Egypt – A spontaneous decision to see the ancient sites

As we stood on the beach in Albania, in our jeans and coats as it rained, Rory turned to me and said, “you know we can leave and go somewhere hot”. I was shocked and thought of the itinerary I had planned for the next month where we were due to travel the Balkans, finishing in Romania. However, the next day after waking up freezing cold and not being able to get hot water in the shower I said, “let’s do it” and that’s how we ended up in Egypt.

We landed in Cairo at 1am on Tuesday 16th May and were luckily met by a driver organised by our hostel. After convincing the hostel worker that we didn’t want to discuss tour options at 3am we were shown to our room.

The next morning, we were hit by the heat (about 35 degrees) and reminded ourselves this was why we had come to Egypt! We had our first taste of Egyptian food, as breakfast was included in the room price. This consisted of a thick brown bean stew, some stale bread and a greasy omelette. We had fortunately been warned that Egypt wasn’t known for its culinary delights!

Our first day was spent exploring Cairo and we walked the short distance through Downtown to the famous Egyptian Museum. This iconic museum was far better than we could have imagined as it was crammed full of fascinating ancient Egyptian artefacts, some dating back to over 4,500 years ago. Tickets were not expensive, around £6 each and we spent a good few hours there. We saw the famous golden mask of the boy-king Tutankhamun, so many hieroglyphics carved and painted onto stones, lots of Egyptian Mummies, some of which were unwrapped, so you can see their hair and hands and plenty of status. It was a great start to the trip, and we couldn’t wait to visit the tombs where much of the artefacts had been discovered.

Next, we visited Khan El Khalili Souk reaching it by Uber which was very handy. The souk was established in 14th century, and we had a lot of fun wondering the narrow streets looking at the wide range of shops selling stain glassed lamps to crocodile skins, and also a lot of tourist tat. We actually had a very good lunch in the air-conditioned Naguib Mahfouz Café, which was recommend on some blogs. It was hidden away behind a large wooden door amongst the labyrinth of streets and felt totally magical inside, with beautiful fabrics, Arabic music and the smell of Shisha. There we shared a delicious mezze including hummus, tabouli salad, vine wrapped rice, aubergines and some delicious flat breads all served with the most moorish lime and mint juice, which became our go to drink for the next few weeks.

Next stop was Giza, where we first laid eyes on the Pyramids. This was very exciting as we had both learnt about them at a young age in school and to finally see them was a very special moment. We had a private tour on foot of the Pyramids which we visited early in the morning. We even went inside The Pyramid of Khafre, the second largest one. The tunnel was very narrow and low, so we had to walk bent over, first going downwards and then up the other side into the central chamber where the body would have been. The inside of the tomb was very plain, but it was still pretty amazing to be inside the Pyramid, although it was rather warm in the tunnel and not for the faint hearted. Giza itself was pretty rundown and disgusting. There were sadly so many horses and donkeys that looked completely malnourished and covered in saddle sores. It was very upsetting to see, but the Egyptians use them to ferry lazy tourists between the Pyramids.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at a lovely boutique hotel called Villa Bella Epoque as we waited for a sleeper train which was due to take us south along the Nile to Aswan. The train left around 9pm and was rather pleasant, as we had our own compartment and got served two edible meals.

We arrived in Aswan around 10am and made our way to our guesthouse using the local ferry which took us to the small island of Elephantine where we were to spend the next 3 nights. Interestingly we were not allowed to sit next to each other on the ferry as women and men were split. Elephantine island is home to the Nubian people who are a Nilo-Saharan ethnic group indigenous to the region which is now Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. They have a reputation for being friendly and welcoming and we certainly felt this living on the island. It was really nice to be surrounded by the river Nile which had lots of wooden sailing boats called Felucca’s on it which traditionally have one large sail. The houses on the island were mainly single story flat roofed houses made with mud bricks, sometimes plastered and painted white, with little blue windows. There were no cars and just sandy narrow lanes that weave in-between the houses.

One afternoon we got a boat to the Aswan Botanical Garden on Kitchener’s Island, which used to be owned by the British commander of the Egyptian Army Lord Kitchener. The gardener which he built were filled with trees from all five continents and several rare palm trees. The island was very serene and the views of the Nile and the sand dunes in the distance were excellent.

We also visited Philae Temple which sits on a small island south of Aswan and was a sacred place for the Ancient Egyptians but also the Greeks and Romans. The complex has a few temples all of which are covered with stunning hieroglyphics.

While staying in Aswan we did a day trip to Abu Simbel, a historic site which comprises of two massive rock cut temples close to the boarder with Sudan and on the shores of lake Nasser. We got a minibus which left at 4am and drove 4 hours into the desert to reach the famous temples which were built for the pharaoh Ramesses II. These two temples were only rediscovered in 1813 and by 1909 the sand was cleared away and the sites became famous. However, after the Aswan high dam was constructed, lake Nasser grew significantly in size, the temples were relocated in 1968 to higher ground to keep them above the water level. The temples were very impressive and the main one was flanked by four massive statues of Ramesse. The large temple is even alighted with the sun, so twice a year the sun shines all the way to the back of the temple to the alter where a statue of Ramses sits. We noticed this in other temples we visited later on in our trip as well.

Our next destination was Luxor where we stayed for 3 nights. A lot of tourists go on a cruise ship up the Nile, but we opted for the quicker and cheaper train ride with the locals. Luxor is where the ancient city of Thebes was, the pharaohs capital city in the 16th-11th centuries BC and the famous Valley of Kings where the tombs were built.

Luxor was very hot around 40 degrees and therefore we did all our sightseeing first thing in the morning. We visited Luxor Temple, Karnak Temple, the avenue of Sphinx’s’ and the Temple of Hatshepsut however the highlight was certainly the valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a large area in the desert on the west bank of the Nile where rock-cut tombs were excavated for the Pharos and powerful nobles. To date 63 tombs have been discovered in the Valley of Kings and 90 tombs in the Valley of Queens. It is thought that more will be discovered.

The ticketing system was a bit complicated, so Liv did a lot of reading before. Currently, eight tombs are included in the main ticket price however they will allow you to visit only three of these tombs. There are three additional tombs that you can visit if you buy an extra ticket for each, these are extra special tombs like Tutankhamun’s. We were in awe of the detail on the walls and ceilings of the tombs and couldn’t believe how well preserved they were. Some of the tombs were massive and the corridors into them went on for ages slopping downwards before you reached a big chamber where the body would have been left.

For our final few days in Egypt, we got a bus to the Red Sea resort of Hurghada where we stayed in a ginormous all-inclusive hotel. Our days were spent sunbathing by one of the many pools, snorkelling in the Red Sea, Liv went scuba diving, and we made the most of the multiple restaurants and bars.

We were so pleased we added Egypt onto our world trip and loved our time exploring the ancient Egyptian sites along the river Nile. If you’re interested in this part of history, then we would highly recommend a trip.