Tag: Egypt
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Alexandria
Our last stop in Egypt was Alexandria – and what a different experience this city is! There is much Roman and Greek influence, being on the Mediterranean Sea. A mix of cultures, a crossroads fought over, it’s an intersection of cultures. Alexandria was the second most important important city in the Roman Empire to Rome. It…
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The Citadel – Overlooking the City of 1000 Minarets
We returned to Cairo and visited the Citadel, which we had seen many a time while driving around the city. It was built in 1170 CE to defend against the Crusaders by Saladin (a Kurd). There was a second citadel on Pharaoh’s Island. Other rulers also ruled from the citadel; there are 9 mosques in…
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Luxor
The city today known as Luxor was known as Waset to ancient Egyptians, which is altneratively also known in Greek as Thebes. Arab conquest changed the name to Luxor (from Al-Uqsur). In 1979 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site. Most people lived on the east bank of the river, with the dead and funerary…
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Abu Simbel and Nubia
Aswan High Dam We went over the 2.5 mile dam in the dark on our way south to Abu Simbel, and stopped to see it on our way back. The dam was built between January 9, 1969 and January 15, 1971, creating Lake Nasser. The lake is up to 750 feet deep, 7 miles wide…
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Aswan
The province of Aswan is in southern Egypt and is the third largest province; 4 million people live there and it is 300 miles from north to south. Most are Nubians and also are Muslim. Cities that are included in the province are Kom Ombo, Aswan and Abu Simbel. The Unfinished Obelisk We visited the…
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The Riverboat : Luxor to Edfu and Kom Ombo
The Nile held the first riverboat trip I’ve ever taken. It’s likely not my thing, but I am glad to have tied it once, the preferred method of travel by tourists in this historic area. The disappointing thing for me, which would have been the case of any riverboat I now understand, was that half…
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Old Cairo
Our last afternoon in Cairo, we took a tour of Old Cairo, where there are lots of historic sites and the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar. The bazaar was our first stop, with lunch at the Naguib Mahfouz Coffee Shop (I am finding out that it’s namesake won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988!) it has…
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The Pyramids of Giza
Giza is the most famous of the places we went, the Great Pyramid of Giza the last remaining of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. We could see the trio of pyramids (or at least the taller two) from the Mena House where we stayed. It didn’t feel hospitable to walk around the area,…
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The Pyramids of Dashur
We went towards Saqqara a second day, stopping in Memphis first. Memphis was the richest city, and was a capitol at an early point. It is on the border of Upper and Lower Egypt. There are many monuments that were here, surrounded by a white wall, but it was destroyed by the floods on the…
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The Step Pyramids of Saqqara
We started with a few days visiting sites near Cairo, within an hour (depending on the traffic). Cairo is the current modern day capitol, but that wasn’t the case in ancient Egypt. Back then, there was Upper and Lower Egypt, sometimes they were separate kingdoms and at other times they were unified. Upper Egypt is…