| Egyptian Holiday Advice |
| Crusing the Nile |
Although the Nile stretches from the Mediterranean Sea into Sudan the average cruise starts at Luxor and travels up river as far as the dam at Aswan. A further cruise can be taken on Lake Nasser to see Abu Simbel but it has a very stark beauty and noticeably higher temperatures, so I would strongly recommend simply taking one of the many coach trips for the day or even the quick flight down.
The cruise between Luxor and Aswan takes you back through history to the days of the bible when the primary means of agricultural power was either donkey or man. Hand net fishing and spearing not as a sport but as a livelihood and grinding of corn by stone wheel. The cruise boats ply up and down the river in great convoys so it is easy to forget that this is real life and not the set of a giant theme park. Take some binoculars if you are lucky enough to go and enjoy the living history.
If you are unsteady on your feet be warned that you have to cross from boat to boat at times and none of the boats we saw had lifts or other disabled facilities.
Even if you check your specific boat for facilities before you book they are libel to change boats on you at the last moment.
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| A Word of Warning |
The overwhelming view of the tourists that we spoke to was that they had a great holiday. However, if you are not interested in the history and just want a holiday in the sun do not go. There are lots of other places to go where you do not get the hassle. In every public toilet you will be accosted for money, every tour that you go on will take you to an expensive government approved shop where you will be expected to buy, in the hotels the will add in extra charges that you have not been told about until you get your bill. That is without mentioning the street people who constantly go for the tourists at all sites. I could go on about it at some length but suffice to say you have been warned. If you do decide to go make sure you get lots of small Egyptian notes from your bank in the UK since none of the places we tried to get or change money had small denominations. The consequence is that you then have to start handing out large tips – It appears that over the years the Egyptian system has been perfected to maximising the return from their tourist traffic.
Safety of the tourist has been ensured, the Egyptians feel, by the constant presence of armed soldiers, numerous checkpoints and armed escorted convoys. Every hotel that you go into and public building has security; bags are checked and searches made for booms with sniffer dogs. However, political correctness goes out of the door and, generally, it is only the locals that are searched.
It is a tiring holiday if you want to see all the sights and very hot once you get into May through, we were told, into September. The best time to go we were told was in the late Autumn and after the New Year.
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| Economy of Egypt |
The economy of Egypt relies heavily on tourism and the revenue generated by the Suez Canal. In addition it has coal, natural gas and oil however it is heavily reliant upon foreign aid and is the third largest recipient of funds from the USA.
The agriculture that runs down the side of the Nile is insufficient to support the estimated population of 78 million and growing at the rate of a million every 9 months and the food riots in 2008 are indicative of things to come. Only the massive Toshka Project with a 20 year goal of cultivating 5700 additional square kilometres of desert northwest of Abu Simbel, and settle six million people there offers any hope of feeding their future population.
With the thought that the Egyptians wish to double their tourist numbers in the near future and the already crowded cultural tourist destinations at breaking point, I can only suggest that if you wish to go make it sooner rather than later.
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| A few Notes on the History of Egypt |
It would seam that to the average tour guide in Egypt the history of the country commenced with the building of the first pyramid and finished shortly after the Roman invasion. So a visitor is well rewarded for any research by they have made prior to their trip. Here are a few pointers just to get you started.
The era of the pharaohs or the pharonic period commenced with the first dynasty in 3,100 BC and continued up until 30 BC when Egypt became part of the Roman empire. The earliest examples of mankind in Egypt have been found from 10,000 BC when nomadic tribes in the Sahara drew petroglyphs (images created by removing the surface of the rock by cutting, carving or abrading) of the animals that they hunted.
At Nabta Playa About 60 miles west of Abu Simbel, on the shores of what was once an ancient lake, have been found what is thought to be the lowest existing evidence for a religious structures in Africa (4,500-4,000 BC). And what might prove to become the starting point for the evolution of what would become, in time, the Temples of Egypt. The site contains standing stones some which are 9 foot high (2.75m). The stones which had been dragged for more than mile are lined up an east west direction. They appear to have been used as vertical sighting stone aligned with the sun at summer solstice. Others are thought to have been partially submerged in the lake and may have been used as markers for the onset of the rainy season.
In 3,500 BC once again in southern Egypt but this time in the Nile Valley has been found at Hierakonpolis an example of what the early Temples may have looked like. Consisting of the large parabolic shaped court 105 feet long (32m) and some 43feet wide (13m) fenced with mud covered read the technique still used in Egypt today. On the south side stood what is thought to be the shrine, to the north the gateway and a small number rectangular buildings thought to be a workshops. It is thought but during the intervening period the climate in the Sahara had changed causing the population to move to the Nile.
Excavations in Abydos (One of the most ancient cities of upper Egypt) have revealed that in 3,250 BC the Egyptians had invented the first former writing – hieroglyphs. So when in 3100 BC King Namer established his capital in Memphis near Cairo and the start of the Pharonic rule the bones of the civilisation were already available to him. In Cairo museum you can see King Namer’s platte that commemorates the unification of upper and lower Egypt under his rule and creating the first nation state.
If we move rapidly forward to the 19th dynasty we find one of the most famous Pharaohs Rameses the second who ruled Egypt 1279 to 1213 BC who amongst his other claims to fame instigated the first peace treaty which was made with the Hittites. It is also Ramases II who built the temples at Abu Simbel one for himself an one dedicated to his wife Nefertari which are one of the must see sights of Egypt.
One of the other great rulers of Egypt during the Phornic period was the Macedionian king Alexander the Great who, at the time (332BC-323BC), conquered most of the known world and after whom Alexandra is named.
During the final years of Phoonic rule a close relationship with the Romans was built up by Queen Cleopatra VII (69BC-30BC) who guided the country whilst giving birth to a child by Julius Caser and a further three during her 11 years with Mark Antony.
Following the conquest of Egypt by the Romans in 30 BC and the subsequent adoption by the Romans of Christianity the theology was adopted by the Egyptians and survives today as Coptic Christianity.
Egypt subsequently became part of the Persian and Bysantine empires, then fell to the Muslim armies in AD639 led by Amr ibn al-AS who followed the profit Muhammad (570-632AD) who previously brought Islam to most the Arabian peninsular via conquest. The subsequent defender of the faith Salah ad-Din, who conquered Egypt in 1160s and became the Sultan of Egypt, was feared by the Crusaders eventually came to an agreement with Richard the Lion Heart of England at the Treaty of Ramala.
Skipping quickly over the Turkish Otterman rule we quickly arrive at the French invasion by Nepoleon Bonapart in 1798 who had a scientific study performed of the country which encouraged the study of Egypt. However, they left following their defeated by the English. Subsequently power was won by Mohammed Ali in 1805.
The British arrived in following the building of the Suez canal which was opened in 1869 when the Egyptian soaring national debt meant that the country was unable to repay its debts. Despite ongoing resentment the British hung on through two world wars. Eventually the monarchy of King Farouk was deposed in 1954 by Nasser who became the first Prime minister then President in 1956 when he also nationalised the Suez Canal. This caused Britain, France and Israel to invade but were forced to withdraw by the United Nations and America.
The disaster of the Six Day War in 1967 with Israel ended the term of Nasser who was replaced by Anwar Sadat who in turn was assassinated in 1981 by Islamic extremists. The vice president Honsni Mudbarak inherited the role and to this day rules the country.
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| Pyramids of Egypt |
The great site of Egypt, which everybody associates exclusively with the country, must be the Pyramids. The tendency would be to think that they marked the panicle of the civilisation, the largest and best coming at the end of the rule of Pharaoh. How wrong can we be.
A brief study, that your guide may not make apparent to you, is that the truly gigantic stone pyramids were built over the course of only three generations that of Sneferu, Khafu and Khafre during the 4th dynasty. However, they continued to build smaller more standardised pyramids right up to the 13th dynasty. Luckily for the holiday maker the tallest of these Khufu’s great Pyramid is located just outside Cairo.
The burial of the Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings, best known for the remains of Tutankhamun, did not commence until the 18th dynasty and the simple reason for giving up on the Pyramid was grave robbing. The Pyramids were being robbed even by the disgruntled workers who had built them.
Further pyramids were built during the 25th Dynasty and subsequently in greater numbers than before. However, the rulers of Egypt by this time were not Egyptian and they did not build their pyramids in Egypt. They were Nubian kings who had conquered Egypt in 750 B.C. (King Piye) and built their pyramids in what is modern day Sudan.
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