Historic Egypt (1/2): Cairo

Our family has had Egypt on our bucket list since we arrived in the region, but the events after the Arab Spring (which started in Egypt in early 2011) made us a bit wary.  We even had a couple of tentative trips almost planned and pulled out as it got closer.  After following the news closely (and talking to a lot of people from Egypt and who had been), we finally felt we were ready to give it a whirl.  And we're so happy that we did - it was a wonderful trip.

I'm trying something a little new and instead of a big narrative here, I'm including much of it in the captions of the photos. Here are a few tidbits not in the captions.  

After reading up on travel to Egypt, we were very nervous about getting overwhelmed by vendors.  We read that they can be very aggressive and had some friends who had a bit of a scary experience when they were mobbed and separated from their kids.  We absolutely had no problems.  Our guides gave us very specific advice to ignore them completely and it worked - after a "push" or two to sell us something, there seemed to be a tacit agreement to leave you alone.  Now if you indicated any kind of willingness to engage (even a "no thank you") or interest in buying something, then all the vendors seem to view you as fair game and the hard sell would commence.  We had no issues though (although with our entrenched Southern manners, it was very difficult at first to just flat out ignore someone who was talking to you!).

Photos weren't allowed in the Egyptian Museum where were able to see an amazing array of antiquities including the items inside of King Tut's tomb (the only tomb found so far that wasn't raided by thieves).  They had real mummies there, too, people and animals - ooh!  An amazing collection that feels a bit haphazard as they've clearly run out of room and there aren't a lot of descriptions.  We were very glad to have Maha with us to explain a lot of it.  She says they are building a new museum but on "Egypt time" so she had no idea when it would be finished.

I talk a bit about safety below but there is definitely a lot of police presence at the tourist sites.  I guess that made us feel better but it also made us wonder why it needed to be so heavy...

Overall, this seems to be great time to go to Egypt.  Our guides would show us where the lines would begin to see the sites pre-revolution when there were tons of tourists and we would just waltz right in wherever we wanted to go.  Even though it was October, it was still pretty warm and we were thrilled to not be standing in lines.  I do hope tourism picks back up in Egypt.  It's a huge part of their economy and they could definitely use an upswing.

Even with a bazillion hats around our house, we couldn't find a sun hat to fit Anna (the *only* one that fit her was in her cubby at school).  So our first vacation purchase at the Abu Dhabi airport on our way out of town was a new hat for Anna.  She was quite taken with this Abu Dhabi camel version.

We didn't waste any time.  Arrived in the late evening one night and hit the pyramids first thing the morning after.  It was a fun way to start our trip!

Hearing about the pyramids from our fabulous guide, Maha, who was pregnant with twin boys and never slowed down during the several days we spent with her.

The Great Pyramid looks big as you look up at it!

The blocks at the bottom are bigger and get smaller at the top (I never knew that!)

Regan is squeezing me tight - she didn't like being up there with no safety railing!

Anna is also giving Jake the clenched monkey grip - it felt higher than it looks.

"Pharaoh, Pharaoh, ooh-baby, let my people go, UH! Yeah, yeah, yeah" You either think we're crazy for singing that song or you also grew up in the church and learned that as a kid!

Strong Regan!

Voila! by Jane

Meredith's turn for a fun pyramid photo

Anna, too!

Jake and I even got in on the fun

This looks like the middle of nowhere but close by on the other side of the pyramids starts urban Cairo

And, we have a winner - you'll likely see this photo on our holiday cards!

A bit nervous as it's almost time to get off and when it's time to get off, the camel lowers himself down onto his front knees.  Which means you pitch forward and feel you're about to catapult over the camel's head.  Luckily, nobody lost their grip and we all stayed in the saddle.

Everyone says the pyramids look smaller than they expected.  I thought the pyramids were as big as I expected but the Sphinx was so small!!!

More fun photos with Regan

Ramses II in Memphis

He was big.  We are little.

Maha telling us about another sphinx

Oldest (or one of the oldest) temples and pyramids - I may not have been the best ancient civilization student - but Regan probably remembers.

The older pyramids were stepped like this one.

Fresh rotisserie chicken on a fun giant roasting grill for lunch.  It was delicious!

Relaxing in the restaurant garden during a yummy and relaxing lunch.

Relaxing by the pool after a long day of touring.

Photo from the balcony of our hotel room

Another view from our terrace at the Meena House Hotel in Giza.  It used to be Oberoi branded but they pulled out after the tourism collapse as it sounds like occupancy dropped precipitously.  The hotel was very full when we there there - the only place that felt like it had a lot of tourists.  Its location is clearly a big draw.

Meet Mohammad.  He is our burly (and armed!) personal security guard.  Yup, we felt like celebrities with our own body guard.  Our tour guide claims that this has been in place since 9/11 for American tourists and wasn't a new thing from the Arab Spring.  We only had him for the one day we spent in downtown Cairo.  And get this, we also got an armed police escort as we drove from site to site.  The police security would ask our nationality when we arrived at a touring site and since we were Americans when we left, they would ask where we were going next and a police car (with three armed policemen - one with a big AK47-type gun!) would follow us there.  Crazy!  Honestly, all this security was the only thing that made us a *wee* bit nervous about the whole thing.  It's pretty easy to spot the Americans - they are the ones with a burly guy following them around and with the police escorts!  All was fine though.

In front of the Muhammad Ali mosque (different guy but I kept thinking, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee..."). It's a beautiful mosque which copied the design of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul which we visited last year.

With Maha in the courtyard of the mosque

View of Cairo from the top of the hill where the old fort was (fort was built to protect from the Crusaders who didn't come to Cairo).  You can see it is very brown, very big and very crowded.  It's a bit of an overwhelming city!

In front of the Egyptian Museum.  There were a few tanks out front and a lot of security (that I couldn't take pictures of).  Sounds like you used to have to stand in line to go into the museum and that they had time limits on the popular exhibits like King Tut's items from his tomb and the mummies.  No lines for us!

Party headquarters of Mubarakak (the (first) ruler who was deposed during the revolution).  Our guide says the building was burned to destroy the documents inside so that no one from the party could be persecuted but I don't really know anything about who burned this or why.  It is right next door to the Egyptian Museum (and right across from what will be a newly remodeled Ritz Carlton hotel).

Off to the Coptic Christian quarter to learn a bit about the long history of Christianity in Egypt.  There is a belief that where this church is located (called the Hanging Church) was where Jesus and his family hid when they were running from King Herod.  The Hanging Church "hangs" many meters off the ground which made Regan a bit nervous when we looked through the see through floor part.

It was a holiday in Egypt so a lot of people were vising the church.  This is Exhibit A - what it looks like when a normal family tries to get a photo on the church steps.

And now this is Exhibit B - how you can get a family photo quite easily if you have Body Guard Mohammad to hold back the crowd for 10 seconds!  Celebrities, I tell ya, they all thought we were celebrities.  Maha said that a lot of the visitors at the church would be Christians from villages coming in on their holiday and may not see many tourists.  The were definitely interested in looking at us, taking our pictures and pinching Anna's cheeks.

On our way to the Cairo airport, we visited the Cave Church which is a church built into a cave in a poor Coptic neighborhood (affectionately?) called Garbage City (more info below).

10,000 worshipers attend service on Thursday evenings.  Here we are looking towards the alter with another Mohammad who is getting us to the airport next.  Somehow I don't have a photo of Yusef who is a "servant" of the church (employee?  volunteer?) who gave us a tour and told us about its history and the neighborhood.

A Polish artist carved Biblical scenes all along the cave walls.  You can see the "rock" that covered Jesus' tomb in this photos.  There were rope type ladders all over the rock face where the artist would dangle while making his creation.  Regan says she likes making art but NOT while dangling on a cliff!

At the top of Cave Church overlooking Garbage City

A famous carving on the roof of the alter area.  Yusef was adamant that we *needed* this photo and gladly laid on the ground to get it for us.

We didn't feel comfortable taking many photos of Garbage City as it felt a bit voyeuristic, but Jake did manage to snap a few  when people weren't around. Basically this Coptic Christian population takes care of a lot of the garbage collection in the city of Cairo (in trucks as well as carts pulled by donkeys).  We were told that they recycle about 90% of what they collect making it one of the most efficient recycling efforts in the world. 

Some of the many large bags of garbage that have already been separated  - these on the right have only plastic left in them.  This neighborhood didn't feel as depressing as it sounds.  Everyone that we saw looked to be working class and not in a dire poverty.  The main road in had a lot of shops and there were kids running around and having fun. There were a lot of flies and a unique smell which would take some getting used to.

After our Cave Church/ Garbage City stop over we were off to the Cairo airport to catch a flight to Luxor which was further upstream on the Nile River and an important historic place in Egypt.