Tobin Blog: Egypt Part Two

The next day we spent in Cairo as well. Our tour was proceeding on a more or less historic time line. Yesterday the Step Pyramid and Giza, today we saw more of modern Cairo.

Now keep in mind when I say modern, this is relative to the pyramids.

Here is a picture of ancient Babylon, where according to the bible the Holy Family fled to when baby Jesus was very young. I think they are supposed to have lived here for 18 months.

A mosaic to commemorate this event:

Next it was up the time line another millennium or so in Cairo's history. Here it was out with the Romans with their Christianity and in comes the Caliph and Islam. Like all the rulers in Egypt before them, the new Muslim rulers had a little bit of 'monument envy' and each ruler had to make his mark. Thus Cairo is also full of mosques throughout the city. Some of these mosques are more utilitarian in style and design, while some are as impressive as any Gothic cathedral in Europe from the same time line. We were able to take pictures in this mosque. A rarity that we were even allowed in. Without further ado, my first mosque experience:

Tough to get pictures that do justice to this immense building, but here is the ceiling:

The courtyard:

And the overall view from outside:

Next it was off to one of the things that I was really looking forward to: THE MARKET!

It is hard to show in a picture the chaos that is the Cairo central market. First the place is huge, but not consolidated in a main square or open area. It basically sprawls over a huge area of old Cairo. Imagine the narrow pedestrian only area the still exists from the middle ages in any European city. The area where they made the streets curvy and confusing so if invaded the people trying to 'sack' the city would get lost in the streets thus giving the royals time to flee. Now imagine that area but in one of the largest cities of the middle ages. Now imagine lining this area with endless shops and also the street with another layer of stalls on both sides of the alleyways. This only starts to explain the Cairo market. And in all this immense area of commerce, not one price tag.

That's right, everything has to be haggled over. And to get your attention they try anything. Our favorite had to be 'pretty lady, you very lucky!' followed by 'how many camels?' In reference to how many camels did I have to pay Paty's dad. This became a little of a running joke because as you were walking through any market in Egypt; be it Cairo, Aswan or Luxor you would here the ever present 'how many camels?'

Lastly to fill out our whirlwind tour of Cairo it was the Cairo museum of Ancient Egypt.

Pictures are strictly not allowed inside, but this is where they keep the loot from King Tut's tomb. Among other things. It is safe to say that never in my life will I see so much gold in one place. One piece in particular was 110 kg (242 lbs) of pure gold.

Then we were off to the sitting train to Aswan for the night. But first a stop at the hotel to freshen up. At the hotel we had a little surprise waiting. Apparently one of the people from our tour was also having a birthday (40 years old) and so they had an impromptu birthday party for Sally and Paty, as today was Paty's birthday.

The train to Aswan was in a word, long. If you can afford the sleeping train upgrade, it is worth the money to have your own cabin and a bed. We left at 10 PM and arrived in Aswan around 1 PM.

Before I go on to Aswan and what a markedly different part of our trip, a few thoughts on Cairo. Cairo really reminds one of Mexico. Not the Mexico of Cancun, Cabo and Puerto Vallarta; but Mexico City and the countryside of Mexico. It is really poor. And parts of countryside are super dirty. The government has some problems keeping up with the population's basic needs.

That being said, even with the abject poverty we saw in some places, never on our trip did we feel unsafe. The crime rate is close to zero. This is obviously an offshoot of the Muslim government and the legacy of 'if you are caught stealing, we cut off your hand'.

And for the duration of our trip we only saw one person begging for money. Everyone does something to earn a living.

While they won't steal from you, they have NO problem ripping you off. I referred to it earlier, but it is hard to hammer home that nothing has a price tag. Even in some of the stores you have to haggle as a matter of your daily existence. For instance, we bought a blanket/scarf thing that is a typical tourist purchase. The guy started the price at 450 Egyptian Pounds (5 Egyptian Pounds roughly = $1). We ended up buying the blanket for 50 Pounds. And even then I don't know if we really got a good deal. But how do you try to sell something for $90 and settle for $10? This happened all the time. So, like I said, the Egyptians will never steal from you but they will rob you blind.

It is actually a nice way of doing things, that is once you get used to it.

Now, we have arrived in Aswan. Aswan is much smaller than Cairo. We really started to feel more comfortable here. After the 15 hour train ride we had about 30 minutes to clean up and meet up with the group for some more tours.

First up was one of the things I really wanted to see, the Aswan High Dam. Unfortunately the dam is so large it is hard to get a handle on the enormity of project when you are on site. But, according to what I have read, this dam provides 51% of Egypt's electricity needs. It even allows Egypt to export excess electricity to Sudan and Jordan. The Nile is a large river.
From atop the dam looking towards Aswan:

Next we took a boat ride to one of the monuments that was moved when they created the dam. Yes, in the 1960's Unesco spearheaded an effort to move as many monuments as possible from the low areas that are now or would soon be covered by water to higher ground as close as possible.

Us at temple:

The island behind us, if you look to the left you see some wooden pillars that look like they used to be part of a pier or dock. This is where the temple used to be before the dam.