Cairo, Egypt

We're in Cairo!
Good flights Dulles to Vienna to Cairo. Our first time on Austrian Air, and we enjoyed the service, Fran didn't like their bright red uniforms. Vienna was very busy, lots of people traveling, from everywhere, few signs of a recession there.

Cairo's airport is new in the last year, large, very modern, but very few planes or people! As we approached, the land was very flat, very dry and arid, a lot like a desert! Buying visas took 15 seconds, through immigration quickly, no delays at all.

Cairo is huge! 20 million people (a quarter of Egypt's population), 150 kilometers (93 miles) across the city from one side to the other. Traffic like many cities in the world, jammed (this is Saturday afternoon), if the road is 4 lanes traffic is 5 cars wide, whoever gets their nose in front goes first. There is a Christian population here, but most of the population is Muslim, and there are mosques everywhere. The call to prayer several times a day is a new experience for us.

Cairo is a very cosmopolitan city. Egypt doesn't make cars; in the first 10 minutes we saw cars made in the U.S., Russia, Germany, France, Korea, China, Japan, various former Soviet republics, and a dozen other countries. I heard at least five languages in the lobby as we checked in. Our guide emphasized it was OK to dress as casually as we want tomorrow, including shorts, and he pointed to various females as examples. That's different than the advice Fran found in the guide books and on travel sites, which resulted in her repacking her entire wardrobe in the last two days before we left. Better safe than not in many places, we think.

The Cairo Marriott is spectacular. The largest hotel in Egypt, more than 1,200 rooms. Two huge towers flank an ancient palace (which is now the casino), and a semi-circle of rooms surrounds the swimming pools behind the palace. The hotel has something like 12 restaurants. They serve alcohol, but only on request, and it's expensive. Our room and balcony look right out onto the Nile River.

We will stay in some special hotels, but in some places, the western hotels were more highly recommended. When I asked about Marriots, the immediate response was that they were at the top of the list. So . . . I made some of our reservations myself, the trip cost was modified, and we hope to be well cared for!

The first morning our first WOW! Moment took about 30 minutes. That's how long it took to reach the pyramids in Giza and the Sphinx. Three massive pyramids, built as their own tombs by a Pharaoh and his two sons, who ruled after him. The Great Pyramid, some 180 meters (550'+) was the tallest building on the planet until the Eiffel Tower was built some 4,000 years later. Egypt's population was 2 million at the time, and 700,000 people worked for 20 years to build his pyramid. 2.3 million stones, average weight 16 tons each!! They moved those things (and raised them) by hand! Surrounding burial tombs near the pyramids (some 2,000) were for ministers and noblemen who actually kept the country running. These tombs were plundered quickly by grave robbers, and subsequent Pharaohs dug their tombs into the bedrock (instead of above-ground) in the Valley of the Kings.

We climbed to the burial room in the Great Pyramid (through a small passageway about 3 feet square!) about 350' feet up. His sarcophagus is still there, but nothing else. They limit tickets to 150 each morning. Good thing. Traffic was heavy, it's steep, and there's little room to pass!

Just down the hill is the Sphinx. The architect had a huge rock left over, and was inspired! It was in good shape until a Muslim invader decided it was an offense to Allah and shot off the nose.

A short camel ride, not especially comfortable, provided ample opportunity for pictures, then off to lunch. We're still learning Egyptian food, but it's generally quite good. The spices are less exotic than we experienced in Asia, but the meat and vegetables are generally quite healthy and tasty.

In the afternoon we went to Memphis, which was the capital for several thousand years before Cairo was built. There is an outdoor museum with a massive statue of Ramses II, and other artifacts from his time.

There is a big front here, but it's a sandstorm!  Not as vigorous as I expected (sand is not blowing in my eyes and nose every minute) but visibility and sunlight are very limited. It's still in the 90s, but the temperature dropped in the afternoon. The storm passed during the night, and the third day was the clearest day we had.

We had a very special Guide, Henry Ayoub. Both a certified Egyptologist and a religious historical scholar, he's absolutely superb. He travels the world lecturing at universities and working with foreign scholars, and is an unlimited fount of historical information. We are most fortunate to have met him, and we already have a friend for life. He'll be in the Baltimore-Washington area in July, and we hope he will have time to come to the house for dinner.