Read about Ron & Viv's journey so far through Africa - EGPYT - Aswan, Luxor, Cairo, Alexandria coast - Sept 2007.
Egypt
Neil & Helen on the felucca.
Luxor: the Valley of the Kings – we just did our tour of the tombs before the hordes of tourists arrived
Neil & Helen outside the Cairo Museum.
Fort Qaitbey in the background that was built in 1480 from the stones of the old Pharos lighthouse – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the fleet of local fishing boats in front.
The market square was the centre of town, with the remains of the old city in one corner.
The crystal clear water of Fatnas Bath on Fatnas.
AFRICA TRIPEarly to Mid Sept - Egypt
Enigmatic Egypt
Getting out of Aswan
Now we like Aswan, it's probably the best looking big city on the Nile, but it's not a place you like spending time in going from Custom office to Police post and back, to do it all again next day. But that's what we did. It took two full days to get our vehicles out and on the road again!
The ferry had arrived at about 2pm but it was over an hour before we had been cleared and got onto dry land. Our vehicles were waiting for us so we shifted them up to in front of the Customs office (GPS: 23°58'28”N 32°53'49”E). But it quickly became apparent that the paperwork was going to take some time – there was a group heading south and they were having much bigger trouble with Customs - we gave up and headed into town – which is about 20km away - to find our accommodation.
The Nubian Oasis Hotel , (GPS: 24°05'45”N 32°53'58”E) which is set back about 150 metres from the Nile is located near a large local Catholic church. The hotel is now owned by some Muslims so there is no rooftop bar, or beer available – instead the roof is a building construction zone, and getting anything including a cool drink or anything from the restaurant the hotel boasts, is near impossible. The rooms were just okay, the beds just passable (the pillows were rock hard) and while the air conditioning worked, the fan, nor the power points, didn't! The bathroom had cold showers and a toilet that flushed most times but ran water all night. Price was just 50EPd (A$10) a night for the two of us and that included breakfast, but we could never get anyone to serve us! You could hardly recommend it!
About the only place you can camp in Aswan, once you get your vehicle, is at Adams Camp (GPS: 24°10'08”N 32°51'58”E) across the other side of the river and while we heard reasonable things about it, we didn't see it.
Luckily we had Mazar Mahir with us (see the Sudan page for contact details) and next morning he took us back to the port and the Customs people. Here we went from Customs office to the bosses office, back to office, to cashier, back to another office for yet another signature and then back to Customs. From there we then went to the police station, or officially, the Aswan Traffic Control Dept (GPS: 24°05'04”N 32°54'30”E) on the main route into town from the port – to get a vehicle rego Number.
With that we could head into town and from the National Insurance Office (somewhere in the heart of the city) we got our 3rd Party Insurance – cost just EPd30. With that piece of paper we went back to the police station and waited before Mr. Personality policeman (arrogant, rude bastard he was!!) came out and we went out to the port once again so he could check engine and chassis numbers on the vehicles.
Then it was back to the police station to get a number plate. Trouble was by now it was 3pm and the office was closed! Next morning we were there for them to open but we still waited for nearly two hours before Mazir came out with the number plates. Headed back to the port – be prepared for a big taxi bill – and went again to Customs. Finally we got cleared and we fitted our number plates and headed for the exit gate and got waved thru. Escaping at last … “STOP!” Back we went. Last paper work check by the Police at the gate; finally we were allowed to go!
Still while we were in Aswan we did enjoy a couple of meals along the Nile waterfront as well as a couple of cold beers – real beers! We also took a Felucca cruise on Nile. It's very easy to get a boat – just walk down to the ‘Corniche' alongside the Nile and you will have some one come up to you offering a boat ride. Checked out the boat – it looked alright, bargained the price down a bit to EPd150 for a 1.5 hour or so cruise – it was ‘low season, so they wanted our money! Our skipper – Baha Husseim Amed, (ph: (mobile): 0109 860 966), who turned out to be a good bloke, arrived with the motor boat to ferry us across the river to where his felucca was tied up.
Once on board we pushed off, the sail was unfurled and we tacked our way down stream so that we could round the southern end of Elephantine Island where another hotel development is taking over and pushing back the small Nubian village that has been here for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Then, with the keel-board up we sailed before the wind upstream. It's a very pleasant way to spend a few hours.
We passed the Aswan Botanical Gardens , which takes up the whole of Kitchener Island. Kitchener, of Sudan fame and WW1's inglorious carnage, was Consul General and commander of the Egyptian army back in the 1890s and was given the island as a gift. Indulging in his passion for beautiful plants he turned the whole island into a garden importing plants from all over. Sadly the place is looking a bit tired and the plants a bit straggly but it's still a nice spot to while away a hot afternoon or evening.
We cruised back upstream, past the Old Cataract Hotel where we enjoyed a beer back 20 years ago. It is the place to stay when in town if the budget goes that far – ours didn't!
The rubbish in towns and villages, along the roadside – is everywhere – it certainly hasn't improved at all since our first visit. It is really unbelievable – and in many instances, especially in the streets, it smells!! Another challenge, besides the people, to contend with.
And, there is the constant demand for backsheesh (money) for doing anything at all. Now we know the wages in Egypt are very, very low – and there is huge unemployment, but it gets very wearing when you are relentlessly being hassled for more money. You also cannot trust anyone – they may smile agreeably, but you never really know what they are thinking. And girls, don't smile and appear too friendly – it seems to be an open invitation to grope you.
As another Australian couple said, who we meet in Alexandria and asked if they were enjoying their time in Egypt - “it was a challenge”.
To Luxor
We got away at about 11.30am and headed up the road alongside the Nile River. Came to our first police road block, there was no convoy, so we pushed on to Luxor. It was an enjoyable drive thru villages and a constant changing scene of green on one side and bare rock and sand on the other. We passed thru numerous Police road blocks along the way. We said we were Australian and that seemed to help and we got waved thru on nearly every occasion.
Got to Luxor and found our way to Rezeiky Hotel and camp (GPS: 25°42'42”N 32°38'54”E) www.rezeikycamp.com.eg , which turned out to be an excellent place to camp – and about the only one you can camp at in the city. Situated close to the Nile and about 500 metres south of the Karnak Temple it's as central as you can get, despite what some guidebooks say, while there's a range of accommodation available as well. For campers, there's flush loos, hot and cold showers, an excellent restaurant dishing up a delightful array of Egyptian food, a good bar and a cool clean swimming pool. Security is very good as well. Elie Rezeikey, is the owner/manager and a very helpful bloke he is too and he went out of his way to get us a car battery.
Next morning our guide, Tony A El Shayieb, (a cousin of Elie's and who can be contacted thru the Hotel) arrived at 6.30am and our air cond taxi van soon afterwards (the weather was still very hot). Headed off and crossed the Nile on the bridge a few km upstream and went straight to the Valley of the Kings . Already there were a few buses around and we had passed three lots of tour groups on donkeys – memories of our first visit 20 years ago. But there seems to be more habitation around than we can remember and the roads are bitumen, which they certainly weren't back then – in fact, the bridge wasn't even there then!
There's a large carpark and a brand new entrance and info centre. From there a small ‘train' takes you deeper into the Valley where the tombs begin. There are three tombs included in the entry price (King Tut's tomb is extra and as we had seen it we passed on this one which is by far the most popular – even if it is one of the smallest) and we went to see, what Tony considered to be the best. These included the tombs of:
Ramses V11 – Ruled to 1129BC and his sudden death meant his is one of the smallest tombs in the Valley. This tomb, recently re-opened to the public has seen many visitors going by the Coptic and Greek graffiti on the walls near the entrance.
Ramses 1X – Ruled until 1108BC and his large tomb is one of the most visited in the Valley as the paintings have stood the test of time well.
Ramses 111 – The last of the warrior pharaohs Ramses 111 ruled till 1153BC and built an impressive tomb that is over 125metres long and lavishly decorated.
These are all impressive places but you aren't allowed to take photos in the tombs or even take a video into the valley. In the past we had been into King Tuts tomb (small and not very impressive considering how much treasure was brought out from it) as well as the great Pharaoh, Seti 1 (now closed to the public) and his even more famous son, Ramses 11 (a very large tomb but it gets flooded every few hundred years, so much of the art is damaged).
It was staring to get warm so we then headed for the Temple of Hatshepsut , sometimes known as Deir al-Bahri, which dates back to when the lower floors were used as a monastery. Hatshepsut became pharaoh and ruled Egypt in her own right for 15 years from 1473BC, when she built this magnificent three tied temple that takes up much of the eastern face of the Thebian Cliffs just to the south of the Valley of the Kings. It's an impressive temple seen not only from afar but also close up. The steps leading up to the temple were preceded by a line of sphinx statues while palms and trees lined the long wide walkway – nowadays you have a large bitumen carpark and a line of tourist stalls instead. The latter take some getting thru as the store keepers bustle, cajole and haggle.
We stopped at an Alabaster shop – there are any number of these around here and we're not sure of the name – who cares, they are all the same. First they showed us how the alabaster is carved and shaped before taking us into the shop and showing us the ‘real' stuff and the ‘fake' stuff and the poor machine made items. Had a ‘tea', while the sales pitch continued. Both Viv and Helen bought a few things – it was quite good really.
Then it was down the road a short distance, onto the Ramesseum , which was a large Temple complex built by Ramses 11 (yet another) and 29 of the original 48 columns of the great hall are still standing and many still have remnants of their original paintwork. The great end walls of the temple still stand and depict reliefs of Ramses military conflicts, where of course, he is the greatest hero and killer of the enemy.
But, what is really impressive about this temple is the Colossus of Ramses 11, which once stood over 17.5-metres and with an estimated weight of over 240 tonnes of pink granite it was the largest statue ever made in ancient Egypt. Damaged in an earthquake in 27BC, that also damaged many other temples in the region, it lies on its back but is still mind blowing in size and in the quality of its carving. How they carved this magnificent statue out of solid hard granite - the granite originated in Aswan and was transported to Luxor by barge, where it was carved by the artisans based there – is hard to comprehend. The surface of the polished rock is silky smooth and you can almost feel the muscles in the upper arms; the cartouche carved in each arm just below the shoulder looks like it was done yesterday, while the pattern in the headdress of this greatest of all pharaohs has been delineated by chipping a slightly different pattern into the rock. We remember being amazed by this statue when we first saw it 20 years ago (we had forgotten about the temple around it) – it is no less impressive now!
From there we went the short distance to the two big 18-metre statues of The Colossi of Memnon. These stand proud on the floodplain and were once part of the largest temple complex on the West Bank, but little remains although there is now quite a dig going on just nearby to uncover the foundations. These statues, which were a ‘tourist attraction' for the Greeks and Romans were badly damaged by an earthquake in 27BC and repaired in 193AD – such is the antiquity of these places – for us it was a quick stop just to take a pic – oh so, ho hum!
That evening everyone but Ron (who was waiting to fit a battery to the Patrol) went to the ‘Sound and Light Show' which is set amongst the re-erected remains of the gigantic Karnak Temple. It is an impressive show and one Viv has seen before – Ron missed out then too.
To the Red Sea
We spoke to a number of locals and a recently arrived overlander about traveling to Cairo and all agreed that the quickest way was to head for the Red Sea at Hurgada, then follow the coast north before heading on the new road (tollway) to Cairo.
Next morning we fuelled up at EPd0.75/ litre (A$0.15 cents) and then went and found the convoy meeting point (GPS 25°42'34”N 32°38'50”E) on Sharia Sert Street which runs off the Corniche el-Nil, near the Coptic Catholic Church. Got sent first one way along the river road, then the other, then back again. There were around 100 vehicles by the time we pulled out at 8am and there are three police convoys each day heading from Luxor across to the Red Sea. Why? Well in the past there has been some abductions and killings of foreign visitors by radicals wanting to overthrow the government, so to ensure their (our) safety the convoy system was brought in.
With our police escort we didn't have to stop at any of the lights, while all other traffic was pulled over – we whizzed thru early morning Luxor and out onto the main highway. While we passed thru a number of police checkpoints again we didn't stop – just roared thru. Headed along the Nile to Qena and then turned NE and across the dry barren desert to Safarga on the Red Sea.
The Hurgada we remember is no more. What was once a small fishing village with a couple of low key resorts is now a sprawling city that on the outskirts looks like a building construction site for 10s of km. There's new roads going in, the airport is well out of the centre of town, an industrial area is further out as is a large military camp, while in between is churned up earth and the start of a dozen building projects. A new ‘mega mall' is being built closer into the heart of the town but it is the number of large sprawling resorts that crowd around the town and then dot the coast to the north and south that are truly amazing.
Not that many people would want to be there on the day we drove thru though; the wind was strong, whipping up clouds of dust that streamed across the road, peppered the car with a fine drumming and cut visibility to a few hundred metres.
Quite a lot of oil wells and gas wells along the coast – some on land and other rigs just offshore. Along with them were the processing plants, service jetty and small ports dotting the coastline.
As we got closer to Zafarana and north, the number of resorts that were being built or were about to be built was unbelievable. They sprawled along the coast for mile after mile. Stopped at the Stella Sea Club Hotel in Ain Soukhna, a sprawling resort that takes up hundreds of acres and that is full of apartments and the like, just north of the new road to Cairo. The hotel (one of two) is large enough on its own, with a number of swimming pools and all that you find in such a place. We booked in, US$125 a night for an apartment and that included dinner and breakfast which sounded pretty good to us - camping was not an option!!
To Cairo and the Pyramids
Got away at about 8.30am and turned onto the ‘New road' to Cairo which is a toll road (EPd5) and being a multi-lane road it is the best road we have been on since South Africa. And, apart from stopping to pay the toll, there were no police checkpoints for the whole way until just outside Cairo where the tollway ended.
The road passes thru bare barren desert that for the most part seems to have been turned over and shifted into low piles by some nutter with a dozer and a bucket. The desert looks crook enough but these guys spread their road works and building construction sites over hundreds of acres of nearby ground and make it look worse. It is unbelievable!
Once in the outskirts of Cairo we found our way onto the Ring Road and found our way west, crossing the wide Nile and its attendant green fields. Got to the Salma Motel Camping (GPS: 29°58'11”N 31°10'28”E) which is just off a main road, south from the Ring Road and beside the Wissa Wassef Art Centre which is actually signposted on the mainroad. You cross, then follow, an absolutely filthy canal, that seemingly doubles as a sewer, to the gates. The camping area is better than what we had imagined and while not great, it is good and the only one for Cairo. There's hot and cold showers, flush toilets, power is available, and while the bar and restaurant may have seen better days, the beer is cold.
As it was only late morning after setting up camp, so we organized a taxi and a driver who picked us up and we headed out to see the sights. First up is the Citadel, which dominates the eastern skyline of the city. Saladin built this great fort in 1176 to help defend the city against the Crusaders and for over 700 years it was the home of the country's rulers. Today the fort and its mosques are a great local attraction and as we had never been close to it on our previous visits we decided to at least go up to the gate. We did!
Then we headed into the centre of the town to the Cairo Museum and spent a few hours wandering the hallowed mummy lined halls of this not-so-grand building. It is an incredible collection, topped off by the Tutankhamun Collection which takes up a special security area as well as a couple of hallways. King Tut only ruled for 9 years in the 14 th century BC and was such a ‘minor' king that his tomb was quickly overshadowed and lost. When Howard Carter found the tomb in 1922, after six years of searching he found the greatest collection of artifacts and treasure ever discovered in Egypt. The gold and jewelry and the artistic work portrayed there is magnificent.
Our taxi man took us to one of many horse riding and camel riding places at Giza and we all got a camel each for a two hour evening ride in and around the pyramids.
As it turned out the evening ride to see the pyramids on a Friday is not allowed for some reason. We got stopped at the closest gate and had to ride around a rubbish infested fenceline to a break in the fence before we could get onto the Giza Plateau proper – there our guides paid some ‘baksheesh' and we were allowed in – along with three other groups. It is on this higher patch of land that the pyramids have been built. And the area has been fenced and cleared of many of the huts and houses that were once threatening to overcome the mighty monuments – as it is Cairo is right on the pyramids doorstep but at least now they will have the plateau to themselves.
It was a longish ride but there were few people around (we wondered why!) and we got some great views of the pyramids as we came over the bare desert dunes – like travellers of old would have seen them. Sadly we only got really close to the small group of three (there is in fact 9 pyramids on the plateau – two groups of three small ones and then the three big ones, the biggest of which is the great Pyramid of Khufu or Cheops) when we turned away from them to another viewpoint. The Sphinx too was just so tantalizing close – we had been there before (this was our third visit) so it was no loss to us, but sadly this was as close Neil and Helen were to get. Still we took a few pics of the towering monuments that are over 4000 years old and then headed for the gate. A big argument ensured when more backsheesh had to be paid to the ‘tourist police' and we were allowed through. Back at the riding yards we paid our money and then had an argument over our guides and our camel boys and how much baksheesh we should pay them. In the end we gave them another EPd100 between them and their ever increasing band of helpers and told them in no uncertain tone to ‘Go away!'
Such is Egypt!
The Mediterranean Coast
Next day we took the Desert Road to Alexandria (there's also a ‘Delta Road') and once we found our way thru the morning traffic to the right road we struck north west on this toll road (EPd4). There was a fair amount of traffic and for most of the way the road is bordered by billboards and instead of bare desert along side the road there is a wide ribbon of green.
As we got closer to Alexandria we struck the outer suburbs and we wound our way thru ever increasing traffic towards the heart of the city. Stopped at a large shopping mall where we had lunch – a choice of all the best from America plus Arabia, and then we did a ‘quick' shop in the large well stocked supermarket which was part of a very large shopping mall (GPS: 31°09'59”N 29°56'02”E) – the spice stall being impressive and not one you'd see in Oz.
Alexandria, established by Alexander the Great in 331BC became the greatest city in the world, its library reportedly having over 700,000 volumes. For hundreds of years it was the capital of Ptolemy ruled Egypt, the last pharaoh being Cleopatra. When her navy was defeated by the Romans in 31BC at the Battle of Actium, her lover Anthony committed suicide and Cleopatra as we all know was bitten by her favourite asp – or so the story goes! Left in favour of Cairo by the invading Arabs in the 7th century the town languished for the next thousand or so years but today with a go-ahead mayor it is a vibrant city once more looking to its past for its future. It is much more European than any other city in Egypt.
From the shopping centre and with a bit of effort we found our way onto the coast in the heart of the city and cruised up the ‘corniche' alongside the sea and passed the Eastern Harbour. It was quite pleasant but it was wall-to-wall buildings, while the thin strip of sand was covered in red and yellow beach brollies. Stopped to take a few pics of the waterfront including Fort Qaitbey that was built in 1480 from the stones of the old Pharos lighthouse – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The lighthouse was in use for over 17 centuries and was destroyed by an earthquake. Left in ruins for over 100 years, Sultan Qaitbey ordered the fortification of the city and the fort was then built.
We decided to head west along the coast to find somewhere to stay. It took us about an hour following the coast and getting lost amongst the harbour and navy roads as well as passing thru a small fish market before we got onto the main road west and started to leave the city behind. From there it was a continuous line of resorts lining the coast. Most were Arabic in name and nature so we pushed on.
Got to El Alamein – where it was still a continuous line of resorts and apartments – and headed for the Commonwealth military cemetery. Just up the road is the El Alamein museum, with a good outdoor display of tanks and field gun used by both sides during that 1940s conflict that saw some of the biggest tank battles ever. Had a quick walk around the cemetery and over to the nearby Australian memorial, which has over 7300 graves while the memorial you walk thru to get to the cemetery lists the 11,945 soldiers and airmen who died in the North Africa campaign and have no known grave. Up the road a few kilometers is the German and Italian war cemeteries with their honoured war dead.
We pushed on, finally deciding we'd stop at the Mountain View resort , which we saw advertised along the way and about 200km west of Alexandria. Trouble was when we arrived there, it was yet to be built! Saw the security guards at the gate and they let us go down to the beach to ‘rest'. We set up camp with a view of beautiful blue water, a few offshore reefs, and a sweep of rocky beach. We had just got set up and two young army blokes came along to see what we were doing, “You cannot stay here!” A bit of pleading, a bit of yabber over the 2-way radio and, “No, sorry, you must go!”
We packed and headed off, deciding to head back towards El Alamein and find one of the hotels that were a little to the west of the battlefield cemeteries. Trouble was one was US$400 a night, another wasn't built yet and we couldn't find the one we really wanted.
Finally picked and stopped at at line of stalls and shops catering for the passing traffic – a ‘truckies stop , we'd call it. Saw the owner who said we could park out the back away from the lights and the main road. It was in essence a rubbish dump which was the road leading to his house. We ginned around a little trying to get the best spot amongst the building rubble and the rubbish while staying away from the smoke from the burning rubbish. Neil and Helen slept in the back of the Ford, while we quickly set up the camper. We had two blokes help us set up – one a guy from the shop and the other a sleeze bucket who later came back, while Ron was away sorting out something to eat, and made it obvious to Viv that he thought she would be all up for a bit of sex (he'd already had a bit of a grope of her boob in a deceiving shake your hand and welcome you kiss) – wrong!!! – needless to say he took off when Viv yelled.
We had ordered two chicken kebabs but what was dished up was a feast. Soup, followed by half a chicken each with salad, with a large separate plate of fresh salad, a bowl of spicy cooked hot spud, plus a large plate of rice, plus two plates of dip and bread. It was really beaut but we couldn't eat it all. Cost was just EPd63 – two cups of tea included.
With that we headed off to bed – it was late and it had been a hell of a day! One we didn't wish to repeat.
Siwa Oasis
Next day we headed to Mersa Matruh, a pleasant seaside town, where Neil and Helen booked into a local beachside hotel (Helen had been feeling crook for a few days and just wanted to stop) while Viv and Ron headed 300km south, into the desert to Siwa Oasis. For the first 20km the desert was like our Nullabor, being relatively flat and lightly covered in low scattered bushes like saltbush.
As we got deeper into the desert the country became barer until it was as bare as a billiard table. The occasional road led off the blacktop leading to oil wells and the like, some of which you could see.
It was an easy run, although it was starting to get hot as midday came and went and we got closer to the Siwa Oasis. Quite suddenly the country changed as we dropped down a low escarpment with small limestone hill outcrops scattered as far as you could see. We entered the depression that helps make up the oasis, which is some 20 metres or so below sea level. A sea of green – made up of date palms and olive trees – near hides the town but we were soon there.
Wound our way thru the streets and to the main square in the heart of the town. From there we found our way to Shali Lodge (GPS: 29°12'07”N 25°31'25”E) which is only 200 metres from the square. This small hotel, made from mud brick and having a rooftop restaurant and set around an empty long pool and courtyard costs EPd260/night for the two of us. We had a large comfortable, cool room (they seem to like hard beds!) with good shower and toilet and while parking was on the street, we were assured everything would be safe in this town.
Had a bit to eat for lunch and then when it had cooled we went for a bit of a walk around the town. Took a few pics of the square, the mosque and the ruins of the Fortress of Shali . The old mud brick fort – a walled town really, lies in the very heart of the modern town and it is hard to tell where the ruins began and the ‘new' town ended, but we enjoyed wandering around the little alley ways and back streets in the process. By all accounts the ruins were much more extensive until the mid 1920s when three days of rain washed much of it away. One area of the old town is now a hotel.
Today the town of Silwa is still mainly mud brick with just a few of the government buildings being cement rendered. In fact, houses have to be mud plastered so even the good ones which have limestone blocks as their core (mined from a quarry just out off town), are made to look like mud brick. As well the tallest building is three stories. All the streets are dusty dirt and once away from the market square head in a straightish line thru the palm groves, occasionally curving around to miss some spring or swampy area.
The people, who are Siwan, not Egyptian, are very conservative and veils were common on most of the women. There are about 25,000 people here, all but 1000 are Siwan. The most common form of transport was a donkey drawn cart and these could be seen trotting everywhere. Even the local taxis were donkey drawn! There were a few sheep but surprisingly, as this place was once on the major camel caravan routes across the Sahara, we didn't see one camel. Maybe they can't get enough feed for them although that seems hard to believe.
We had already met Mohamed Zait who owns and runs Magic Desert Tours and shop (ph: (mob) 0103 896 756) located in the Siwa Oasis market square and we ended up in his small shop having sweet mint tea and yarning. He was only 22yo but could speak good English – courtesy of an Aussie girlfriend a few years ago. Viv bought one of the locally weaved wall hangings and we organsied to do a tour with him the next day.
Next morning we climbed into a very old cruiser with Mohamed at the wheel and went out to the west and amongst the palms found Cleopatra's Bath , which is a small lined pool of crsytal clear water, which bubbles up from underground. A small café nearby is being upgraded so it looked a bit like a building site – surprise, surprise!
The Temple of Umm Ubayd , which was dedicated to the god Amun and dates from 350BC is a short distance away. Little remains here (an earlier Ottoman governor blew the place up in 1896 so he could use the building material) although one wall still has some carvings and ancient writing on it, while the fallen obelisk has a lot of graffiti.
Located on a low solitary rocky limestone hill a km or so away is the Temple of the Oracle , which was built in the 6th Century BC (probably on the site of an earlier temple) and it was here where Alexander the Great was crowned king and pharaoh of Egypt in 331BC. There is now some conjecture that Alexander the Great is actually buried at Siwa, but that would be hard to believe given that he died in India. Still his grave site isn't known, so it could just be possible …
The view from the top of the hill where the temple is over the surrounding oasis and village is quite good and to the south is the great sand sea of Grand Mer de Sable, while closer and off to the east was an arm of the salt lake. Part of the hillside, where you walk up the stairs towards the temple is now taken up by an old mud brick mosque, but we don't think this is used anymore.
The Mountain of the Dead takes up another low limestone hill a km or so away and is basically riddled with graves and tombs that date from the Ptolemaic era. Went into a couple of the tombs which have a few paintings but are nowhere near as large or as impressive as the Valley of the Kings – which we guess is to be expected. Still some of the paintings were quite good, and some had characteristics of both Greek and Egyptian, such as beards and toga-like gowns both of which are very ancient Greek, while gods such as depicted by the falcon, Horus, the vulture and the cobra snakes were most definitely Egyptian.
From there we headed out to the Fatnas Bath on Fatnas Island in the salty expanse of Lake Siwa just a few km south-west from the village. What surprised me was how the palms, and olive trees grew right up to the edge of the salty soil and water of the lake – there was just a couple of metres between them. They harvest the salt by pumping the water into large drying pans on the edge of the lake.
In the evening with Mohamed and his mate we all headed out to the edge of the the great sand sea of Grand Mer de Sable, where the oasis ends. A bit of small scale irrigation work is going on here to water this flat sandy land on the very dry edge of the oasis. Just 50 metres away the first of the sand ridges – a low hump shaped one begins to climb up from the flat of the oasis. We climbed the low crest and took a few pics of the taller ridges rolling away to the south – there was a vehicle and a group of tourist on a distant ridge we could see. This is the beginning of one of the great sand seas of north Africa – just a vast area of steep soft ever moving sand dunes. We'd love to cross them!
Had chicken roasted over the flames of a palm tree frond fire – it burns well and makes good coals –with a healthy salad and hot vegetables as well. It wasn't bad. We then headed back to the market square and everyone was out and about – as they are when it cools.
We enjoyed Siwa, the people were friendly, there was no hassle, no backsheesh and we could easily have spent more time there. The people and the atmosphere are relaxing but tourism looms with an airport being built and due to open soon, even though the locals don't want it.
Back to the Coast and onto the Border
From Siwa we headed back to the Reem Hotel on the beachfront of Mersa Matruh, where Neil and Helen had been staying for the past couple of nights. This hotel has a glorious position overlooking the large bay that the town surrounds. We booked in and moved in. The rooms are nothing special but are clean and tidy; they have two single beds, a large bathroom with hot and cold water, a flush toilet that works, a fridge and a ceiling fan. For EPd150 (about A$30) breakfast included, it is pretty good - the view from our ground floor balcony was worth it on its own! They cater for the Egyptian crowds that come to this place every summer – we were something of a novelty as they certainly don't get too many Aussies or even Europeans staying there.
Next day we headed to the border at Sallum. This is a small coastal town tucked in between the sea and the escarpment that starts nearby and swings inland. Not much to the town and by the looks only one hotel – Better to head for Marsa Matruh, 2 hours away if you want accommodation. At the border, 12km further west, the Egyptian side is spread out, but we found our way to Passport Control and then headed to Customs to sort out our Carnet. Found the man who did the carnet and then had the vehicle numbers checked but we came unstuck trying to find Traffic Control to hand in the number plates. Ended up with a ‘helper' who for his short amount of work – thru' Traffic, photocopy and back to carnet man - cost us Baksheesh of EPd100 each. Such is Egypt! Our last … and lasting … impression!
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The Nile River at Aswan, with the luxury cruise boats lined up waiting for the crowds that will come in the cooler winter months.
Ron & Viv on the felucca.
The impressive Temple of Hatshepsut, just across the hills from the Valley of the Kings.
Ramesseum, which was a large Temple complex built by Ramses 11.
Ron & Viv outside the Cairo Museum.
Our little group of camel riders at the pyramids.
The Commonwealth War Cemetery at El Alamein, west of Alexandria on the coast.
The Mediterranean Coast: the beachfront of Mersa Matruh.
A donkey & cart, with passengers, on the road to the Temple of the Oracle (in the background).
