Last Sunday we left the Sinai peninsula (and passed through 10 checkpoints), officially leaving Asia for Africa when we passed under the Suez Canal. Our 10 hour bus ride from Dahab to Cairo was relatively uneventful (and blissfully air-conditioned). We started our Cairo sight-seeing last Monday with Coptic Cairo, an older part of Cairo which is home to Egypt's Christian community, known as the Copts (they split from the rest of Christianity over the idea that Jesus was both human and divine--they believe he was completely divine). At one point, this neighborhood had 20 churchs in 1 square kilometer.
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| Inside the "Hanging" Coptic Church |
Next we spent the rest of the day in the Egyptian Museum--the most amazing museum I have ever been to! There are loads and loads of artifacts and treasures from Pyramids as well as statues and sarcophagi and both human and animal mummies! The most famous section of the museum is the treasure found in Tutankhamen's tomb (he was not a very important pharoah in ancient Egypt, but is one of the most well-known ones due to the incredible amount of belongings found in his tomb). A close second in the mummy room (you have to pay extra, but student discount made it worthwhile!) where you can take a gander at Ramses II, III, IV and V, as well as Tuthmosis II and IV, and at less famous mummies such as Queen Maatkare and her pet baboon. It was a fascinating place which was made even more fascinating by the 1950s style displays they had going on (and lack of climate control which is surprising considering how old most of the loot is!). Allegedly a new museum is being built that will be able to better fit all the goodies in the basement and who knows what other storage facilities.
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| Egyptian Museum--sadly, no cameras allowed inside |
Here are some of the scenes we saw along the way...
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| This pretty much sums up driving in Cairo |
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| THE Nile |
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| Sweet old-school cameras |
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| Miscellaneous old stuff for sale |
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| Metro sign--I love riding in the women only car! |
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| A black and white Cairene cab |
Cairo is fascinating in that it is a bit of a walking contradiction. In one glimpse it appears to be extremely modern and cosmopolitan, then all of a sudden you see scenes like the following...
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| Woman on left carrying a live chicken in her bag |
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| Horse-drawn watermelon cart |
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| Man with cow on sidewalk |
1 comment:
I must admit, I'm kinda sad your blog is over... it was pretty much the next best thing to being there myself!
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