Day 3                   9 October 2021     Cairo and Our Ancient Egypt and the Nile River Trip

Cairo is currently the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world.  It has over 22,000,000 citizens.  It is located on the eastern shore of the Nile River, about 500 miles from the southern border of Egypt and is considered the gateway to the Nile Delta where the Nile separates into the Rosetta and Damietta branches on its way to the Mediterranean Sea.  The Pyramids of Giza are located on its southwestern border.

Known as the ‘City of a Thousand Minarets,” Cairo was officially founded in 969 AD by the Fatimid dynasty.  The Fatimid dynasty, named after the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, was an important religious and political dynasty in North Africa from 909 to 1171 AD.  But the city can trace its roots back to the Egyptian capital of Memphis, founded during the 4^th century BCE and located about 13 miles south of present-day Cairo. 

While the rest of our tour arrived yesterday, this was the first time that we got to meet them.  This morning our Trip Leader gave us an introduction to our trip and then we spent the first day learning about Ancient Egypt.  There are 23 travelers in our group – 9 from Colorado.  Our Trip Leader for this trip is Muhammad Metwally.  He is married with four daughters.  He lives in the Nile Delta region near Alexandria.

Most of our group spent the afternoon at the Egyptian Museum, but Bill and I had already been there on our last trip to Cairo.  We took this time to catch up on the pictures and blogs and to rearrange our suitcases after living out of them for the last 7 days.

At 6 PM we all gathered together in the Ambassadors Club, which will be our nightly meeting place while we are in Cairo.  There were hors d-oeuvres and plenty of wine as we got to meet the rest of our group.  This was followed by our Welcome Dinner at one of the hotel’s restaurants.  I have found in Egypt that dinners mainly consist of sea bass, chicken, mashed beef (hamburger), or a combination thereof.  The dinner and wine were both very good.  The group seems very friendly and almost all of traveled extensively so I think that we should all have a very good time.  We also found out that our ship, the Nefertiti, can accommodate 75 passengers, but we will be the only group on board.  It should be a very lively time!

Since we really did not go anywhere today to take pictures, I thought I would include so photos of the traffic, modes of transportations used in Egypt, and other pictures of everyday life.

 

Horse drawn cart in Cairo

Aquaduct built by Sultan Saladin in 1176 AD

Crossing the Nile

Waiting for the school bus/van

Even tuk-tuks get flat tires

One of the private international schools
outside of Cairo

Children on their way to school

One of the nicer homes outside of Cairo

Double-decker tuk-tuk - notice the fully
loaded truck in the background

And I have no idea what they are building!

Grove of Date Palm Trees-Egypt is the 
number one producer of dates

Another nice home along the highway

Small stores in the little villages on the road

Donkey-drawn cart selling roasted
sweet potatoes

Horse-drawn cart - You see these everywhere
even on 6 lane highways

Bakery in a small village

Small fruit stand along the highway

Laundry Day

Gardening in the outskirts of Cairo

Small grocery store - notice the women in 
there native dress

Scene along the Nile River

A heavily-loaded trash truck

Track carrying ceramic toilets packed in straw

Pigeon Houses - many homes have these to raise
pigeons - it is a delicacy here

Giza Pyramid from the highway - it is right next
to the highway and town of Giza

Truck loaded with sticks

Desert area that surrounds Cairo

New resort building in El Alamein-not our
police escort and our security guard in
the bottom left of photo-in the suit

Mediterranean Sea beach

Two lane highway-at least 3 lanes of traffic

Camels at the pyramids - you find camels in a
lot of places in Egypt, pulling carts, but there 
are plenty at the pyramids for tourists to waster
their money

Busy bazaar-notice women in her dress

Bazaar

Traffic at Tahir Square at 10 PM - horns keep
blaring until about midnight