8th of June – Abu Simbel
Breakfast in the restaurant at the 16th floor is quite nice; food and view over khartoum. The hotel is actually top notch; it belongs to mr. Qaddafi of libya.
Formalities at khartoum airport are rather slow but we finally take off almost on time. There are pictures of a future, modern khartoum; business center manhattan-like on the island. It is funny to see that this fundamental moslem government wants to copy the yankees. The classy duty-free shop sells signal tooth past, lux soap and some old head-and-shoulders shampoo.
After a while we fly on1‘500 feet along the nile. There is actually not much to see; impressive is just the green band along the big river where the land is fertile. Behind is just desert and there is wind coming up. The view is getting worse and everything is just brown; a sandstorm. So we climb higher which we actually don‘t mind: on low flying level the temperature in the plane reached 35 degrees. On 18‘500 feet, flying is smoother and temperature are back to normal.
After flying over the lake nasser and the temples of abu simbel, captain frey does a nice landing and we have to clear customs and immigration here. The handler is a young sharp man called mohamed. He told us that he came up from cairo especially for us. Later we learn that the custom and immigration officers came 300 km up fro asswan since there is actually not customs here. Can you imagine that somebody from geneva comes to zurich for some tourists to do the formalities??
It is back to 46 degrees and it is pretty hot on the tarmac. Everything is a bit slow here but in this heat we understand. The military brings the fuel since this is actually a military airport! The we drive to the hotel which is better than we thought, shower, change and get ready to go to the temple of abu simbel.
Perhaps the most striking temple in egypt, the magnificent great temple of abu simbel was cut from the hillside to honor the gods. Discovered by burkhart in 1813, protruding from the interring desert sands, the four famous colossal statues of ramses ii sit majestically facing east. East statue is over 20 meters tall and flanked by smaller statues of the pharaoh‘s mother and his beloved wife, nefertari.
The neighboring temple of hathor is guarded by six further standing statues of ramses and nefertari. In the 1960s both temples were winched to higher ground to avoid the rising waters of lake nasser in an ingenious feat of engineering.
It is very hot and there is the hot desert wind that is constantly blowing. Back in the hotel we have some snack and jump into the pool; enjoying it as much as we can!!
In the evening we go and see the light and sound show at the temples. I have seen many things in my life so far but this is absolutely the best. It is very difficult to describe; maybe the best is just „magical“. Even our pilots are impressed and back at the hotel we have buffet dinner with 100+ japanese tourists. If you think tom in flying mode is bad; wait till you see him in „hungry mode“. At least he is known now to the waiters here; also called cousins of eddie murphy.
Since the internet access is very slow here in abu simbel; sorry folks, next update in cairo.
9th of June – Cairo
An early morning swim in the pool, a decent breakfast with our japanese tourist friends and then off to the airport. Unfortunately mohamed is still on egyptian time and everything is slow. Fortunately for him, captain tom had breakfast and is not in „hungry mode“.
We follow down the nile and the amazing thing is the green band along the river. This is the fertile land of egypt where 95% of the population lives. For centuries the river was flooding the valley and allowed the people to live here. Now with the dam at aswan it is a bit of a problem; no more floodings. We cruise over luxor and see the valley of the kings and after 2 1/2 hours we fly over the pyramids of saqqara; they were built 4‘000 years ago. The approach to cairo is getting hectic since this is the busiest airport on our journey so far. Unfortunately it will be also the last stop in africa for us!
Getting fuel takes for ever but once done we clear immigration in no time through a beautiful new terminal for private planes. Traffic into downtown is amazingly good and we arrive at our hotel within 45 minutes. How this city has changed since i was here in 1976! It is much cleaner, the roads are wide, almost like in the us and there are tons of high rise buildings everywhere. It is very busy, noisy but somehow the city has charm.
We decide to cool off at the pool, enjoy the best burger we ever had on our trip and book tickets for the light and sound show at the pyramids. Built on a desert plateau encroached upon by the modern city of cairo, the pyramids here are the last remaining wonder of the ancient world. Completed around 2‘600 bc, the great pyramid of khufu (cheops) is the oldest pyramid at giza, and the largest (146.5 meters high). The neighboring pyramid of khafre (chephren) was built by khufu‘s son. In deference to his father, he built a slightly smaller pyramid but located it on higher ground, giving the impression of greater size. Part of the original smooth limestone cladding, which once covered the entire structure, still remains. At the height of 62 meters, the pyramid of menkaure (mycerinus) is the smallest of the three pyramids; it was built by khafre‘s son, menkaure, from blocks of granite floated along the nile from aswan.
Known in arabic as abu al-hol (father of terrof) and guarding the pyramid of khafre, the sphinx is carved from a single piece of wind-eroded limestone. It has the face of a man – perhaps that of khafre – and the body of a lion. It was buried by sand several times since it was built in 2‘500 bc, and napoleon‘s army shot off its nose (ow in the british museum) in the 19th century. Despite these „mishaps“, it remains one of the most evocative monuments of the ancient world. And it was not obelix after all!!!
The sound-and-light show is different from the one in abu simbel but also very impressive and informative. On the way back from the show we get stuck in traffic for almost 45 minutes. So we have a very late dinner – we never hit the sack that late on our journey so far; but it was certainly worth it.
The pyramids were built as the mausoleums of pharaohs to help their souls on the path to heaven. Representing more a celebration of life (and a desire for life to continue) than a preoccupation with death, they were constructed by thousands of artisans and not slaves as previously imagined.
10th of June
Wonderful breakfast at the hotel and then off to a sightseeing tour with mohamed, our guide. Since we have seen the pyramids yesterday, we focus on coptic and islamic cairo.
Coptic cairo is a part of old cairo which encompasses the babylon fortress, the hanging church, the greek church of st. George and many other coptic churches and historical sites. It is believed that the holy family visited this area and stayed at the site of saints sergius and bachus church (abu serga). Coptic cairo was a stronghold for christianity in egypt until the islamic era, though most of the current buildings of the churches in coptic cairo were built after the muslim conquest of egypt.
Christianity began to spread in egypt when st. Mark arrived in alexandria, becoming the first patriarch, though the religion remained underground during the rule of the romans. As the christian communities in egypt grew, they were subjected to persecution by the romans, under emperor diacletian around 300 ad. The copts were not given tolerance until after the arab conquest in 641. In the early years of arab rule, the copts were allowed to build several churches within the old fortress area of old cairo. The ben ezra synagogue was established in coptic cairo in 1115, in what was previously a coptic church that was built in the 8th century. The copts needed to sell it, in order to raise funds to pay taxes to ibn tulun, the moslem ruler.
For us it was amazing to see and breath so much history in one place. Memories of our sunday school services came up: moses as a baby who was put in a basket on the river nile and found by a pharaoh family: now we stand here! The holy family who was told by an angel to leave palestine and flee to egypt: now we are standing near the cave where they were living. And visiting this very old churches (some of them over 1‘600 years old), seeing the different influences like islamic patterns in the roofs, christian building structures and some jewish influences. Don‘t we all go back to the same roots?
Islamic cairo is a part of central cairo noted for its historically important mosques and other islamic monuments. It is overlooked by the cairo citadel. Islamic cairo was founded in 969 ad.
The sultan hassan mosque is considered stylistically the most compact and unified of all cairo monuments. It is one of the masterpieces of mamluk architecture. The building was commissioned by sultan hassan bin al-nasir muhammed bin qalawun (also known as muhammed ali) in 1356 ad as a mosque and religious school for all four juristic branches of sunni islam. It was designed so that each of the four schools of thought – shafi, maliki, hanafi and hanbali – has its own area while sharing the mosque.
Construction started in 1356 ad and ended 7 years later in 1363 ad. Building materials used were harvested from the casing stones of the giza necropolis. One of the minarets collapsed during construction killing 300 people. The sultan was assassinated before the mosque was completed and his body was never recovered. The magnificent burial chamber that was intended for him holds his two sons instead.
The facade is 76 meters long and 36 meters high and the mosque is featured on the egyptian one-hundred pound note. And the famous boxer cassius clay adopted the name „muhammed ali“ after a visit in cairo to this mosque.
We got a very interesting tour by mohamed and also learned about islam and daily life. Like how tough it is to observe ramadan correctly. Or why mostly elderly people make a pilgrimage to mecca: first of all it is very expensive and secondly if you sin after doing it; your sins count 70 times more!!
We skip lunch at a local egyptian restaurant and go back to the hotel for burger, pool and website update. The pilots in the meantime are having their beauty sleep or are on cloud number seven sleeping at the pool.
After the siesta, we walk over to the egyptian museum which is very close to our hotel. Over 100‘000 exhibits are housed there. The museum is old, chaotic, label-less and lackluster in its display of treasures. Things really have not changed since i was here over 30 years ago. Maybe the wiped the dust once or twice in the meantime. But it is breathtaking what they have here. The golden treasures of tutankhamen‘s tomb are extraordinary; amazing what these people did a couple of thousand years ago.
We go over to the cairo tower and see the big city from above. Also impressing but nothing beats bäch or wollerau!! And the traffic is unbelievable!! So back to hotel, shower, drinks and lebanese dinner to finish of a very condensed day with hundreds of new impressions. I am quite happy that i was able „dä buebä ä chli gschicht und kultur z‘zeige“.
