Article and Photos BY ANTHONY ROMINSKE
Blue Rock Farm Productions

Like a sandstorm coming out of the west from the Sahara, my partner Jonathan and I descending upon Egypt for a week of intense sightseeing. We had long wanted to travel to Egypt to walk through the ancient temples, gaze upon the pyramids, and travel on the Nile, long the source of life in Egypt. We booked a tour with Friendly Planet Travel that covered the highlights of ancient Egypt from Aswan in the South to the pyramids of Giza in the North.

We departed JFK on an overnight flight to Cairo on Air Egypt. We had wonderful seats with extra legroom in the emergency exit row and no one between us. The plane was old and could have used a rehab in the interior to spruce it up, but it was fairly comfortable. The unfortunate part of flying Air Egypt was that it has no airline partners so we were unable to earn miles for the trip.

We arrived in Cairo mid-morning and were met by the tour guide who helped the tour group (about 40 people) through immigration and customs, loaded our luggage on the bus and off we went for our 1st stop: the Pyramids and Sphinx. Our first stop was at the Great Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of the three main pyramids on the Giza plateau. Seeing the pyramids in person is one of the highlights of my many travel experiences. While I have read many descriptions of the pyramids and seen many pictures, those images do not do them justice nor do they bring out the wonder one feels in their immensity and power when seeing the pyramids in person. These ancient monuments have lasted longer then most human endeavors and will probably outlast those endeavors yet to come. They are truly a site to behold.

After our visit to the Pyramids of Cheops, next up was the Pyramid of Chephren. It actually looks taller then the Pyramid of Cheops but that is just an illusion. Chephren had his pyramid build on a slight rise on the plateau making it appear to be the tallest of the three main pyramids (there a many smaller pyramids on the plateau for various other royals). Here we took the opportunity to venture inside the Pyramid. We hunched down and travel down a passageway inside the pyramid. We reached the bottom of the passageway and began to travel up until we reached the chamber where the pharaoh’s sarcophagus was located. Inside was our first site of the graffiti left behind by Europeans and others on the ancient Egyptian monuments we would see some at many of the sites we visited carved into the ancient stonework. This time it was the Italian Giovanni Belzoni who opened this Pyramid in modern times in 1818. He left his name in large black letters inside the chamber with the sarcophagus. Standing inside the burial chamber one can felt the power of the pharaoh - to have such a monument built that we still marvel at its construction.

We did not have time to go to the third pyramid, the Pyramid of Mycerinus, as we needed to leave to get to the Sphinx before the site closed. We were in Egypt during Ramadan and some sites closed earlier then normal. The Sphinx has seen its better days and the face is very much lost to time. Shortly after we arrived at the Sphinx and just as we were finally through the crowds in order to have a closer view, the guards began to blow on their whistles to move everyone out of the site. As with many stops on this tour we did not have enough time to really enjoy the site.

Later that same night we were back at the pyramids for the “Light and Sound Show” narrated by Omar Sharif. It was a very enjoyable show that presented the story of the pyramids and the Sphinx with wonderful light and sound effects. I highly recommend attending it when you travel to Egypt. This was also the only time that we had to pay to use our video camera about $7.00. In some countries you have to pay at every site to even use a camera like in India.

That night we stayed at the Ramses Hilton in Cairo. It is a very nice hotel within walking distance of the Egyptian Museum and with a view of the Nile from our room.

The next morning we were off early on a flight to Aswan. Upon arrival we went to the Aswan High Dam to see the engineering marvel that tamed the Nile while at the same time interrupted the ancient flooding that has always renewed the fertility of the Nile River Valley. Up next was a red granite quarry from which the ancient Egyptians mined granite and floated it down the Nile for use in statues, monuments and obelisks. At the quarry is the broken obelisk. It was carved out on three sides but cracked before it was completed so it was left in place for us to be amazed at the hand labor used to create every monument that we would be viewing.

The next stop was the Island of Philae where the Temple of Isis is located. The temple is not on its original island, that island continually flooded and the temple was in danger of being destroyed so the temple complex was cut into over 37,000 pieces and moved to a higher island. In one word beautiful and a must see site for your travel to Egypt.

Later that day we made it to our cruise ship the MS Tulip. The ship was quite nice with room for about 100 people, an open deck on top and a small swimming pool.

That evening we took a felucca ride on the Nile to Botanical gardens of Lord Kitchener on an island in the river. While the gardens were not impressive we did enjoy the many cats and kittens that roamed the grounds.

The next day was our one block of time that we had free. While some others in the tour group took a flight to see Abu Simbel, we stayed in Aswan to explore the marketplace. We were disappointed in many ways with the shopping all over Egypt. The prices were highly inflated and the vendors would play currency games with you. Giving prices in Egyptian pounds but after bargaining on a price saying that they were talking about dollars. The quality of goods was poor, for example we found plastic in some of the tea we bought and the cinnamon is of poor quality. Many of the souvenir type items appear to have been made in China. The vendors become very aggressive and physical, grabbing your arm and trying to hold you at their shop - and many times we had to just walk away. We love shopping so we did still come back with a number of items and a few that are nice.

That afternoon began our cruise down the Nile; along the way we could see the fields, crops, animals, small villages and in places the desert coming down to the river edge.

The next day our stop was Kom Ombo - the temple dedicated to two gods Sobek the crocodile god and Haroeris. The only crocodiles that we saw were three mummified crocs in display cases at the temple site. We found out that there are no longer any Nile crocodiles below the Aswan High Dam. We arrived in the evening just before sunset so once again had just enough time to see the temple before the sun went down and the site closed for the evening. It is just amazing to walk through all of these sites that it is difficult to select just one favorite. Each has their unique qualities that must be seen to be appreciated.

The next morning we were at Edfu, the most complete temple complex in all of Egypt. Built by the Ptolemy Pharaohs. Dedicated to Horus, it took about 200 years to complete the temple. It is at this temple that one is able to really see how all the temples once looked. With walls, ceilings and even the mud brick outer wall in place you can really image yourself back in time while ceremonies took place to Horus. Once again though we were rushed away after an hour. This time we are told that the ship needed to travel down to Esna and get through the locks in order for us to make it to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings the next day. Well travel quickly we did and we made it to the locks in time, in time to sit for over 14 hours while we waited our turn to travel through the locks. It wasn’t until 2 a.m. that we finally moved through the locks and continued our travel on the Nile.

We did make it to Luxor for the next morning without a problem and went out to the Valley of the Kings. This is the one place where we could not use any cameras. Our entrance ticket allowed us to enter three tombs. We went into Seti II, Ramses II and Tuthmosis III - the most impressive of these three and a must see when you go especially for the star filled ceiling. All the tombs are different and in various states of being finished, depending upon when the pharaoh died and how far along they were in creating the tomb. In some of the tombs the wall paintings are not completely filled in and are only an outline of figures, in others the pillars are not completely cut out of the surrounding stone. But regardless, the tombs are a wonder to see and marvel at the amount of work that went into their creation.

We also paid extra to enter King Tut’s tomb, the smallest of all of the stone cut tombs in the valley. This is also the only tomb with its mummy still located there in his outer coffin inside his sarcophagus (until his recent removal to a climate controlled case inside the tomb to protect his deteriorating body). With the fame of this pharaoh it was well worth the extra money (it cost more than the entrance to the valley). The tourist trade has taken its toll on the tomb and you can see the damage from black mold on the wall paintings.

We were off next to the impressive Deir El Bahari mortuary temple of the Pharaoh Hatshepsut one of the few female pharaohs. This is one of the most impressive temples that we saw in Egypt and we could have spent hours exploring its wonders.

One the way to the Temple of Karnak we stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, two seated statues of Amenhotep III. The statues are severally degraded and not worth adding to your itinerary.

The Temple of Karnak was continually added onto and used for over 1500 years and spreads out for many acres. The complex of temples, shrines, obelisks, statues and a sacred lake is overwhelming in scale. The Great Hypostyle Hall and its magnificent stone pillars, the wonderfully carved walls, and the numerous statues, including one of King Tut and his wife show the grandeur and skill of the ancient builders.

Later that evening we traveled back to the Temple of Luxor, this originally was connected to the Karnak complex and here are plans to reconnect it. The Temple of Luxor, just like Karnak, is a wonder to behold, a strikingly graceful architecture that impresses you with its beauty. A 14th century mosque sits on part of the temple complex; it is not open to tourists.

We flew back to Cairo that evening after our tour of Luxor. The next day, our last in Egypt, we went to The Egyptian Museum - the storehouse of many of the ancient treasures. With only about 2 ½ hours in he museum we only were able to see part of the many artifacts in the museum. Our guide made sure that we saw the best pieces and left us about ½ hour to explore on our own. We spent much of that time looking at the King Tut exhibit. His golden coffin and death mask are two pieces that you have to see. When you look into the eyes of the mask it feels like you are looking into his face it is that lifelike. There is a traveling tour of King Tut artifacts, I think that it recently left the US for the UK, but they no longer allow the best pieces out of the country and only those pieces that have more than one in the collection. We could have spent days at the museum but were soon off to the old city. Egypt is building a new museum out near the pyramids that will be climate controlled and display more of the ancient artifacts. The joke in Egypt is that they will need to hire archeologists to dig out the storerooms and warehouses of The Egyptian Museum in order to move to the new museum since there are so many artifacts in storage.

Our tour of the Old City was brief with a stop at a church and a synagogue and some drive by views of other sites in Cairo. This was not really worth the time. The final stop was the old market place in the Old City. We left the other tour members at this stop and went to explore and shop on our own. As I have mentioned the shopping was disappointing in Egypt as was the quality of the products. The Cairo market was the same as the other shopping in Egypt.

Going to Egypt was a wonderful experience and quite the adventure. Having seen all of these sites in person was well worth the problems of the tour itself. As with any tour you can never pick the people you travel with. On this tour, we had the obnoxious group of Indians and the racist white guy. On the other hand there are always some who you really enjoy, on this trip Grandma Linda, who celebrated her 89th birthday on the trip, was a joy. Our guide was very knowledgeable and did get us to all the sites on the itinerary. However, the tour was not well planned out for timing at each site, we were rushed through every site and never had enough time to really explore on our own. The food served was very American/European. On the boat we only had one meal that was North African in flavor. The best parts of the meals were the fresh dates on the boat and the tamia that was served on the breakfast buffet at the Hilton. We would not recommend Friendly Planet Travel as the tour company to use, but we do recommend traveling to Egypt to see the grandeur and beauty of the ancient civilization along the Nile.

Our next trip? We are off to sunny and beautiful Thailand for two weeks in Bangkok and Hua Hin. Thailand is one of our favorite travel destinations and travel there always results in a relaxing vacation.

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