Egypt 2008

On the way from Cairo Airport to the Shepheard Hotel in Garden City around 22:00 the night of the 2008 US elections. Cairo was still shopping.

2008-12-01T12:52:57Z

lauriegene
On the way from Cairo Airport to the Shepheard Hotel in Garden City around 22:00 the night of the 2008 US elections. Cairo was still shopping.

22:00 in downtown Garden City the night we arrived in Cairo. It was hoppin'.

2008-12-01T12:52:57Z

lauriegene
22:00 in downtown Garden City the night we arrived in Cairo. It was hoppin'.

Outside the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo

2008-12-01T12:53:01Z

lauriegene
Outside the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo

The Egyptian National Museum in Cairo, established in the 19th century by a French archeologist. The cow-goddess Hathor, with her crown of cow horns and a sun, graces the entry archway. Egyp ...

2008-12-01T12:53:01Z

lauriegene
The Egyptian National Museum in Cairo, established in the 19th century by a French archeologist. The cow-goddess Hathor, with her crown of cow horns and a sun, graces the entry archway. Egyp ...

The marble panels over the windows name the great centers of Ancient Egypt: Memphis/Thebes, Sai, Alexandria

2008-12-01T12:53:01Z

lauriegene
The marble panels over the windows name the great centers of Ancient Egypt: Memphis/Thebes, Sai, Alexandria

The fountain outside the museum is filled with papyrus and lotus, the symbols of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of the Nile

2008-12-01T12:53:01Z

lauriegene
The fountain outside the museum is filled with papyrus and lotus, the symbols of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of the Nile

The never-ending, mostly unmoving traffic in Cairo

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
The never-ending, mostly unmoving traffic in Cairo

Women making pita at our lunch stop in Giza

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Women making pita at our lunch stop in Giza

Women baking pita at our lunch stop in Giza

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Women baking pita at our lunch stop in Giza

We had lunch the 1st day in a lovely garden restaurant not far from the Pyramids

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
We had lunch the 1st day in a lovely garden restaurant not far from the Pyramids

Some of the tour: Milo, Marshall, Christine, Evie, and Nancy

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Some of the tour: Milo, Marshall, Christine, Evie, and Nancy

At the Pyramids

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
At the Pyramids

Looking east toward Cairo from the Pyramids

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Looking east toward Cairo from the Pyramids

The Great Pyramids

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
The Great Pyramids

Bill's obligatory photo at the Pyramids

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Bill's obligatory photo at the Pyramids

Laurie's obligatory photo at the Pyramids

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Laurie's obligatory photo at the Pyramids

Desert transportation

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Desert transportation

Pyramid with camel, car, tourists, and tourist police.

2008-12-01T12:53:02Z

lauriegene
Pyramid with camel, car, tourists, and tourist police.

In the words of Ogden Nash, "Landscape simply socko," from the barren wash at the foot of the Great Pyramids toward the edge of Cairo.

2008-12-01T12:53:05Z

lauriegene
In the words of Ogden Nash, "Landscape simply socko," from the barren wash at the foot of the Great Pyramids toward the edge of Cairo.

The rocks and sand of the Egyptian desert are a sort of flat yellow, quite unlike the desert of the US southwest.

2008-12-01T12:53:06Z

lauriegene
The rocks and sand of the Egyptian desert are a sort of flat yellow, quite unlike the desert of the US southwest.

The Great Pyramid, with an unfortunately modern research facility at its base. At least the lights in the foreground are wrapped in a rock wall.

2008-12-01T12:53:06Z

lauriegene
The Great Pyramid, with an unfortunately modern research facility at its base. At least the lights in the foreground are wrapped in a rock wall.

Some of the cast-offs at the base have been there for thousands of years.

2008-12-01T12:53:06Z

lauriegene
Some of the cast-offs at the base have been there for thousands of years.

Hard to believe that a half-mile away there's water, grass, people, animals, and a huge river.

2008-12-01T12:53:06Z

lauriegene
Hard to believe that a half-mile away there's water, grass, people, animals, and a huge river.

The camels seem pretty mellow until you get on one of them.

2008-12-01T12:53:06Z

lauriegene
The camels seem pretty mellow until you get on one of them.

lauriegene's photo

2008-12-01T12:53:06Z

Egypt 2008

On the way from Cairo Airport to the Shepheard Hotel in Garden City around 22:00 the night of the 2008 US elections. Cairo was still shopping.

22:00 in downtown Garden City the night we arrived in Cairo. It was hoppin'.

Outside the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo

The Egyptian National Museum in Cairo, established in the 19th century by a French archeologist. The cow-goddess Hathor, with her crown of cow horns and a sun, graces the entry archway. Egyp ...

The marble panels over the windows name the great centers of Ancient Egypt: Memphis/Thebes, Sai, Alexandria

The fountain outside the museum is filled with papyrus and lotus, the symbols of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of the Nile

The never-ending, mostly unmoving traffic in Cairo

Women making pita at our lunch stop in Giza

Women baking pita at our lunch stop in Giza

We had lunch the 1st day in a lovely garden restaurant not far from the Pyramids

Some of the tour: Milo, Marshall, Christine, Evie, and Nancy

At the Pyramids

Looking east toward Cairo from the Pyramids

The Great Pyramids

Bill's obligatory photo at the Pyramids

Laurie's obligatory photo at the Pyramids

Desert transportation

Pyramid with camel, car, tourists, and tourist police.

In the words of Ogden Nash, "Landscape simply socko," from the barren wash at the foot of the Great Pyramids toward the edge of Cairo.

The rocks and sand of the Egyptian desert are a sort of flat yellow, quite unlike the desert of the US southwest.

The Great Pyramid, with an unfortunately modern research facility at its base. At least the lights in the foreground are wrapped in a rock wall.

Some of the cast-offs at the base have been there for thousands of years.

Hard to believe that a half-mile away there's water, grass, people, animals, and a huge river.

The camels seem pretty mellow until you get on one of them.

lauriegene's photo

Some of the rest of the tour group.

Tour group.

A few of us got lazy and rode camels to the third Pyramid. I wasn't willing to hand my iPhone to the girl at left, so I didn't get a picture!

lauriegene's photo

My camel was good-natured. My camel driver was a piece of work.

Destination in sight.

The brave and adventurous.

Tourist police.

Since dismounting requires the camel to kneel, prepare to be pitched forward into the sand unless you're holding on.

The third and smallest of the Pyramids.

lauriegene's photo

lauriegene's photo

lauriegene's photo

lauriegene's photo

lauriegene's photo

The Great Sphinx of Giza, carved out of the surrounding limestone bedrock, is 73.5 m x 6 m, with a height of 20 m, making it the largest single-stone statue in the world.

And surrounding the largest single stone statue in the world are the largest lot of hawkers in the world who really do get annoying after about 20 seconds.

lauriegene's photo

lauriegene's photo

The Sphinx gazing toward Cairo.

The Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, or the Alabaster Mosque, within the Citadel of Salad al-Din in Cairo.

The mosque was built 1830-1948 in the Ottoman style on the ruins of a Mamluk mosque, in memory of Muhammad Ali Pasha's eldest son Tusun Pasha (d 1816)

The tourist police within the Citadel.

Much of the lower portions of the mosque facade are alabaster. The mosque itself is limestone.

lauriegene's photo

The clock, given by the French in return for one of the famous Obelisks, never worked.

The ablutions fountain.

Barefoot

lauriegene's photo

The side colonnades open onto an overlook of Cairo high above the city.

lauriegene's photo

We arrived the day after the US election. These kids were all shouting Obama! as we passed them on the way into the Citadel. Cool field trip.

lauriegene's photo

The grownups were a little wary, but the kids wanted to shake hands.

This is Old Cairo, much of which is below ground level now, but has been beautifully restored.

A Cairo Metro station

Very easy to tell who's the tourist and who's the local.

The Metro sign is cool. The stylized m-t-r-ou even looks like it's got train tracks in the middle of it.

Ottoman-era mosaics inside the Old City.

The Hanging Church. We saw a church, a synogogue, and an old mosque, all supposedly of the era around the birth of Christ.

A short detour to get a glimpse of the even more ancient Step Pyramids.

The oldest of the pyramids around Cairo, these date back to the First Kingdom, about 4500 yrs ago.

A new tomb was discovered amongst the Step Pyramids while we were in Egypt; a Pharoah's mother, about 4300 old. Interesting because records list her as having sought herbal remedies for bald ...

Departing Cairo, we flew to Aswan where we took a bus across the High Dam. This looks north down the Nile.

A 60s-era sculpture celebrating the completion of the dam (early 1970s).

Looking south across Lake Nasser. One of the extraordinary feats of this period was the removal to higher ground of a number of monuments in the Nile Valley that would have been submerged wh ...

Nothing but greenery and flowers here in the middle of the southern desert.

We took a small ferry across Lake Nasser to the island where the Temple of Philae was relocated by the French (UNESCO) during the 1960s.

The Temple of Philae in the distance.

The rocks left above the surface when Lake Nasser was formed remind me a bit of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

The Temple of Philae

This entire monument (multiple buildings) was removed to higher ground during the building of the Aswan High Dam.

lauriegene's photo

lauriegene's photo

We arrived the day after the US election. These kids were all shouting Obama! as we passed them on the way into the Citadel. Cool field trip.

The Metro sign is cool. The stylized m-t-r-ou even looks like it's got train tracks in the middle of it.