Category: Travel

The story of finding the lost city of Petra is as strange as its conception and ultimate construction.

In the early nineteenth century, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler, geographer, and orientalist, disguised as a local overheard a conversation between Bedouins about ancient ruins in a narrow valley near the supposed biblical tomb of Aaron, the brother of Moses. The Bedouins have been living there for centuries but kept the knowledge to themselves for 1200 years.

Johann made up a story that he was a Bedouin himself and wanted to bury his dead father’s remains in Petra as per his wishes. He was allowed to visit the place and in his own words…

An excavated mausoleum came in view, the situation and beauty of which are calculated to make an extraordinary impression upon the traveller, after having traversed for nearly half an hour such a gloomy and almost subterraneous passage as I have described. The natives call this monument Kaszr Faraoun, or Pharaoh’s castle; and pretend that it was the residence of a prince. But it was rather the sepulchre of a prince, and great must have been the opulence of a city, which could dedicate such monuments to the memory of its rulers…

Wikipedia

He could not remain long at the ruins or take detailed notes due to his fears of being unmasked as a treasure-seeking infidel. Seeing no evidence of the name of the ruins, he could only speculate that they were the ruins of Petra. 

For nine years he kept the knowledge to himself. At age 32, around 1817, realizing that he was dying due to illness, he wrote a paper about his find to let the world know of the lost city.

The conception of Petra was equally dramatic. Roughly around third century BC, Nabataeans, one amongst several nomadic Bedouin tribes that roamed the Arabian Desert, controlled much of the trade routes of the region, amassing large wealth. Having lost their lucrative trade route to Roman’s alternate routes which were quicker and cheaper, in desperation to attract caravan’s they decided to build the city of Petra in the beautiful setting of mountains with more entertainment than the Roman alternative.

There was only one problem. The site they chose was a graveyard. A burial ground with several caves and tombs. So desperate was their need to get the caravans back they masked the tombs by erected facades and carved out gigantic pillars and monuments. Because of the local knowledge about the frequent earthquakes in the region, they carved the caves out of the sandstone mountains which withstand the shocks much better than the man-made structures.

So complete was their knowledge of the desert that they devised techniques for water collection and flash-flood management which are still serving the area. In 1963, twenty-two French tourists and a local guide were killed in the canyons by flash floods because a tunnel that Nabataeans’ dug to carry the water away from the canyons was found blocked with sand.

One cannot come out of Petra without being marveled at the ingenious imagination of the generations that passed before us. The whole city, which is massive and is dug out of mountains with two simple tools – hammers and chisels.

It took Nabataeans 40 years to build the city, and they managed to get the caravans back to the Spice road but only for a little while. But with the discovery of the monsoon winds caused the shift of trade routes from land to sea. In 106, after the death of the Nabatean king, the entire kingdom passed peacefully into Roman hands.

An earthquake in 363 AD leveled half of Petra. By the time of seventh-century Islamic invasion, Petra was more or less deserted and the earthquake of 749 AD forced the final stragglers to depart the crumbling city.

Around that time Bedouins from the south discovered the deserted city and started moving in the empty caves. They kept it as their secret for 1200 years successful guiding any caravans away from it until it was discovered by Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

In 1839, a British artist, David Roberts, did a number of drawings of Petra at that time which is an authentic source of information on the condition of the buildings and the life of Bedouins.

Another account of Bedouins’ life in caves of Petra was written by Marguerite van Geldermalsen, a NewZealand nurse who visited Petra in 1978 and fell in love with a Bedouins. She married him, lived in the cave with him for seven years and had three children there. She wrote her story and her book is available from her stall inside Petra.

I bought the book from her son Rammi who looks very much like his father.

Close to Peter is Little Petra, considered as a suburb of Petra. It is believed to be a hideout for the rich travelers who were able to enjoy all the luxuries money can buy, including women and wine (there were many exhibits of wineries and wine houses in the vicinity to prove that claim).

We spent two days in Petra and barely scratched the surface. We walked up the monastery climbing about 900 stairs and uneven rocks but didn’t have enough time to climb to the High Place of Sacrifice or visit Aaron’s Mountain where Moses’ brother Aaron is believed to be buried. One can easily spend three to four days exploring the mountains which has a lot to offer along with a good dose of history.

Jordan is everything that Egypt was not, plus it has the history, culture, and climate of Egypt. Ignored by the Westerns for a long time, Jordan came to tourist’s map when Petra was listed as the world heritage site in 1980.

More than deserts, camels, and Petra, the tiny country of Jordan has more than its share of biblical references, monuments, ancient churches castles, and geographical wonders. It is by far is the most rewarding destination in the Middle East.

After a very tiring day (3:30 AM start, a long drive through Siani, and two border crossings) we reached Aqaba, Jordan’s only beach town, and our spirits lifted instantly. We had never heard of the place and never expected a half-Western and half-Middle Eastern town. The place was bustling with people. Our hotel was right in the middle of the town which was full of restaurants most with alfresco dining. The spirit of festivities was everywhere. Upmarket shops, friendly people, music, mild weather; it was as if everything was Goldilock’s ‘just right’.

We dumped our luggage in our rooms and went to explore the surrounding on foot. Aqaba is a weekend destination both for the Jordanians (who come for Fridays and Saturdays) and Europeans (who drop by on Saturdays and Sundays). Aqaba’s population swelled from 40,000 to 200,000 in recent years to take advantage of its booming tourism. On top of that, it is a ‘tax-free’ port hence many businesses are moving here.

We didn’t get to spend much time in Aqaba, just enough to recover from two days’ tiredness in a nice hotel and enjoy an excellent dinner of Tikka Chicken and Jordanian eggplant dishes. The next day, we headed for Wadi Rum at a leisurely pace.

At just a two hours drive from Aqaba, Wadi Rum is the most spectacular natural environment in the desert and was the major highlight of our visit to Jordan. The word ‘wadi’ means a valley, and it is a sequence of parallel faults in the south of the Shara mountains.

Come to Wadi Rum and you feel you are on planet Mars. The red sand, the dramatic mountains, and the dry heat. The mountains ( composed of granite, basalt, and sandstone) rising up to 800 meters from the ground. No wonder the movie Martian starring Matt Damon was shot in Wadi Rum. Lawrence of Arabia, Alladin, Mission to Mars and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and many more are also filmed here.

Although arid and open desert the Rum area is far from depopulated. Nabateans and Bedouins (both Arabian nomads) have been living in this area for millennials. This four minutes video about Nabateans is worth watching.

We stayed in a camp in Wadi Rum which looked like a tribal tent from inside. It was surprisingly well-equipped. It had its own bathroom and supply of freshwater which comes from the underground.

Wadi Rum has become the supplier of fresh water to the whole of Jordan since the discovery of an underground sea under the red sand.

After lunch, we went for desert safari on four-wheel drives, witnessing many prehistoric inscriptions and carvings on rocky caverns, Lawrence Spring and canyon (named after British lieutenant T. E. Lawrance or Lawrance of Arabia) and Mr Trump rockface.

We climbed a hill to get a panoramic view of the mountains and watched the sunset against the backdrop of camels which came just at the right moment.

Jordan is the part of the land bridge linking Europe, Africa, and Asia and has seen countless armies come and go. Greeks, Roman, Muslims, Christians Crusaders and they all have left evidence of their conquests. There are literally thousands of archeological sites from all periods in every corner of the country.

Amman is the capital and the country is ruled by King Abdullah II (who is said to be a direct descendant of prophet Muhammad from his daughter Fatimah’s side). King Abdullah II has been able to keep pro-Western and pro-Arab policies founded on the bedrock of Muslim authority. Although there is no oil in the country, the economic conditions are much better than the neighboring countries. Women have much more freedom and many of them work. People are soft-spoken and traditions of hospitality are ingrained.

Tomorrow, I will take you to a tour of Petra.

On the sixth day of our journey through Egypt, we reached Ashwan a place where the Nile is wide, languorous and stunningly beautiful flowing gently down from Lake Nassar around dramatic black-granite boulders and palm-studded islands.

In ancient times Ashwan was Egypt’s southernmost frontier, a place of strategic importance to launch military campaigns against Nubia. When the High Dam was constructed on the river Nile, many of the Nubian villages were drowned in the biggest man-made lake created as a result. Many Nubian now live on the islands in the Nile.

We woke up at three-thirty am to make an early start for a three and half hours trip to Abu Simbel Temple, a 3500 years twin temples by Ramses II which were going to drowned in the Lake Nassar as well, but was heroically relocated at a higher ground with the help of UNESCO.

The international campaign to save the remains of Abu Simbel and Nubia between 1964 and 1968 was initiated by UNESCO in cooperation with the Egyptian government at a cost of $ 40 million. Moving the temple by dismantling the parts and statues of the temple and re-installed in its new location at a height of 65 meters above the river level, is one of the greatest works in archaeological engineering.

The twin temples of Abu Simbel temples, a lasting monument to the king Ramses II and his queen Nefertari, were originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BC, to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Kadesh.

It is said that the sunrays on the Holy of Holies in the Temples of Abu Simbel twice every Year 22 February and 22 October. The Sun passes through 200 meters long front corridor of the entrance of Ramses II temple until it reaches the Holy of Holies.

The Holy of Holies is a platform that has the statue of King Ramses the Second sitting next to it the statue of the god Ra Hor his sister and the god Amun and the fourth statue of the god Ptah. Interestingly, the Sun does not perpendicular to the face of the statue of “Ptah” which was considered by the ancient god of darkness. The phenomenon of sun-aging lasts only 20 minutes on that day.

The following map by the Ministry of Antiquities lists 132 archaeological sites in Egypt and most of them are along the Nile. Hardly there is any country in the world that has such a rich inheritance. But the country is suffering from corruption, poverty and tax evasion. All through Cairo and along the Nile we saw building after buildings and thousands of houses which were unfinished so the owners do not have to pay taxes. That not only made the cities look ugly but lead to a lack of funds for the betterment of the country.

We visited another temple, the Temple of Isis on Philae Island which was not so lucky to be saved like the temple of Abu Simbel. It remained under-water for six months each year between 1902 to 1972 after the building of the old Aswan dam before being disassembled, stone by stone and moved to higher ground with the help of UNESCO.

Aswan was the source of Egypt’s finest granite, used to make statues and to embellish temples, pyramids, and obelisks. In the Northern Quarries, just about 1.5 km from the town, is a huge discarded obelisk which would have been the largest of all (42 meters) but was abandoned because of a crack in it.

The unfinished obelisk has given archaeologists valuable insight into how these obelisks were created. The groove on three sides of the already polished and shaped obelisk shows how the exact rock was identified and separated. To separate the base, wood would be inserted and soaked in water for a few days allowing it to expand and separate the obelisk from the rock.

One of the things to do while cruising the Nile is to take a Felucca ride, catch the afternoon breeze, and watch the sunset.

We said goodbye to Aswan and flew to Cairo for our last night in Egypt. The next morning a very early start again. At 4:30 we started an eight-hour journey by bus to Jordan.

One the way, we witness another of Egyptian engineering feat.

One hundred and twelve years after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt constructed an 1164 mt long tunnel under it to connect the Sinai Peninsula to the town of Suez with the help of the Japanese government. The tunnel has two lanes, one in each direction and reaches a maximum depth of 51 mt below ground level.

As soon we crossed the tunnel we were in Sinai, rugged and barren and starkly beautiful where the dry wind blows with such a ferocity that it creates holes in the mountains.

In Pharaonic times Sinai was responsible for providing turquoise, gold, and copper; but most of us know it for its Biblical reference of the Red Sea parting and Israelites passing through it in search of the promised land.

Only after one has traveled through the land (and stepped out of the air-conditioned bus to actually experience the dry heat and wind) one can begin to appreciate what Moses and his people would have gone through while wandering this land for 40 years. This 30-secs video will give you the feel of the place.

What intrigued me were hundreds of developments by the Red Sea coast which looked deserted or maybe abandoned. There was no soul in sight, not even a car as if everyone had disappeared overnight leaving behind half-finished buildings. The Red Sea is a tourist destination for diving and coral watching but it seems like they have all gone for safer and newer resorts.

At 3:00 pm we reached Taba and crossed the border after dragging our luggage through two customs controls and passport checks.

To our horror, we were in Israel rather than in Jordan.

Along the Red Sea coast, there is about nine-kilometers stretch that belongs to Israel. Four hours and two more customs controls and passport checks we were finally in Jordan.

I am back from my trip but the euphoria of my visit to lands rich in history and unmatched experiences still there. My flow of writing got interrupted because of a lack of easy Wifi availability in Egypt. For the next few days, I am going to tell all those stories which are bubbling in me.

From Luxor, we took four nights cruise to Ashwan, a bustling city in upper Egypt. The beauty of the Nile is to be seen to be believed. Particularly in the background of the desert, the cool, calm and ever-flowing water of Nile is a better sight than any oasis one could imagine.

The room in the boat was beyond our expectations. Almost to the size of a hotel room, it had a king bed, a lounge, and a full-size window that could be opened to let the breeze in.

Once we passed the bustling banks of Luxor the smaller villages started to appear showing the real-life around the ancient river.

A little later we saw a show of our lifetime. A few boats started following the boat to sell merchandise. The skillful vendors threw ropes to hitchhike a ride with the boat while precisely throwing their merchandise to the uppermost deck where we were enjoying the sunset and a cup of tea. It was a spectacle never to be forgotten.

We haggled on the price in the noise of the boat engine and threw back the dresses (and towels and Egyptian cotton bedsheets) when the prices were not agreed. One of the dresses fell in the water which upset me a lot thinking that the poor vendor probably occurred more loss than gain.

Our guide assured me that they will recover the dress even if it had flown miles down in the river. “Don’t worry,” said our guide, “even if you throw them the money and a fish swallows it, they will find the fish and recover the money.”

We sailed for a few hours and then anchored at night in Edfu, a town famous for the Edfu temple. In the morning we visited the temple on a horse carriage.

Each temple has almost the same structure and almost the same relics – purification of the king, crowing of the king, the king making offerings to the gods, the gods presenting the king with the key of life. We also learned that each place has its own god, or rather the family of gods – the male god, the female god and the son god. The god of Edfu was Horus the falcon-headed god (the god of protector of the ruler of Egypt), who is the son of Osiris (the god of dead and underworld) and Isis (the goddess of life and magic).

The temple was the ‘home’ and cultural center of the falcon god Horus of Behdet (the ancient name for Edfu) and remains one of the best-preserved temples. Outside the temple was a big stable for horsecarts a means for cashing in on tourism.

Once back onboard, we continued sailing to Kom Ombo, another town by the river, where we visited the Temple of Kom Ombo dedicated to Sobek the crocodile god and Horus the falcon-headed god.

The temple occupies a stunning location overlooking the Nile but most of its front pylon and pillars were chopped off to provide stone for the construction of a sugar mill nearby at the orders of Ottoman ruler Mohamad Ali Pasha in the nineteenth century. It is the same ruler who gave the Luxor Temple Obeslick to the French King Louise Philippe in exchange for a mechanical clock that didn’t even work and is still mounted on a terrace of Mohamad Ali mosque in Cairo.

Muhamad Ali was also going to use the stone from the Great Pyramid of Cairo for construction of other buildings but fortunately for Egyptians, the cost of cutting the stones from the pyramids was much more than sourcing them from the querries.

The fact is that most of the Egyptians didn’t know the value of their heritage until about two hundred years ago. It was when Napolean defeated Ottomans and occupied Egypt, Rosetta stone was discovered and the West turned its attention to Egypt that a new field of study, Egyptology, emerged and Egyptians beginning to realize that the ruins scattered around them were in fact cradle of civilization like no other.

Kom Ombo temple is unique in the sense that it was also a treatment center. It has relics that document the tools and mechanisms used at that time for childbirth, surgery and medicine making.

In the afternoon we started sailing towards Ashwan and reached there just after the sunset. Ashwan is the place where the High Dam was constructed in 1960 which stopped the flooding of the Nile. More about that in my next post. Today just enjoyed the beauty of Ashwan at night in the following video.

After spending three nights in Cairo we flew to Luxor (known as Thebes in ancient times) that is almost halfway through the length of Egypt. Luxor became the capital of Egypt after Memphis was abandoned due to a lack of water.

I think now is a good time to tell you a bit about Egypt and it’s history.

Egypt is populated on the banks of Nile, just a few kilometers on either side. Apart from the green patches on both sides of the river the rest of the country is desert. It is fair to say that Egypt exists because of the Nile.

The Niles flows from South to North and divides Egypt into two parts- Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt.

In 3109 BC, Narmer was able to conquer and unite Upper and Lower Egypt to form a kingdom and to become the first Pharaoh. For the next three thousand years, Egypt was ruled by thirty dynasties of Pharaohs.

The Pharaohs were unmatched in grandeur in the whole world. Keep in mind we are talking about 5000 to 2000 years period from today. The only other matching civilization I am aware of, from that period, was Indian civilization as depicted in Ramayana (estimated to have occurred 5000 years ago) and Mahabharata (estimated to happen about 3000 years ago). But there no trace of their existence, while temples, tombs and even the bodies of people with perfect skin, nails, and hair from that period still exist for Egyptian civilization.

The three thousand years of Pharaoh history is divided into four periods.

Old Kingdom (3100 BC – 2025 BC) when 1st to 10th dynasties ruled. This was the period when the Great Pyramids of Giza were built.

Middle Kingdom (2055 BC to 1550 BC) when 11nth to 17th dynasties ruled.

New Kingdom (1550 BC to 525 BC). It is the most significant and prosperous period when the 18th to 26th dynasties ruled. This was the period of Tutankhamen, Seti I and Seti II and all of the Ramses ( 1 to 9). Moses and Jew’s exodus happened in Ramses II’s period.

The Late Period, that lasted from 525 BC to 332 BC, when the last four dynasties ruled before the arrival of Alexander in 332 BC, which started three hundred years of Greek rule followed by another three hundred years of Roman rule.

From the airport, we went straight to the famous temple of Karnak. Karnak Temple was built by three different Pharaohs ( Seti I, Ramses I and Ramses II ) over a period of 180 years.

More than a temple, Karnak is an extraordinary complex of sanctuaries, kiosks, pylons, and obelisks dedicated to the Theban gods and Pharaohs. It was believed this temple was the place where the gods lived on earth.

Everything is on a gigantic scale. It has two entrances marked by ten pylons constructed by different Pharaohs (A pylon is a monumental gateway with sloping sides forming the entrance to temples).

Inside the second pylon is the Great Hypostyle Hall, the greatest religious monument ever built. Covering 5500 sq meters, the hall has a forest of 134 gigantic papyrus shaped stone pillars. The papyrus plant was very important to ancient Egyptians. They believed that these plants surrounded the primeval mound on which the life was first created.

The columns, roof and the wall of the Great Hypostyle Hall have relics telling the stories of the Amun-Ra the local god of Thebes and Seti I. The hall was designed by Ramses I and completed by Seti I and Ramses II.

The two largest obelisks ever erected in Egypt are also here. They were erected by the pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut to the glory of her father Amun. One of them is still standing while the other one is broken. Its upper shaft lies near the sacred lake.

Our second stop was the Luxor temple. Where the Karnak Temple has massive pillars, the Luxor temple had massive statues. Situated right at the banks of the Nile, the Luxor temple was built by the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. Later, Alexander the Great and Romans added to the temple, converting a part of it into a church.

Centuries later, a mosque (known as Abu Haggag Mosque) was built on the ruins of the temple which still stands there and still a place of worship.

This makes Luxor temple the only shrine in the world which has a temple, church and a mosque in the same precinct and the oldest practicing center of worship dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in the 14th century BC.

But Luxor’s biggest attraction is the Valley of the Kings. Just a few kilometers out of the city it has tombs of pharaohs, including that of Tutankhamen. The discovery of Tutankhamen tomb is the most important discovery in Egyptian history as it was the only tomb of a Pharaoh that was found intact.

We first saw the valley from the hot air balloon the next morning and then visited it later in the day.

About forty tombs have been discovered so far. While many more exist there without a trace, excavations were going on at a few new discoveries while we were there.

We visited the three best ones on the recommendation of our guide who had seen them all. Out of those, I found Ramses IV’s tomb the most remarkable. Well-preserved and with colorful relics. Most surreal was seeing his massive stone sarcophagus in the burial chamber. It was the only tomb we visited which had the sarcophagus still inside, rest have been taken out and preserved in the museums.

Ramses IX’s tomb had unfinished relics that showed ancient techniques of making relics. First, the junior artists will draw using black ink followed by senior artists correcting the mistakes by red ink, while the master artist completing the final picture and coloring (a poster below describe the process better).

Ramses III’s tomb was remarkable for a long shaft that is twisted at an angle.

Not far from the Valley of is the Kings is an impressive temple commissioned by a female Pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut, who also commissioned many other structures including an obelisk in the Karnak temple.

Luxor is a beautiful place. I liked it even more than Cairo. It has a beautiful walk by the Nile, well-paved and well-lit, a big square outside the Luxor temple and Abu Haggag Mosque. People were exceptionally friendly and helping. The Vodafone salesperson helped for half an hour (ahead of the queue) to set things up and make sure our phone is working properly.

I am a lot behind in my posts as Wifi was not easily available in Egypt. We had to buy a SIM and loading pictures through it was next to impossible.

In my next post, I will write about cruising through the Nile and a glimpse of real Egypt.

We were not prepared for the cultural shock when we got to Cairo. It wouldn’t be so striking had we been to Egypt first. But we visited Turkey before and that raised our expectations. If Turkey was clean, well-organized and hospitable; Egypt is filthy, chaotic and over-populated.

Cairo’s twenty-five million inhabitants are said to “simultaneously crushing the city’s infrastructure under their collective weight and lifting its spirits up with their exceptional charm and humor.”

We got picked up at the airport by the representatives of our tour company even before the immigration check. One of them had a bundle of visa stickers with him. It was the first time ever I had seen anyone other than an official issuing visa.

We were packed in a bus where our Egyptian guide welcomed us. He is a well-educated man (a qualified Egyptologist) in his late thirties who has a vast knowledge about Egyptian history and temples, as we found out later.

After a night’s rest at the hotel, the next morning, our guide took us straight to the pyramids of Giza. Constructed more than four thousand years ago, the three giant structures were visible from everywhere in Cairo. The largest pyramid, called the Great Pyramid is 146 meters high and was constructed in 2570 BC for the Pharaoh Khufu’s of the 4th dynasty.

The second pyramid is of son Khafre and seems larger than that of his father’s because it is on a higher plinth. Its peak is still capped with original polishes limestone casting.

The third pyramid is of Pharaoh Menkaure and is the smallest of the trio (62m). It is said that back in the day they were covered by gold and were visible from miles.

I, however, was not impressed with them. Mainly because they didn’t look as high as they show them in photos. Also in photos, the color of the stone is white, with most of the casting gone, the earthly colored stone doesn’t stand out in front of the sand background.

Seeing the pyramids up close was a challenge, too. There were too much dirt and too many people. Yet we did manage to climb up to the entrance of the Great Pyramid and take some pictures. To my disappointment, they were not very clear due to mist (and pollution) which cleared up a bit with time but didn’t completely go away.

Next to the pyramids, in the same complex, is the Sphinx. The Sphinx is a structure that usually has the head of a man and the body of an animal. This one is the biggest Sphinx ever build in Egypt and has the head of the king Khafre (of the second pyramid) and body of a lion and it stands to guard the pyramid complex. When it was built, it was right on the banks of the Nile and had two temples on the sides to greet visitors.

After spending the morning there, taking pictures touching the tip of the pyramids and doing camel rides we drove for an hour to the ruins of 5000 thousand years old city of Memphis which was the seat of power for the most the Pharaonic period.

Now the only evidence of Memphis’ glory is a colossal red granite statue of Ramses II which was found face down at the exact location where it is now turned on its back.

The drive was an eye-opener. There were piles of rubbish everywhere. Most of the buildings were covered in dirt and were unfinished. Apparently, Egyptian people do not finish their houses ( which are usually multi-story as they keep on adding new floors for the next generation) to save taxes. The cars were mostly old and covered in dirt, waterways had rubbish floating in them.

Not far from Memphis is a 7km stretch of the desert known as Saqqara were we able to inside the pyramid of Pharaoh Teti (sixth dynasty). The entrance shaft was just one meter high and about ten meters long leading to the burial chamber, which was empty. The mummy was long gone, looted by the grave robbers. The chamber had hieroglyphics carved on the walls and the stars on the roof.

Did I get an eerie feeling while there?

There was hardly any time to feel anything, other than being amazed at the architecture and skills of humans five thousand years ago.

Photography was not allowed inside Teti’s tomb but in the next tomb, which was his priest’s tomb we were able to take several photos of relics in original colors.

The next day we visited Muhammad Ali Pasha’s mosque who gave an obelisk from the Luxor Temple to French king Louis Phillipein exchange for a mechanical clock that didn’t work. It was still there mounted on one of the terraces of the mosque. Completed in 1900, the mosque has much better architecture and carving but is in terrible condition. The stone has eroded, at many places the whole alabaster plaques were missing.

From there we drove to central Cairo which was much cleaner and had better buildings. Egyptian Museum is near Midan Tahrir, where millions of Egyptian oust their president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

On the way, we drove past the City of Dead where people are living in old tombs. Unable to afford houses, they are using these well-constructed structures like houses. These have been evacuated now but we could still see some with satellite dishes.

Museum was something where you could spend hours. It was full of scrophages, statues, mummies, and treasures discovered from excavations all around Egypt. They have 150 thousand articles and not enough space. A new museum is near completion which will house the most of the collection.

We concentrated on a few key exhibits, one being the boy king Tutumkhamn. He became the king at the age of nine and died at the age of nineteen. The discovery of his tomb was significant because his was the only tomb of a pharaoh that was found intact. His inner cask is made of 110 kilograms of pure gold.

We also saw mummies of Yuya and Thuya whose skin, hair and nails were still intact.

The last stop of the day was Khan el-Khalili market which is the largest market I have ever seen anywhere. Being a Friday the crowds were phenomenal. We had great coffee and Egyptian pizza and bread and had an early night for a six o’clock start to Luxor the next day.