Adventures in Africa: Cairo, Egypt

Yesterday morning we came across the Nile from Giza into Cairo itself. It is our last night in Egypt, and we wanted to stay in the old city. We picked the beautifully restored Gamaleya Boutique Hotel, which is a truly special place. 

Our Uber couldn't get through the crowds and traffic of the tiny street, so we ended up walking the last several hundred metres. Once we checked in, we were brought to our bedroom on the top floor.

Gamalaye is owned by an Egyptian-Canadian doctor, Dr. Ibrahim Kassissia, who lives and works in Montreal, but whose grandfather once owned this house. He bought it several years ago when it was in terrible shape and completely restored it. 

On the ground floor Dr. Kassissia runs an artisan cooperative, where master artisans are practicing and teaching copper work, filigree, tapestry, and so on. 

While vibrant and bustling, Cairo's old city is evidently suffering from a lot of challenges--pollution, traffic, poverty, etc.--and apparently the ancient arts are dying. Dr. Kassissia is attempting to reverse this by having apprentices, including young women, work with the masters. 

After a bit of relaxing, we headed back outside. Here are some photos from the block or two around the hotel. The decorations are in anticipation of Ramadan starting in a few days.

We did not spend much time exploring the old city just yet, however, because we had tickets for the Egyptian Museum, so we headed there next. There are several major museums in Cairo nowadays, but the Egyptian Museum is the "classic" one at Tahrir Square. 

Our Uber dropped us at the square in front of the museum, and we found a nice restaurant nearby to eat lunch. 

The museum itself lives up to its fame. It is full off mummies, statues, treasures, and other artifacts--to the point where the sheer number is overwhelming. 

The contents of Tutankhamun's tomb are here still (I understand they are likely to be moved to the new musuem over by the pyramids), and are far more stunning to see in person than any photo could ever suggest. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to photograph them. I was especially impressed with King Tut's famous mask.

As we left the museum it was late afternoon and our next stop was the Nile river for a sunset felluca cruise! We bought this tour online for about $30 USD each, which is likely too much, but seemed convenient. We arranged to be picked up at the museum and we were driven down to the dock. These fellucas are the traditional style of Nile sailboat, and there are many of them on the river. 

We spent a lovely relaxed hour out on the water--it is remarkable how quiet and peaceful it can be on the river given how loud and crowded and polluted it is in the city all around. This video captures some of the tranquility.

I suppose a sailboat at sunset is inherently romantic, but all the more when you are on the Nile river, perhaps the first river you remember ever learning about!

Less romantic, but still interesting was the (very slow) drive from the river back to the old city. Now it was rush hour (maybe a ridiculous concept in Cairo since traffic just seems awful at all times) and we were moving at nearly a literal snail's pace for much of the drive. Some video gives just a sense of the noise and bumper-to-bumper-with-pedestrians-sprinkled-in traffic, although at this point we were in fact moving.

At other points we were not moving at all, or barely, and at least once we made contact with another vehicle, although at such low "speed" that it was of no consequence. Here are some other pictures I took from the car:

Back at the hotel, I met Dr. Kassissia for the first time and had a nice exchange--he was pleased to have Canadians join him, and of course I was interested to meet the creator of the incredible place! Dr. Kassissia introduced us to Mariam, one of the copperwork students. Mariam demonstrated some of her work to us. 

But because Mariam is trying to learn English, Dr. Kassissia had her take us a for a little walk and show us some of the old city and where we could get dinner and such. So, Mariam, and a young man evidently very interested in Mariam, took us out and around and for some dinner. It was now dark, so not an ideal time for photographs, but it was a fun way to spend the evening. 

We fly to London late this afternoon, but we began our day with breakfast with Dr. Kassissia and some other guests--another great experience! We also learned that with our arrival Dr. Kassissia had vacated our room and moved into one of his dorm rooms! After breakfast Dr. Kassissia took us and another couple of guests around the corner to see a former, many-century old reservoir which is more-or-less just behind the hotel. Mariam came along, too, and then Dr Kassissia asked her to keep the tour going, so Mariam led us another couple of blocks to Bayt al-Suhaymi, a 400 year old home that has been persevered as a museum. This was just one of the many impressive rooms:

We spent much of the rest of the morning at one of the old city's lovely tea shops. 

After that it was lunch and then off to the airport. 

Certainly it was a great few days in Egypt: I imagine I will remember the Nile, the old city, and certainly the pyramids forever, and Dr. Kassissia's hospitality and Mariam's youthful artistic passion were wonderful to experience. However, I also have to say that, despite all it has going for it, Cairo is the worst city I have ever visited. Its traffic and pollution are well known, and they are bad, but if anything these might have actually been better than I expected. But what really got under my craw was the shameless culture of deceit, grift, and harassment, at least directed at tourists. As readers of my blog know, I have traveled all over the world, and it is not as if I have not been exposed to elements of this many times over; but I am sad to say that I have never encountered anything as bad as I experienced over three days in Cairo. I do not share these unfortunate reflections lightly: I am typically inclined to be open-minded and generous in my assessment of places, especially given how little time I actually spend any one place. But I have been unable to come to any better assessment of Cairo than this. To further emphasize how bad it was: prior to visiting Cairo I assumed I would return to Egypt, perhaps more than once, to visit places like Luxor, Lake Aswan, etc.; now, I am not sure I would ever go back. 

Adventures in Africa: Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

We flew from Jeddah to Cairo yesterday, and spent last night more-or-less across the street from the sphinx! 

The sun was setting as we deplaned to the Cairo tarmac.

From the Cairo airport on the northeast side of the city it was about an hour cab ride to Giza, on the west side of the city. Given the notoriety of the Cairo airport taxi mafia, we opted to arrange a driver ahead of time for $23 USD. I would not be surprised if this ends up costing more than just negotiating with the crooks, but somehow feels well worth it to avoid having to deal with them. By the way, Sphinx International Airport is just northeast of Giza, so perhaps one day those attempting to visit the pyramids could fly into there and avoid crossing the city of 20+ million altogether; but I gather at the moment Sphinx is not used much for international travel. Our cab ride did allow us to "enjoy" Cairo traffic, however, and included highlights such as a small pick-up truck smashing into the rear end of the car in front of it, just outside my window. 

In Giza we are staying in one of the many small hotels outside the pyramid complex. Most of these are not especially nice, but very affordable and in our case nice enough. The highlight is the rooftop patio, where even after dark the silhouettes of the pyramids are an impressive sight. After dinner I was able to walk to a close by liquor store (I found the local neighbourhood fascinating) to grab a couple of Egypt's Stella beers to enjoy while looking out onto the pyramids.

This morning, literally four minutes after waking up, I was at the ticket wicket for the pyramids, as I had heard the line-ups can get crazy. It was no issue to buy a couple of tickets at 8:34, however, and I returned to the hotel for breakfast, served, of course, on the rooftop. For me, at least, nothing I have read or seen prepared me for being "face-to-face" with the pyramids. They are so big and so old and very much "everything I imagined and more."

Shortly after 9:30 we walked through the gates and up to the sphinx. We could see the sphinx from the rooftop, but he is much cooler up close. 

Although fairly small relative to the pyramids, the sphinx somehow really captured my imagination. There is speculation he was carved from pyramid "leftovers"!

Straight up the hill from the sphinx is the "middle" pyramid--both the middle one in the row and the middle in terms of height--the Pyramid of Khafre. It is particularly noteworthy because the upper portion retains some of the original limestone outer layer that is mostly lacking from the others. 

Here is what it looks like up close!

Given that people have died trying, you can no longer climb the pyramids, but it is easy to see why it is tempting!

Heading southwest from the pyramid of Khafre is the pyramid of Menkaure, plus the three queen pyramids to go with it (there are actually nine pyramids total at this site--the three great pyramids, plus three queen pyramids beside the pyramid of Menkaura and another three queen pyramids beside the pyramid of Khufu).

Menkaura's pyramid is quite a bit smaller than the other two, but very picturesque. By the way there are camels and horses throughout the site and the camels in particular add to the charm. What absolutely detracts from the charm, however, are the touts trying to get you to ride the animals. Still, we had been led to expect worse than we experienced, and were happy enough to walk around on foot. As you can see, while we did not exactly have the site to ourselves, it was relatively quite at this time of day. Most of the tour groups and tourists from Cairo come later in the morning and into the afternoon, so it was a good time to be here. 

Also, although it was already very warm, standing out here in the middle of the day must be very, very hot! You can get a sense of the sun's intensity in the photos below. 

We continued around Menakaura's pyramid and past the three queens' pyramids. These are much, much smaller, and overall have suffered more deterioration than the pyramids of the pharaohs. 

Our goal in walking back here was a ridge which is perhaps the one spot where you can see all nine pyramids at one. 

You also get to watch the camels trekking across the desert which is a pretty cool sight. 

The far three queens' pyramids are difficult to see in my photo, but you can at least appreciate that there is a really good view of the complex from up on the ridge. 

From the panoramic viewpoint, we walked back across the sands, to the largest and oldest pyramid, that of grandpa Khufu.

Over here we were close to the main gates, and the crowds were beginning to arrive. We circumnavigated the pyramid to the east side where the queens pyramids are. 

Here is some video from around this spot.

You can pay extra to go into two of the big pyramids, but I have heard there is not much to see and there were line-ups I was not interested in queueing in. I did, however, want to go inside a pyramid, so I took the opportunity to go into one of the queens pyramids. This one was fenced off.

But the Pyramid of Queen Meritetis I was open, so I entered and descended. Truly there is not much to see (and lighting/lack thereof such that there was nothing to photograph), but what I found most interesting was how far down I descended. I have always thought about the heights of pyramids, not their depths, but I assume the Pyramid of Queen Meritetis I might be as deep as it is tall. My wife thought going inside a pyramid was creepy, so left me to it. We met outside the compound, passing the Sphinx again as we exited. 

We picked a rooftop other than our hotel's for some cool drinks and lunch. Even after being up close, it was still completely wonderful to look out over the pyramids we as dined.

We did a little souvenir shopping this afternoon (which included a bargaining episode in which the souvenir seller started the negotiation with a total price higher than the sticker price! ["welcome to Egypt"]), but largely relaxed on the hotel's rooftop enjoying the view!

By the way, this is the view the opposite way, down the street into Giza.

As the tourist hustle and bustle quieted down, watching the sun set behind the pyramids was lovely to experience.

After dark it was time for dinner, so we walked a little ways to find a place that interested us. We ordered set meals which let us sample a whole array of interesting and (often) delicious things!

For my main course, I enjoyed a couple of pigeons.