CAIRO CHAOS
Trip Start
Oct 31, 2008
1
2
19
Trip End
Dec 14, 2008
Cairo,
Egypt
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Day 1:
Well as some of you know cairo is mental! traffic and people yelling at you for a taxi, baksheesh, buy this that and the other thing as well as offerring camels for yours truely. We went to see the Mohammed Ali mosque and the citadel on our first day, its on what appears to be the edge of the city and is an amazing spot to hear the call to Prayer. You can hear many Mosques call to prayer overlapping each other from this high vantage point and the sound of yelling and beeping from all around. Its quite a surreal experience, almost like a stadium, but we also had the view of Cairo, derelict buildings you would think no one could live in but they do. The mosque itself is quite beautiful with carpets laid all around, chandileirs and ornately carved ceiling domes and detail. So we sat on the carpet takin it all in, the lights the tourists backlit by the bright sunshine streaming in the open doorway, lighting up a stained glass panel. There are several buildings in this complex and some very similar buildings to some of the moorish architecture we saw in Spain.
we had met up with our tourgroup and shared a local meal of Koshari, tea and strawberry sheesha. We dont smoke but when in Rome, or Egypt its worth a try and is actually quite pleasant.
Day 2:
Today we headed out with our group to the Pyramids of Giza by Camel and the Egyptian Museum later inthe afternoon. it was a huuuge day, but we got to ride in the back way on the camels away from the tourists, a lecture from our guide on the history of the Pyramids and we went inside the 2nd Pyramid, a bit of a non event really but at least we can say we have been inside one of the only remaining wonders of the ancient world! its was so hot in there like a sauna and the air was quite thin, definately not one for the claustraphobics. we went down and checked out the sphinx too and did the usual cheesy photos kissing the sphinx and snapping away like japanese tourists :) all in all it wa a good experience, epecially after all of the not so crash hot experiences I have heard people having at the pyramids.
The Egyptian museum is amazing, but its hard to take it all in, luckly we had Mostafa there to give us a history lesson yet again, and we checked out the tutankamen treasures, wow his coffins and death mask are all exquisite, not to mention the jewellery! I would wear a lot of it now. If I was only Royalty ;P Also his ceremonial throne was pretty impressive, carved wood covered in gold, symbols and heiroglyphics and inlaid with many gemstones. The coffins were placed inside so many different boxes he was a bit like a hyge russian doll!
The Mummy room was pretty freaky, they were mostly very much intact, hair fingernails the whole bit. It was quite amazing to see Ramses the 2nds Mummy, and one other Pharoah had been killed in Battle he had multiple would to his head and face, and his hands were rising off his chest like claws! I was surprised to learn how many dies from dental related disease at the tender age of 30!!!!!
After that huge day we got on the 10pm overnight train to Aswan!
We are back in Cairo for one day at the end of our time in egypt but all in all its a pretty crazy place and not my favourite kind of city to be honest.
![[11] Camel and Pyramids](http://images.travelpod.com/users/el_condor/thumbnail.asia_2005.1143747660.picture_032.jpg)