Fourth Journey to Egypt: Cairo 2006

1. Day: 17th August 2006

We - my mother and I - were flying to Cairo to stay there for a week in the 5-star-hotel "Media City Moevenpick Hotel" and to visit so many pyramids and quite more. The hotel is situated in the 6th-October-City ca. 45 minutes driving to Cairo. It has two huge swimming pools and is really comfortable, lying in a city which has been won off the desert. It's nicer to stay here than in Ciaro, because Cairo's air is very dirty. Besides, the hotel has a good Shuttle-Service, driving four times a day to Cairo (also to Giza-pyramids if you wish) and back. They also give you a free tour through the nearby film-city called "Media City" (see day 4 for that).

2. Day: 18th August 2006: Pyramids

At our arrival in Cairo we told our travel agency that we wished a pyramid tour. Because we were only four people for that tour we could plan our own programme. So we spent a lot of time in Giza before we went further on to Memphis and Sakkara. The tour durated from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m. o'clock.
First we visited the greatest pyramid in Giza, the Cheops-Pyramide. In this summer it was possible to visit this one as well as the second, the Chephren-Pyramid, from inside. The third one of this famous ensemble, the Mykerinos-Pyramid, was closed. Luckily I had seen it from the inside just seven years ago, so now I know all three of them. Of course, there's not so much to see inside, because there are no painted walls, but it's quite an incredible feeling to stay inside this ancient and famous buildings. Sometimes the gears are so low, and sometimes there are tall galleries. Okay, these visits inside costs soome extra-money, but I tell you, it's worth to go inside!
Except of seeing these two pyramids we also visited the Solarboat-museum. Here you can see the wooden solar boat they found nearby the Cheops-Pyramid. It is so big that it takes the whole first floor. In the ground floor is the hole, in which the solar boat was found, and a lot of pictures and modells showing the solarboat of Cheops in smaller size.
There are not only these famous three pyramids in Egypt! Even in Giza you can see a few more, smaller ones, that were built for the queens. Alltogether there are around 100 pyramids.
That day, we turned also to the earliest of all pyramids, that is the pyramid of King Djoser in Sakkara, which was built by the famous man called Imhotep (yes right! that guy!). Imhoteps grave has (of course) not been discovered. They search in Sakkara for that grave nearby the famous pyramid. This one is a "step pyramid", developed out of the form of the right angled Mastaba-graves. Beside that pyramid is another one, more a hill than a pyramid, it is the pyramid of Userkaf. A lot of pyramids are in that sad shape, looking more like stony hills than a true pyramid. To the south one can see the pyramids of Dashur, where the famous red one and the bend-form-pyramid are. In the north one can see the pyramids of Abusir.
Whoever visits Cairo should not only go to Giza for pyramids, because of getting the right feeling for these things you should turn to the other places like Sakkara and Dashur. Next to the Djoser-pyramid is also the one of Unas in which the first pyramid-texts were written. Unfortunately that one was closed as well as the famous Serapeum in the nearby. We could only visit a Mastaba from inside lying in Sakkara.
Before we visited Sakkara we went to Memphis, a famous ancient city, but there's not a lot to see today, because the ancient Memphis is buried mostly under modern Cairo. In Memphis there is one of the two big Ramses-statues they found here. The second was was standing in front of the railway station in Cairo till 24th August 2006. The next day it was transported to Giza, where the statue once should stay in front of the new museum that will be build in future times. I was very sad that we missed that Ramses-transport just for one day. In Memphis there are few other artefacts and statues.
That day we also stopped in a so-called Papyrus-museum, which is for the most a shop which sells papyrus. I searched for a papyrus that shows a Medjai, but there wasn't such one exhibited. So I asked for it with the help of my travelguide book, that shows Nebamun on one page. Nebamun is a famous Medjai who has a grave in Thebes and painted walls showing him and his family. The people of the shop recognized it and gave me the papyrus out of a shelf. They also wanted to buy my book.

3. Day: 19th August 2006: At the Egyptian Museum

We took the Shuttle to Cairo and entered the Egyptian Museum at 11 a. m. There were two floors filled with treasures!! I had bought a book on the Egyptian Museum in Germany and now tried the "hasty tour" given in the book. Do not misunderstand the word "hasty"!!! We were till the end busy with that tour!!! So we spend 8,30 hours in the museum and only paused for two short breaks. The tour was nevertheless nicely. It guided us to chosen artefacts from all important periods of Egypt. The highlight of the museum is of course the Tutenchamun-exhibition. In the really artefact-filled rooms you can discover such nice things on your own! It's such a pity that they will take away lots of the artifacts into the other future museum in Giza. In Cairo, only the Tutenchamun-things will remain. So, hurry up, guys! If you want to feel the charm of old Archaeologist day's, you have to visit the museum for the next few years! Take enough time along with you! And do not carry too much with you, because you cannot leave bags anywhere there, except for your camera, which has to be stored away at the entrance. Better, you leave it in the hotel. It's very warm in the museum, but you can rest in the cafeteria. There's also a small post office in the museum garden. And it's nice to sit in that garden and enjoy...
After closing at 6.30 p. m. we just had have some time, before our Shuttle-Service returned us to the hotel. So we walked over the 6th-October-bridge to the Nile-island Gezira, where the tall Gezira-television-tower stands. That area is a nice and rich one. There are ship-restaurants alongside the Nile, but you can also sit, eat and drink something below the tower in the garden area - or, of course, got up with a lift to the top of that tower and enjoy the nice view on Cairo.

4. day: 20th August 2006: What crazy day!

That days begins nicely: a very long breakfast-buffett, massages, and pool!!!
Then, "later", at 4 p. m. we made the guided tour into the film-city called "Media City" where they just made shootings for a film. Media City is Holylwood for Egypt, and here they have all important sceneries of their country rebuilt: Cairo streets, buildings, old Cairo buildings, ancient temples, the Chephren-pyramid with Sphinx, Alexandria, the sea side and much more. First our bus drivers from the hotel took us to the old cars. We have to sit in one, then we have to go into the flats, and they made a lot of fotos from us. It was fun. It's another feeling: to visit the "whole of Egypt" in film flats!
At the evening we planed to go into the "Sound-and-Light-Show" at the Pyramid's Site in Giza. We had visited the Sound-and-Light-Show in Luxor last year and it has been really nice. So we dressed up most elegantly, because it was a show and the only opportunity to cloth in our "good dresses". The Shuttle stopped relatively early in Giza, so we nearly had two hours time left. Guess what we did! A mediator for camel-riding crossed our way, and just half an our later we both sat each on a camel with our nice dresses, knees free... We rode to the pyramids and saw a most beautiful sunset. We both enjoyed it so much!!! It was an incredible experience!
Last point of the crazy mixed-up-events-day was the Sound-and-Light-Show. We sat vis-a-vis with the Sphinx, drank some coke and really enjoyed the show. In complete darkness the pyramids were light up in diverse colours and impressive texts were spoken. There is a homepage where you can find the times of the shows and the different languages that were to be heard.

5. Day: 21st August 2006: The Pharaonic Island

The Pharaonic Island is an island on the Nile where they show you life and work in Ancient Egypt. The people are dressed in old Egyptian stlye. There are also plants and animals like in old Egyptian days, for example the Papyrus that grows around the island so high that you have the imagination you are far away from the modern world if you are on the island. You go there by boat, of course. First the guided trip will happen on canals, on which your boat will go on very slowly so you can watch the scenes at the banks. There are first statues of gods and pharaohs, then the Moses-szene is shown, and then all the working which has been done by the old Egytians. Later you land and walk around the island. There are houses of poor and rich Egyptians, temples and the tomb of Tutenchamun. That's very interesting, because they have assembled the chambers of this tomb in the way Howard Carter has found them in 1922. All items are of course copies, but for the real items you have only to go to the Egyptian Museum. Nevertheless, there in Cairo these items are not shown in that nicely manner like here. Here's also a copy of Tutenchamuns mummy. The real mummy lies in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes West. On the island are some museums (for example one showing how pyramids were built), shops, and restaurants. You can easily spend a whole nice day there. Who comes first time to Egypt should go here for an introduction in Ancient Egypt.

6. Day: 22nd August 2006: Once again museum and some shopping

Because the first nearly nine-hours-visit to the Egyptian Museum was not enough for me, I went once again to Cairo for another five hours in the Museum, that I only spent at the ground floor. I tell you, that wasn't sufficient, too... At the evening my mother came along to Cairo and we walked through the famous market called Chan al Chalili. If you are there, go into the small side streets. You may find interesting things here.

8. Day: 23rd August 2006: Giza

Once again pyramids in Giza! We planed to go there again for strolling around and enjoying the area, just walkign from one pyramid to the next and looking what's else there. I brought my Medjai costume with me to Egypt and I didn't had the oppotunity to wear it. I had thought that the evenings in 6th-October-City were quite cold because the city was in the desert, but it wasn't so. I decided to wear the costume right now at the pyramid's walk and try the usefulness of it out in hot areas like Giza desert area. I tell you it passed the "text". I felt very comfortable in my long and warm black dress. We arrived there at 11 a. m. It was really quite hot and we drank a lot that day. First the people there took me on a camel, just twenty minutes. Then we walked from the Cheops-Pyramid to the one of Chephren and of Mykerinos. We rested few times and climbed in the temple ruins. A pyramid guardian showed us Roman tombs. So we got a very good impression of the Giza area.

Beside the pyramid-form which was only reserved for kings and queens there are lots of Mastaba-tombs in Giza as in whole Egypt. They recently discovered also the graves of the pyramid-workers. Each pyramid has a valley-temple and another temple next to itself. So there is much to see in Giza, not only three pyramids and a big sphinx. If you go only with a hired tour to Giza, you will possibly see only the pyramids (mostly only from outside) and the sphinx. So go there on your own and take enough time with you. It's really a huge area! It took us four hours to walk from pyramid to pyramid and back. The area closes at 4 p. m. You can hire horses, donkeys, and camels. There are everywhere people who show you tombs and graves if you give them some money (called Bakschisch).

8. Day: 24nd August 2006: Going home

After a last swimming in the huge pool we went home by bus to Cairo Airport, plane to Munich, another plane to Hannover, and, last but not least, by my car to our home village. We have enjoyed our Egyptian trip very much and will of course return.