Egypt vacation, part seven

After touring Cairo, we took the train up to Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast.

In ancient times, one of the greatest respositories of human knowledge was the Library of Alexandria. Sadly, it was destroyed in stages, beginning in 48 BC and ending in 391 AD. In 2002 the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina, inspired by the ancient library, was built. The building design and library systems are state of the art.



Our American friend Sophie, who was in town to work in conjunction with Egyptian librarians on a project called The Big Read, introduced us to the head of reference services. She, in turn, kindly answered my numerous questions about the place. We also took the tour and wandered around to take a look at the collection, which was a lot less impressive than the building. Much of the collection is made up of donations, some from governments and organizations, others from individuals. In the American Literature section, we found Hawthorne and James, but also "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Clive Cussler. Hmmm.

Not all of Alexandria is this modern. Here's a shot from another part of town:



We decided our Egypt trip would not be complete without a jaunt into an oasis and the desert.

In the oasis town of Bawiti, we visited some tombs.



Later we stopped in a bedouin restaurant for lunch. The carpets are laid directly on the sand.



From there we headed out to the White Desert, where Dan's dream to experience a sandstorm came true. (The following photo was taken before the sandstorm made taking photos impossible.)



Due to the sandstorm, the plan to cook in the open air was scrapped. Instead, our guide made dinner in the Land Cruiser! Somehow we didn't die from inhaling propane fumes, and the food actually tasted pretty good. Notice sand-encrusted hair of our guide and driver.



The rock formations for which the White Desert is named looked particularly striking in the morning. That's me in front of the formation.



One of the desert's inhabitants:



The landscape was otherworldly.

Egypt vacation, part six

Looks like a pile of stones, right? But actually, it's...



... a close-up view of the great pyramid of Khufu (Cheops)! Even though we'd seen the pyramids a million times in photos and on tv, they did not fail to impress us thoroughly. To give you an idea of the scale of the place, those dark spots at the bottom are people.



Here's another of the pyramids of Giza:



Camels lurk nearby. None of us tried riding one of the spitting beasts, although Reece was tempted.



Sophie and Reece brave the heat.



Downhill from the pyramids is the famous sphinx. It seems smaller in person than we had imagined.



Those are birds resting on its eroded face. Here's a side view.



After sight-seeing, we took a walk through old Cairo.



There are beautiful minarets all around the city.



On another day, we visited Cairo's world-famous Egyptian musuem. Sophie and I are pictured here out front.



This friendly guy struck up a conversation with us on the street. At first we thought, how nice! Turned out that he wanted to lure us into his perfume shop. We dutifully went, listened to the spiel, turned down the liter-sized perfume bottle, and left with a mini-bottle.



On the Cairo streets one sees stray cats, an uncommon sight in Ghana. We thought this kitten was dead until he moved. Just napping.



A bike parked on a Cairo sidewalk:



One mode of local transport...



...and another:



This market cart displays clothing for sale.



This vendor with a fancy silver tea backpack is bending to pour tea for a customer:



Fruit juice shops are seen all around. Those oranges look tempting.



There are some beautiful old buildings here. This one is a mosque.



Cairo at dusk:

Egypt vacation, part five

The felucca is a type of sailboat one sees on the Nile.



We sailed on a felucca in Aswan. It was lovely.

Sometimes you see little boys in tiny rowboats. They paddle with their hands or with little pieces of wood. They latch onto your boat and sing for tips.



From Aswan, we flew to Abu Simbel, site of the incredibly impressive Temple of Ramses II.



Ramses II had quite the ego, apparently. The entrance was flanked by two gigantic seated statues of himself on each side.



Like Philae temple, this temple had to be moved from its original site due to flooding caused by the construction of Aswan High Dam. They did a good job.



We flew back to Aswan and did a little touring before returning to Cairo. Our taxi driver waited for us while we visited a museum for 1.5 hours! Nice guy.

Egypt vacation, part four

Here are some more Egypt trip photos.

During our cruise down the Nile, we saw men in small rowboats offer their wares to cruise boat denizens by tossing them way up onto the top deck. The cruisers examine the merchandise, and if they like it, they toss down some money. Otherwise they throw back the goods.





It was not unusual to see donkey-pulled carts.



In Edfu we docked near this shop, which stayed open after dark.



Here's Edfu temple:







Apparently the pharoahs enjoyed root beer floats.



Walking like an Egyptian:



Sitting in contemplation next to the Nile:



Local transport:



Kom Ombo temple is a double temple dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god, and Horus, the falcon-headed god.







Near Aswan is Philae Temple, which was relocated from its original site due to flooding following the construction of Aswan High Dam.





Say "cheese!"



Thanks for taking the photo, sir.



What a beautiful place Philae is.