Three Days to Reach Cairo

In preparation for our Egyptian Adventure, I read a book, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Toby Wilkinson. The book covers 3000 years of Pharaoh Rule.

It is pretty dry and hard to read with a repeating theme of “he came into power, married his sister, killed a large number of people, built a tomb and died” but I have a couple of quotes I thought you might enjoy.

Now that we have returned from Egypt and experienced this history up close, these quotes mean much more to me. I am not sure I can write in words how truly amazing Egypt is.

"The Egyptians’ creation was remarkable, not only for its impact, but also for its longevity: the pharaonic state, as originally conceived, lasted for three millennia. By comparison, Rome barely managed one millennium, while Western culture has yet to survive two.  A key reason for this remarkable survival is that the philosophical and political framework first developed at the birth of ancient Egypt was so well attuned to the national psyche that it remained the archetypal pattern of government for the next one hundred generations.”

One other quote I like pertains to architecture.

"Throughout paranoiac history, iconography and architecture retained important roles in projecting the desired image of kingship to the people. Iconography and architecture were especially effective in a country such as Egypt where up to 95 percent of the population was illiterate.”

I guess architecture just “spoke” to them.  LOL

One other theme of this book is that the recorded history and information left behind was in the image that the Kings (Pharaohs) wanted shown and not the reality of what real life for the typical Egyptian was like. Here is a quote about that.

"The xenophobic ideology masked the practical reality. This should serve as a warning for the historian of ancient Egypt: from the earliest times, the Egyptians were adept at recording things as they wished them to be seen, not as they actually were. The written record, though undoubtedly helpful, needs careful sifting, and must always be weighted against the unvarnished evidence dug up by the archaeologist’s trowel.”

Not much has changed in 3,000 years. Politicians are still trying to mold reality to the way they want it to be seen.

Our friends SW and DW traveled to Orlando a day in advance of departing for Egypt. Their journey to Cairo took 3 days and we were privileged to share it with them.

We picked them up at the airport and had a wonderful evening grilling American beef one last time before we ventured off to the Middle East together. SW worked with Hubby D in the Middle East and we have done a great deal of traveling together. You may remember them from blogs about Istanbul, Jordan or the Seychelles.

They have arrived in Florida!  First leg complete.

I served a Greek salad with our steaks in honor of our friends from Bahrain YW and LW.  I even used the correct "crumbly" feta cheese. Take note of the camel bowls. Those were purchased in Bahrain.

We sent this selfie to our fellow traveling friends, ES and NDL as we were drinking wine from one of their favorite destinations, Umbria, Italy. 

The fun begins - discussing Egypt already!

The next morning with our parmesan eggs and toasted baguettes we had "Horse & Buggy Traffic Jam" that was a gift to us from our friends YW and LW. They also own a home in Pennsylvania in Amish Country.

The four of us all flew on Emirates in business class so we were picked up the next morning at our house by Emirates drivers and deposited at the Orlando airport in plenty of time for our flight.

I could easily get used to having a driver to the airport. 

It is a long flight and Emirates does a fairly good job of making you feel comfortable, but I don’t think they are quite as good as they were when we flew previously.  It was doable, not particularly overly enjoyable.

Flying into Dubai over Africa you could see the shifting sands below. Then our route took us over the Indian Ocean, the empty quarter of sand and back over the Red Sea. Soon the ever-impressive Burj Khalifa towering into the dusty sky came into view. SW said it felt remarkably good to be back in the Middle East.

Shifting sands for miles and miles.

Champagne and roses in the Emirates Lounge in Dubai.

DW savored the dates.

Yes, we are back in the land of the push button toilets with a water sprayer.

We departed Dubai back out over the empty quarter of sand, the Red Sea, crossing right at the Suez Canal, and then down into Cairo. It was so dusty you could hardly see the ground at 6,000 feet. Many of the roads were completely covered. I thought maybe they had experienced a sand storm in the last few days and later we confirmed this.

DAY 1 -- Our Cairo arrival went without incident and our Abercrombie & Kent handlers (our tour company) were right there to greet us. They ushered us through passport control and into a very nice 9-seat bus for an hour trip into the city.  The distance was only a short drive but the traffic in Cairo is unbelievable – buses, cars, trucks with people flowing out the back and motorbikes with an entire family riding.

Traffic!

We arrived at our hotel, Mena to find our friends JW and LW waiting on us with refreshing drinks of lovely hibiscus juice. JW & LW are good friends from Bahrain and we planned our trip with extra time on the front end so we could spend some it with them. JW works in Egypt, all over the Middle East and China. He knows a great deal about the culture. We were very lucky to have JW and LW visit us in Florida back in August last year.

This is from our visit to the Kennedy Space Center with YW and LW.

DW and I were very excited to see LW.

Our hotel, the Marriott Mena House has a long history in Egypt.

The Mena House was initially a hunting lodge; it was a two-story hut nicknamed the "Mud Hut." It was built in 1869 for the Egyptian Khedive Isma'il Pasha. Later it was sold to a couple that had seen it while on their honeymoon. They changed it to a hotel and named it after the founding father of the first Egyptian dynasty, Mena or King Menes.

This is the exterior in 1891.  Thankfully it was renovated several times since then.

In 1890, they added Egypt’s first swimming pool. During World War I the hotel was requisitioned by Australian troops and occupied again by the Australians in 1939. Toward the end of the war it was then converted to a hospital for wounded Australian troops.

The Oberoi Group took over management of the hotel in 1972. In December 1977 Egypt and Israel sat down together at Mena House in a quest for a peace settlement (also attending were American and United Nations representatives). The results of this Mena House Conference were to lead to the Camp David Agreement, which restored Egypt's sovereignty over the Sinai Peninsula. Many saw the Mena House Conference as a cocktail party for the politicians. The link takes you to an article written in December 1977 and appeared in the New York Times.

Our room had a balcony AND a view of the pyramids. It was a great starting point for this adventure.

This was our view of the pyramid from our balcony on our first night. WOW!

The view the next morning at breakfast was even more stunning.

It was obvious from the first evening that this adventure was going to surpass our expectations. YW and LW had a full day planned for us on Day 2.  Off we go!

Cheers ‘til the next Cairo blog. . .
Brenda