Pyramids of Giza…best way to close Egypt

Waiting for my ferry ride to the temple of Philae

Philae Temple of Isis on island in Lake Nasser

After getting back from Abu Simbel there was just one more thing to do…at least that’s what I thought. On paper it sounded simple...get my Sudanese visa, then the ferry ticket and then adios to Egypt.

Front pylon

Bas relief

First thing on Sunday morning I showed up at the Sudanese embassy and was directed to the Counsel General’s office for an interview. As he flipped through my passport, he asked a simple question, “Why do you want to go to Sudan?” My answer was equally simple, “I’ve heard stories that Sudanese people are some of the best people in the world…I want to see it myself”. He said “Inshallah”, stamped my passport and I was all set!

Next step was the office of the ferry company to buy my ticket from Aswan to Wadi Halfa in Sudan which was departing the next day. After the initial hiccup of having to delay my Sudan plan for a week it seemed as though things were finally falling into place.

All changed as soon as I was abruptly told to come back in a couple days to buy the ticket for the following week. The ferry leaving the next day was full and the next one was a week later. All my plans for Sudan were based on getting this ferry and now I was not going to make it. I had a great time in Egypt, but no intention to extend my stay for another week. Desperately disappointed I trudged out of the office wondering if I lingered there for a while I might just get lucky.

Trajan's Kiosk of Philae

Aswan Souq

Spices including starfish

Noticing me coming out of the office a group of people waiting outside asked me to join them for tea. It turned out that they were Sudanese who were also rejected a ticket and were on the waiting list. I promptly put my name on the list and then asked what the Arabic number beside my name meant and one guy smiled at me and said 75! It suddenly hit me that I better start looking at alternatives as the ferry wasn’t going to happen. It still baffles me why there is only one ferry a week on this route when it’s always overbooked. Surely this would be a great business opportunity for someone.

The souq of Aswan had several spice stores

Disappointed but determined not to let this affect me, I walked straight into a travel agency to look at options of flying to Khartoum. As things transpired, I would be flying back to Cairo and taking a flight to Khartoum with almost 14 hours of layover. In a classic example of “when one door closes another opens”, I was now going to see the Pyramids of Giza rather than sail Lake Nasser and still make it to Sudan earlier. Take that Mr. Saleh and the ferry company!


Street food, Egyptain pizza


The flight wasn’t until the next morning so I decided to visit the light show at the temple of Philae situated just outside of Aswan. The temple sits on a small island that was formed with the rising water of Lake Nasser when the Aswan high dam was built. Maybe I was just temple’ed out or it was my cold but the memory of this temple, quite unjustly perhaps, is just a side note because by itself it was a beautiful temple glowing with a golden hue in the night sky and its reflection glistening on the rippling waters of Lake Nasser.

Right: Pyramid of Khafre, one of the earliest Pharaoh of ancient Egypt

Pyramid of Queens (3 small ones) and the larger
one is Menkaure

Back at the Cairo airport the next day, I rented a car inclusive of driver and fuel for just under $50 for the whole day. Political instability and lower tourism numbers in Egypt has resulted in bigger discounts for a lot of services. Mohamed, my driver was a young educated chap addressing me as “My friend” in a heavy Arabic ascent.

Jumping over the pyramids...ok, it's a trick photograph

This one is a real jump from
the Pyramid of Khafre

Ah…the Pyramids of Giza, a stunning sight…but from a distance because it is the perfect tourist trap with unbelievably intense hassling. Funny that you are hassled by touts to be your guide so that no one then hassles you for the rest of the time seeing you already have a guide.

The ever expanding city of Cairo at the doorsteps of these pyramids, the incessant touts and the scores of tourists take the gloss off this magnificent place. They would have been an adventurers’ dream but that would have been in the 19th century or earlier. The towering structures are still awe-inspiring considering that they were constructed more than 4500 years ago and are a colossal reminder of the engineering feats and blood and sweat of Egypt’s ancient inhabitants.

Passageway to the tomb inside one of the pyramids

Great Sphinx with the pyramids of
Khufu in the background

I would have loved to have visited the National Museum close to the Tahrir Square famous for Egypt’s Arab spring uprising in 2011 but the radio reported that protesters were gathering there for a mass demonstration against President Mursi in opposition to his decree assuming unlimited powers.

We steered instead to the ancient souq (market) of Khan el-Khalili. The souq was quite charming with its narrow alleyways lined with glittering jewelry, shishas, chandeliers, and other artisanal works. Refreshingly, it was devoid of tourists and most locals seemed to go about their business without a bother.

That brings me to the topic of Egyptians and there are as diverse as day and night. Those that are associated with tourism are mildly put disagreeable trying to do everything to get an extra buck without regard that the whole experience could be distasteful for the visitor. They could be pious as saints but when it comes to dealing with a foreigner the attitude is of “it’s ok to cheat them”.

Alley in Khan el-Khalili

I am sure that forms a very small minority but unfortunately those are the people that most visitors come in contact with. The real Egyptians are the laymen who are quite affectionate. I have some fond memories of some of these folks especially from my travel to Abydos, Dendera and the army men of Bahari and from the train.

If one looks at the satellite image of Egypt (i have included it at the bottom of this page), it’s really incredible that this country is essentially a barren desert except for a narrow strip of green where the Nile flows. It’s impossible to imagine Egypt as a state without the life giving waters of the Nile. There would be no ancient Egyptian culture and certainly no pyramids without it.

Handcrafted brass plates

Agriculture forms the base for the country’s economy and they do a decent job at it producing all types of fruits and vegetables in the middle of what essentially is inhospitable terrain. This compares starkly to a country like Liberia with abundant water but more subsistence farming. The benefits of the Nile go further because with the damming of the river, more land was made available for cultivation and it provides electricity for the whole nation. The Nile has so far provided Egypt generously and this has allowed the population to explode in recent times but there are larger problems ahead.

Khan el-Khalili

Mosque

This same river that the Egyptians have relied on for ages also flows through Sudan and South Sudan and actually originates in Uganda and Ethiopia, the latter of which I have been lucky to witness. None of these nations are well-to-do and a lot of them are similarly agrarian societies. So far, due to the Aswan high dam, Egypt has made a disproportionate use of the river’s resources but what if tomorrow Ethiopia or Sudan or the other nations decide to dam the river upstream. Would Egypt still be able to support its burgeoning population and its needs in that scenario? I certainly hope but don’t think so!

View Journey through Egypt in a larger map
The current political uncertainly makes this issue more glaring. The president has granted himself unlimited powers and there are legitimate concerns that the nation that just came out of military dictatorship will soon fall into a theological one. From my interaction, the groups that I feel most threatened are the youth and the religious minorities with the biggest fear being that Egypt would turn into the next Iran.

I also have grave reservations about the long term peace scenario in the Middle East knowing the hard line stance of the Muslim Brotherhood towards Israel which under the reign of president Mubarak had a peace treaty. All in all, the next few years promise to be very interesting for Egypt.