and steer us through Passport Control, to Baggage Claim, and the ATM before handing us over to Haisem, a private driver for the hour-long drive to the Hyatt Regency in New Giza, West Cairo.

Zeinab has years of experience working in archeology and touring. We felt safe and secure in her care and with Haisem’s excellent and calm driving in chaotic, crowded Cairo. She provided everything she promised and more, including the farm breakfast, lunches, water, snacks, driver, air-conditioned car, and her extensive knowledge as an Egyptologist. She was our shield of protection between us and those clambering for our attention, tickets, money!

She didn’t ask for any deposit or payment up front and we didn’t pay anything until she dropped us off at the airport for our evening flight to Luxor.

We highly recommend Zeinab, owner-operator of Nobatia Tours.

Manually harvesting the fruit of the date palm.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) stands an astonishing 481 feet (147 meters) tall with an angle of 52 degrees. Each stone is estimated to weigh 2.5 tons.

Did you know that Upper Egypt is the southern half and Lower Egypt is the northern half of the country?

It was a busy two days, but we’re just getting started. Meet You in the Morning from Luxor in Upper Egypt with even more amazing sites and antiquities.

One response to “Postcards From Cairo”

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.