Egypt
Madīnat al Fusţāţ al Jadīdah

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    • Day 3

      Kairo Kultur

      October 7, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      In kairo isch echt viel los. D stadt selber het miner mainig noo nur wenig ds büta. aber das wos het isch no cool
      gester zum bispiel dia gross zitadella, eina vo da einziga pärk und no an markt. Hüt den ds Spinx, pyramoda und d mumiana.
      was da tag mora no so bringtq wüssamer nonid. aber miar hend jo no ziit bis döt ana
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    • Day 18

      Cairo to Istanbul

      October 12 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      After breakfast we safely delivered our tour group to George (our guide that we had on days 1&2) and bid farewell to them all.
      Jim and I headed off to the Museum of Civilisation which was waaaaay better than I expected. It’s very modern and spacious with brilliant artefacts. The highlight was the exhibition of The Royal Mummies - wow!! The condition of the mummified Pharaohs is unbelievable. We saw the bodies of Hatshepsut, Ramses II (and loads of other Ramses), Seti and many, many others. Unfortunately photos weren’t allowed in there but they were incredibly impressive. Some still had hair and you could also see the tendons under the skin on another. Incredible preservation. I’d consider being mummified myself but don’t relish the thought of people coming to see me in a museum in thousands of years and discussing my remains like I did today. But it was fascinating!!
      Back to the hotel to pack before we Ubered it to the airport for our flight to Istanbul.
      Goodbye Cairo and goodbye Egypt. We leave with a lot more knowledge than when we arrived and with a lifetime of memories
      Flight delayed.
      And again.
      Finally took off at 530pm.
      We were met by Omar upon arrival who drove us to our hotel in downtown Taksim. The street our hotel is on is buzzzzing! Holy moly I am loving Istanbul already 🥰🥰
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    • Day 2

      Welcome to Egypt - Salam alaikum Cairo

      December 28, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

      Von Frankfurt ging es mit einer guten halben Stunde Verspätung los Richtung Cairo. Der Flug war sehr kurzweilig, durch Zufall saßen wir schon zwischen zukünftigen Wüstenwanderern, Dieter hatte die Gelegenheit gleich Kontakte zu knüpfen, da er einen Fensterplatz bekommen hatte und daher eher boarden durfte.
      Über Österreich ging es dann weiter über Slowenien (knapp an Ljubljana vorbei - Erinnerungen an einen Euro-Sommer) und Kreta. Den spektakulären Sonnenuntergang konnten wir über dem Mittelmeer genießen! Gegen 19:30h Ortszeit (1h Unterschied zu DE) landeten wir nach einem kleinen Rundflug über die Megacity in Cairo!
      Noch vor der Immigration trafen wir die übrigen Gruppenmitglieder (M ist mit Abstand die jüngste 😄) und einen Guide, der unsere Visa schon dabei hatte (sehr praktisch), daher durften wir durch den Diplomatenausgang und dort unsere Stempel (yhai, hier kann man noch sammeln!) abholen (ging auch nicht schneller, aber wir hatten ja auch keine Eile).
      Mit einem Mini-Bus ging es dann von Cairo auf der Ostseite über den Nil nach Gizah auf die Westseite. Im Mini-Bus konnten wir dann beim Guide ganz unspektakulär Geld tauschen, das er vorher von irgendwoher organisiert hatte 😁 Ebenso bezahlten wir hier das Visum direkt bei ihm, selbstverständlich mit einem Serviceaufschlag 😉
      Die Fahrt durch die Stadt/Städte war lustig - typische Fahrweisen (Hupen, Lichthupen), Tempel und Kirchen und Reklametafeln gaben einen ersten Eindruck von dieser Megacity (Großraum Cairo, inkl. Gizah: 22 Millionen Menschen).
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    • Museum of Egyptian Civilization & Bazaar

      December 14, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

      Built in 1901, the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo was home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities, with over 120,000 items both on display and in storage. A new museum in Giza is almost completed (but very delayed) but the old museum will remain a major site in the centre of Cairo, but hopefully by less cluttered and more organized.

      We have not gone there yet, but went to a brand new museum called the national Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

      The crown jewel of the museum is the Hall of Mummies which displays the mummies of 18 kings and 2 queens of Egypt that were found in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. By the way, we will be taking the train to Luxor to see this valley on Saturday.

      After death, the pharaohs of Egypt usually were mummified and buried in elaborate tombs. Members of the nobility and officials often received the same treatment, and occasionally, common people. However, the process was an expensive one, beyond the means of many.
      Using special processes, the Egyptians removed all moisture from the body, leaving only a dried form that would not easily decay.

      It was important in the religion of the Ancient Egyptians to preserve the dead body in as life-like a manner as possible. It was a little creepy but when we looked at all of the mummified bodies, we had a fairly good idea of what the person looked like in life, 3000 years ago. So strange.

      The mummification process took seventy days. Special priests worked as embalmers, treating and wrapping the body. Beyond knowing the correct rituals and prayers to be performed at various stages, the priests also needed a detailed knowledge of human anatomy.

      No photos were allowed to be taken in this hall (bags were checked), but if you are interested, there are some great videos of what we saw on the internet.

      By the way, the area that the museum occupies used to be a huge slum. The government razed this area and offered new apartments to everyone who lived there.

      After getting our fill of reading about ancient Egyptian kings and queens we were taken to the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar. It is one of the world’s first markets and a maze of narrow alleys. Many artisans have shops here and are involved in the production of traditional crafts like metalwork. It is great place to just walk around and try to grasp what life was like 600 years ago when merchants came from all over the world to sell their merchandise in this market.

      Chris and I are pretty used to dealing with hagglers and even though we were warned about the aggressive salesmen, didn’t find it too bad. It is all a selling game and yes, they are experts. A guy tricked me, in a pleasant way. He invited curious me to see something that I have never seen before. I went upstairs and he asked me if I had ever seen his employee before. Of course I hadn’t so he got me. I laughed and said firmly that I was just looking, not buying, and headed back downstairs. It was pretty funny actually. All part of the game.

      I think that the market has become a tourist market though. The prices for objects are way overpriced. You have to be good at bartering to get the prices down. We were told that we should start by offering half of the price and then try to get to a price that we feel the object is worth to us. We did buy some Egyptian candies this way and it worked.
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    • Day 24

      El Cairo

      May 7 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

      Resultaba que donde estábamos era Guiza o Giza, mismo nombre que la meseta donde están las pirámides. La ciudad forma parte de la gran urbanización del Cairo, pero la ciudad de El Cairo propiamente tal está cruzando el Nilo.

      Pedimos un Uber para ir al museo de la civilización egipcia que está en El Cairo. El primero que llegó se puso vivo queriendo cobrar adicional al cargo de la app. Nos bajamos antes de que iniciara el recorrido, y la aplicación buscó a otro que aunque hablaba solamente árabe resultó un viaje inolvidable: al parecer los semáforos son inexistentes, y el auto se metió entre calles esquivando unos triciclos motorizados llamados tuk-tuk, carretas, burros de carga, gente cruzando la calle o transitando por ella, etc.

      Entramos al museo, y su tranquilidad contrasta un montón con el exterior. En una sala tenían expuestos artefactos de todas las etapas de la civilización egipcia desde la prehistoria hasta el imperio otomano, dedicando obviamente gran parte de la exposición al periodo clásico que todos conocemos: vasijas, sarcófagos, estatuas, artefactos ceremoniales, etc.

      En el subterráneo estaba la exposición de momias; era un laberinto interminable de momias acostadas en una vitrina con temperatura y humedad controladas, el nombre del finadito o finadita, su periodo de reinado y batallas significativas o construcciones importantes su haber. Lamentablemente, en esta parte del museo no se podía tomar fotos. Imagina ser el más poderoso del país, considerado un semidios, para que miles de años después su cadaver sea expuesto en vitrina.

      Otra sala estaba dedicada a los textiles, moda egipcia antigua, materiales para teñir, métodos de tejido, etc.

      Al salir del museo tomamos nuestro primer tuk-tuk de la vida. Cuando se pasó de largo en una avenida dio la vuelta contra el tránsito y mientras tocaba la bocina al ritmo de una canción de su parlante bluetooth, los autos que venían de frente lo esquivaron hasta que se metió por la vía correcta.

      Nos dejó en un recinto privado con laguna donde estuvimos un rato paseando, y al salir otro tuk-tuk nos llevó a una estación de metro cercana. Le "costó" dar el vuelto, pero la Osita también sabe hablar el idioma del money money.

      Por fin entramos a un barrio más tranquilo, vendían souvenirs, artesanías y la calle daba la entrada a una antigua iglesia ortodoxa.

      Luego caminamos al Nilo, el que sería otro más de los ríos famosos que hemos conocido junto al Támesis, el Sena y el Danubio.

      Nos costó encontrar una wifi, hasta que llegamos a un café donde pedimos un Uber y luego de un largo tramo entre el estresante tráfico del Cairo, por fin tomó la autopista al aeropuerto. Pero incluso ahí vimos un minibus yendo contra el tránsito.

      Durante todo el trayecto vimos un solo semáforo.

      Ahora en el aeropuerto, mucho más tranquilos (luego de pasar por varias revisiones de pasaporte y dos scanners) esperamos el vuelo a nuestro próximo destino, pero mucho de lo vivido en Egipto será una gran fuente de anécdotas para el futuro.
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    • Day 12

      Jour 11 part 2

      October 9 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      Ensuite nous sommes allé au musée national de la civilisation égyptienne. J'ai beaucoup aimé. Plus neuf, plus moderne mieux mis en valeur et surtout une suite logique dans le parcours. Unnsous sol dédié aux momies des rois exceptionnelle. Mais ça nous n'avons pas pu photographieRead more

    • Day 25

      NMEC II

      May 3, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

      There is too much in this museum to fit in the limit of 6 pictures per post. So here are 6 more pictures.
      This time, the 1st picture looks across the main hall to give a sense of the overall exhibit. There is plenty of room to add more as archaeology progresses. 2nd is of Akhenaten, aka the heretic king, who is the 1st person (as far as I know) to institute monotheism. 3rd is a group of models of various types of boats used in pharaonic Egypt. 4th is a display of some of one princess's jewelry. 5th is an example of Coptic art: wood inlaid with ivory (I think). Note that each arm of the cross ends in a 3 pointed shape. This is typical of traditional Coptic Orthodox crosses. Last is an Islamic "mashrabiya," a type of window. It allows light and air in, but those outside cannot see in.Read more

    • Day 30

      National Museum of Civilization

      November 1, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      Flying out this evening, so time for a visit to Egypt's newest museum. They have a cloak room and it is on the way to the airport so will take my suitcase.
      This was opened just July of last year and is only partly opened. The main hall and one other. It will be dedicated to the full sweep of Egyptian history from the Paleolithic to modern era.

      The building itself is stunning.

      Started in the Royal Mummy exhibit which is down under and dark. It has the actual mummies and the coffins from each king and queen in chronological order. Interesting to see each mummy but also get short biographies and follow the Royal family through the generations.

      Upstairs in the main hall were some very nicely presented relics. It was very unusual with a rather open free flow layout that was quite a pleasant walk about some impressive items.
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    • Day 2

      Cairo 1; Nat. Mus. Egyptian Civilization

      November 18, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

      We landed at Cairo Airport yesterday and had our first experience of the rush hour traffic here.....

      A free day today and we visit The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, NMEC; this is located in Old Cairo and overlooks the natural lake of Ain Sina. The Museum was officially opened last year (April 2021) and is a cultural hub that displays artefacts in the chronological order of Prehistoric, Ancient (the time of the Pharaohs), Greco-Roman (after Alexander the Great and then the Romans), Coptic (the Egyptian form of Christianity), Muslim and Modern Periods.. An excellent experience. The most well-known period is, of course, the Ancient Period, but modern Egypt is now 85% Muslim and 15% Christian.

      Most significant is the Royal Mummy Room on the lower level where Royal coffins and mummies moved here from the main museums and sites of Egypt to centralise them in one place; they are displayed in chronological order of the dynasties. No photographs allowed, but an amazing display.

      We visit the temporary Egyptian Textiles Exhibition and enjoy the views outside the museum building, including The Dye-House, the only preserved archaeological remains of an Islamic dyehouse in Egypt, and The Citadel of Cairo (aka The Citadel of Saladin), a medieval Islamic era fortification.

      A great start to our Egypt Experience!
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    • Day 25

      National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

      May 3, 2021 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

      Newly opened but not yet complete museum. This is the place the mummy parade last month (April 2021) from the old museum ended. It's a beautiful buildings in a park like setting.
      The main part of the museum is a recounting of Egyptian history, beginning in the prehistoric times.
      The mummies are displayed on a lower level and arranged as if walking through corridors in tombs. Unfortunately, no photographing is allowed down there.
      The 1st picture is of the museum courtyard. The 2nd is of construction models and implement, such as a plumb line. 3rd is a detail of the oldest wooden door found so far. In the 4th picture are god and goddess representations. 5th is an ancient papyrus telling a famous story about a general. Last is an example of the wooden caskets used in ancient Egypt.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Madīnat al Fusţāţ al Jadīdah, Madinat al Fustat al Jadidah, مدينة الفسطاط الجديدة

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