I'm quite surprised I hadn’t done this earlier-blogging about my maiden trip with V after the wedding last year ,to a destination that had been in my visions perhaps from my earliest childhood-Enchanting Egypt...I can vaguely recall how my fascination of Egypt originated years ago-Me in my 4th grade-a history lesson on ''wonders of the ancient world'' - my immense wonder and acute curiosity at the existence of a land so obscured in mystery - And lo , arose the desire of a lifetime to experience someday the wonder I saw in black and white in the pages of my history text!
No other travel destination has managed to remain as enticing as Egypt in my mind, and I'm sure, as is the case with the multitude of travellers who visit Giza every year to gaze in wonder at the iconic pyramids, the ancient cities and the colossal temples of Luxor and Aswan along the banks of the sinuous, endlessly stretching Nile.After 3 months of planning – actually 2 months of convincing V that it was indeed a romantic getaway (and a safe enough place to visit) and not a trip planned to purely gratify that ‘amateur archaeology geek’ in me who can never get enough of ancient history, culture and legends – we finally had an itinerary ready and set off to explore the great country.
I must say I really didn’t feel so much enthused as we landed in Cairo close to midnight and were received by a chubby, garrulous guide from our travel agent. Keen as we were to explore Egypt on our own at our own pace, V was somehow comfortable having a local guide show us around as he thought he’d be able to enjoy the trip more thoroughly if he didn’t always have to worry about navigating our way around safely (I still think all his worry about safety was uncalled for, Anyways!). Watching the city at night from the 8th floor balcony of the Intercontinental Hotel, uncannily reminded me of our very own Mumbai at night... Pavements streaming with pedestrians, endlessly hooting traffic, tiny, colourfully lit shops selling souvenirs, food and other bric a brac... And the Nile flowed along ceaselessly, almost as an ironic mockery – a river lazily drifting along the banks of a city of tumult and chaos.
Day One dawned nice and bright and I couldn’t keep still in the car until I could spot the tell-tale mammoth pyramids looming ahead in the far distance miles before we’d reached the destination! Ah, I lack words to describe my glee at the glorious sight – V literally had to restrain me from jumping about in my seat with the excitement of a 6 year old ;-) Though I had read and re read all the known facts about the great pyramids, I did enjoy bombarding our guide with numerous questions (I wouldn’t like to repeat all of it here as much of it is as familiar as a bedtime story to most of you). A few lesser known facts though:
-The pyramids of Giza are the last surviving members of the Ancient Wonders of the world.
-The mesmerising Sphinx, carved out of a single block of stone, stands in the pyramid complex, gazing down and weaving magic upon thousands of tourists.
-Giza's three pyramids and the Sphinx were thought to have been constructed in the fourth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom.
-It is believed about 20,000 labourers were used and approximately 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing 2.5 tons, just to build the Pyramid of Khufu.
PS: Forty centuries of history looking down upon you from the heights of these colossal pyramids can have the effect of making you skip a few heartbeats like it did to me!
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| Inside the Great Pyramid. |
I wouldn’t tire of clicking photos around the pyramids for hours and hours (though a few I've used in the blog are from other copyrighted sources) and had to tear my eyes off the sphinx. And the day just got better when we managed to get tickets to actually get inside the great pyramid! We were quite lucky as these tickets to the interior of the pyramids are quite limited.All my excitement died down as claustrophobia washed all over me as we descended into the subterranean narrow , angular shaft –like passage that took us to the heart of the great pyramid…I was almost hyperventilating by the time we were at the central burial chamber. As I stood right at the centre of the chamber, the very thought of tons and tons of solid rock piled high above me scared me shitless!!!!! I couldn’t get out of the pyramid fast enough ;-) So much for my ‘Pyramido-mania’!
The second stop of the day was to the ancient capital city of Memphis and the step pyramid at Saqqara. The step pyramid, I must admit, is the lesser known predecessor to the great pyramids. The first ever pyramidal structure designed and built by the royal architect Imhotep (Yeah, I know, that’s the name of the evil emperor in ’The Mummy’ series). Saqqara was the ancient necropolis of Memphis and is today a World heritage site (UNESCO).There are almost a dozen pyramids scattered all over the place and we could see a few archaeological camps still at work , busy unearthing more buried history to lay bare to the world…
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| The step pyramid,Saqqara |
We were experimental enough to try out the famous sleeper trains that run all over Egypt for travelling to our next destination – Luxor (or Thebes in Egyptian). We were blown to smithereens by the lovely hospitality shown to us by the train attendant (probably for the huge tip he received, though I wouldn’t speak so highly of the food or the other services on the train). The train chug chugged all through the night and we reached beautiful Luxor early next day. Our second guide who received us in Luxor was far better than the previous one and entertained us with so many local legends, myths and even the political scenario there – Just prod him with a question or two and he would go on endlessly entertaining you with ancient folklore and current affairs until your mind was overflowing with legends and facts!
The temple of Karnak with its mammoth colossi,pylons,obelisks and sphinx complex was awesomeness , pure and undiluted! A few facts on the temple for the interested:
- The complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It believed to be the second most visited historical site in Egypt, second only to the Giza Pyramids.
- Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere.
- One of most famous aspects of Karnak, is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Ra, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft with 134 massive columns.(Whew!)
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| The karnak temple complex |
Though the afternoon heat was relentless upon us, we went on to the temple of Luxor and spent the rest of the afternoon there.We were back to the karnak temple in the evening for the Sound and Light show – a star highlight and a must see – the powerful strobe lights illuminating the entire temple complex was eerily ominous and the impressive vocals that narrated the construction of the temple by pharaohs and the gods who dwelt there was surreal!
We called it a day after the show and thankfully crashed in our hotel beds, secretly wishing tomorrow would be here sooner for more exploring J
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| Sound & Light show,Karnak |
As anticipated morning greeted us with the sun blazing hot by 9 am and we were off with our ‘know-it-all’ guide to the west bank of the Nile – The great valley of Kings. Now there’s a very interesting fact- Ancient Egyptians built all their settlements, temples and set up farming only on the eastern bank of the river and made the left bank their necropolis . As they were sun worshippers, they believed that life would flourish where the sun rose and the afterlife would continue where the sun set! Amazing levels of reasoning for a civilization dating back 5000 years! We spent the day exploring tombs of the greatest of pharaohs buried deep in the valley of kings built with amazing complexities to throw grave robbers off track. On our way back we visited the temple of Hatshepsut – the only female pharaoh to have ruled over Egypt. A great piece of architecture again…We had to bid farewell to our guide as we were heading back to Cairo that evening. We’d really become fond of him and couldn’t tip or thank him enough for his wonderful services…
We were in Cairo the next day and enjoyed our last day at the city in the vast and dusty old Cairo museum, so filled with treasures that it would take a week at the least to even glance at the collections there. We were fascinated by the treasures retrieved from King Tutankhamun’s tomb and spent hours gazing at his death mask, his sceptre and his adornings. The room of mummies that housed the ridiculously well preserved grinning mummies of almost all the major pharaohs kind of made me queasy ;-) After lunch, we visited the great citadel of Saladin, the great fort built to protect the kingdom against the crusaders. The Mosque of Mohammed Ali Pasha with its wonderfully adorned interiors was a beautiful sight. And the view overlooking Islamic Cairo was amazing. We chilled out in the evening over dinner and walked along the busy streets of Cairo and whispered Goodbyes to the Nile from the banks.
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| The citadel of saladin |
I was quite subdued in the flight back to London, as realization finally struck that we were headed back to reality, far from this Neverland of ancient legends and buried mysteries…..
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| Our keepsakes from the land of the Nile. |
