Eye 2 Egypt

05/04/2013

Cairo Solar Boat Museum

In 1950, Kamal el-Mallakh an architect and archaeologist, was working as an Antiquities Inspector at Giza, when he first noticed a thin line of mortar which delineated the edge of a pair of long narrow pits, end to end, on the south side of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. At the time the area was being cleared for a tourist road and when the men dug further they uncovered 41 huge slabs of limestone in the eastern pit (the western one contained 40 slabs) and a mason’s mark with a cartouche of Djedefre, Khufu’s successor. The stonework was at first thought to be of little interest and it took Kamal el-Mallakh four years to persuade his superiors that the slabs should be further investigated.
On May 26 1954, the team began to dig and eventually Mr el-Mallakh was lowered into a hole in one of the blocks. His first sensation was the sweet smell of cedarwood and a great sense of fulfilment – then with the use of a torch and a mirror he caught sight of the large oar of a full-sized dismantled boat. The pit had been airtight and the boat seemed to be in a remarkable state of preservation, arranged in thirteen neatly piled layers, complete with ropes for rigging and pieces of matting.
The boat was laboriously removed from its pit, in pieces, following preliminary consolidation of the cloth and matting which covered it and in 1958 reconstruction of the boat, by Hag Ahmed Youssef Moustafa the Antiquities Service’s principal restorer, was able to begin. This consisted of re-assembling the 1224 individual pieces of cedar, acacia and other elements in a painstaking operation rather like putting together a jig-saw puzzle without a picture. The ancient builders had helpfully indicated on some of the pieces which parts of the craft they had come from, but the work still took over ten years to complete and was finally fully re-assembled in 1968. No nails were used in the construction and the planking was assembled through an ingenious system of stitching through holes with ropes of vegetable fibres. When the wood was swollen by water the ropes would tighten and make the boat watertight.
The significance of the buried boat is still debated. The Pyramid Texts clearly state that at the end of the pharaoh’s life on Earth, his soul ascends to the heavens in the solar barque to join his father Re. The arguments are about whether this boat was purely symbolic – part of the burial goods – or whether it was actually used in the funeral procession to transport the body of the king by river to his pyramid complex. While some scholars claim that there is evidence that the boat has been in water.
Other ancient wooden boats and their emplacements have been discovered in Egypt. In 1893 Jaques de Morgan discovered six boats near the Middle Kingdom pyramid of Senwosret III at Dashur. More recently, in 1987, the western boat pit at the Great Pyramid was examined by a microprobe inserted through a hole drilled into the pit, confirming the presence of a second wooden boat similar to the first. It has been decided that the second boat will remain in its pit, in conditions which make its preservation near perfect.
Khufu’s solar boat remains the most spectacular of all Egyptian boats found to date. It is now on display in its own specially-built museum just a few metres from where it was found on the southern side of the monument, an imposing legacy from the builder of the Great Pyramid.

05/04/2013

Cairo Tower

It’s nice to be up high in Cairo. It gives one a prospective view of this great city, with it's very modern and very ancient districts. Anyone who has stood atop the Citadel or from the upper floors of some of the taller hotels is aware of the grand views that Cairo offers.
One of the best views is from the Cairo Tower, located on Gezira Island (Zemalak) just north of the Museum of Modern Art (which is also very much worth a visit), which provides a panoramic vision of Cairo. This 187 meter tall tower, in the form of a latticework tube that fans out slightly at the top, is said to imitate a lotus plant, and ranks only fourth among the worlds highest towers. It is made of granite, the same material often used by the ancient Egyptians, and is about 45 meters taller than the Great Pyramid at Giza.
To the late President Gamal Abdul Nasser, the Cairo Tower was the best place to dine out. He used to go together with his family to dine in the tower’s restaurant, where there is also a cafeteria. Today, the restaurant rotates at an almost unnoticeable speed. Signatures of all the presidents and various other prominent figures who visited the tower are here in the honoring book and even engraved in the tower's walls keeping unforgettable memories. But such politicians were not the only ones who loved the tower. In fact, one of its first visitors was Hollywood movie star, Katherine Hepburn, even though the tower had somewhat of a rocky footing back then in Egyptian-American politics. It was actually financed with American funds, but was not exactly what the Americans expected Nasser to do with the money.
Completed in 1961 under the direction of Naum Chebib, some say that the tower is, after the Great Pyramid, Cairo's most famous landmark. Certainly this tallest of Cairo's buildings is a highlight of the modern city.
The best time to visit the tower, also known as Borj al-Qahira, is at sunset, when millions of twinkling lights come to life. From here, one can make out on a clear day the easternmost extent of Cairo, where the dark gray buildings run up against the cliff face of the Muqattam Hills. Looking west, the pyramids mark the limits of the city and the start of the desert. Below, the Nile River flows serenely north to the Mediterranean, seeming to slice Cairo in two. To better facilitate the view, there are also telescopes.
The Cairo Tower opens every day from 9:00 in the morning until 1:00 the next morning. The whole of Cairo awaits you at the top of the tower. This is not a sight one should miss. Note that one must pay to take photos from the tower, and video camera tickets are somewhat expensive.

05/04/2013

Cairo Church of abu Serga

The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Abu Serga) is a 4th century church and today is considered to be the oldest of Cairo's Christian churches. It is dedicated to two early martyrs and traditionally believed to have been built on the spot where the Holy Family, Joseph, Mary and the infant Christ, rested at the end of their journey into Egypt. They may have lived here while Joseph worked at the fortress.
Left: A view of the chapel Hence, the church is of significant historical importance, and in fact, it is where many patriarchs of the Coptic Church were elected. The first to be elected here was Patriarch Isaac (681-692) It is the episcopal church of Cairo, and it was the episcopal See of Misr (the district of Old Cairo) that replaced the former See of Babylon. Many bishops of the See were consecrated in the Church until the reign of Patriarch Christodulus (1047-1077). The church is dedicated to Sergius and Bacchus, who were soldier-saints that were martyred during the 4th century in Syria by the Roman Emperor, Maximilan.
The building was probably constructed during the 5th century. It was burned during the fire of Fustat during the reign of Marwan II around 750. It was then restored during the 8th century, and has been rebuilt and restored constantly since medieval times.
Right: Bisilican Floor Plan of the church However it is still considered to be a model of the early Coptic churches and its basilican style is easily recognizable. This church resembles religious structures in Constantinople and Rome. It has two aisles with a western return aisle (a passage at the west end of the church), along with a tripartite sanctuary that measures 17 x 27 meters and is 15 meters high. Within the sanctuary is an altar surmounted by a wooden canopy supported by four pillars. On the east wall of the sanctuary rises a fine, semi-circular tribune with seven steps. There was probably a khurus, a transverse room preceding the sanctuary, in front of the sanctuary but which no longer exists.
In much the same style as the Hanging Church, two rows of six columns each separate the aisles from the nave. Eleven of these unique columns, with faint painted decorations of probably apostles or saints, are marble, while one is of red granite. While the pulpit was replaced by a copy of the ambon (a pulpit) in the church of Saint Barbara, some of the older wooden pulpit now reside in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, while a few others are in the British Museum. Also, the oldest wooden altar in Egypt was found in the church, but it too is now in the Coptic Museum.
However, the sanctuary iconostasis, a screen separating the sanctuary from the rest of the church on which icons are usually displayed, is a beautiful work of art which probably dates to the 12th or 13th century. The several panels are inlaid with ivory and ebony, and covered in a wonderful relief that features arabesque designs. The apse is encrusted with strips of marble and decorated with mosaics. There are some wooden panels within the church that are of earlier date, and depict fine scenes of saints on horseback, the Nativity and the Last Supper. There are any number of other relatively old icons that date, perhaps, to the 17th century. They show various scenes depicting the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary and some of the saints.
This crypt contains the remains of the original church where tradition says the Holy Family lived. Unfortunately, this area of the church has sometimes been inaccessible due to the presence of subterranean water. Originally this crypt, which is under the modern sanctuary, was itself the sanctuary of the church, but became the crypt after the larger church was built. It measures six meters long, by five meters wide and is 2.5 meters high. Within its north, south and east walls are niches. Sometime after the crypt was originally built, two rows of slender columns were erected to form a nave with two aisles.
Left: The stairs leading down into the crypt where it is believed the Holy Family stayed during the flight to Egypt; Above Right: The floor plan of the crypt below the main sanctuary of the more modern structure Being tied to the Holy Family, the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus continues to be a draw for Christian visitors, as it has since medieval times. On the 24th day of the Coptic month called Bachons, which corresponds to the first day of June in the western calendar, the Coptic Church commemorates the Holy Family's flight into Egypt. A mass is still held on that day in this ancient church.

05/04/2013

05/04/2013

El-Fayoum Oasis Pyramids Of Hawara

As the oasis of el-Faiyum became more important during Dynasty XII, a number of religious monuments were built there and the next pharaoh to construct his pyramid in the region was Amenemhet III. This was not the king’s first choice of burial site – he had previously built a pyramid at Dahshur, to the north, during the early part of his long reign, but due to structural stresses which became apparent during the construction, Amenemhet opted to begin a second pyramid at Hawara, near the site of his grandfather’s monument at el-Lahun. It was to be the last major pyramid complex in Egypt.
The King’s second pyramid was built with a core of mudbricks and a white limestone casing, which was removed in Roman times. The pyramid was entered directly through the casing on the south side with a stairway and corridor descending into the substructure, which today is flooded by groundwater. A series of corridors and blind passages wound around the inside of the pyramid, before finally coming to the burial chamber at a higher level to the west of the pyramid’s centre. This was reached via a concealed entrance in the ceiling of one of the passages and was blocked by a massive quartzite slab. Because of his experience with the Dahshur pyramid, Amenemhet’s architects took extra care in reinforcing and protecting the burial chamber, by constructing a series of triangular lintels which supported a high gabled roof of large limestone blocks beneath another vault of mudbricks. The chamber itself was a single piece of quartzite, weighing over 100 tonnes, into which was carved a trough which held the sarcophagus and canopic chests. The sealing block of the chamber was an enormous slab of quartzite which was ingeniously lowered into place by means of slowly releasing the sand which had supported the stone slab into side galleries. The King’s burial chamber was sufficiently protected to withstand the enormous weight of the brickwork and stone above it, but it would seem that the complicated precautionary measures taken to deter robbers was ultimately unsuccessful.
When Petrie investigated the sarcophagus in Amenemhet’s burial chamber he discovered remains of a burned inner coffin, presumably damaged by ancient grave-robbers. A second wooden coffin was found in an antechamber, along with a carved alabaster offering-table bearing the names of a Princess Neferu-ptah, thought to be a daughter of the King and it was assumed that the princess had been buried with her father. However, in 1956 the remains of an almost destroyed small pyramid 2km south-east of the King’s pyramid was investigated, and the tomb of Neferu-ptah was found. Her red granite sarcophagus and other objects inscribed with her name were found in the burial chamber, but up to date archaeologists are still puzzling about the real location of Neferu-ptah’s burial.
The pyramid complex was enclosed by a perimeter wall with a causeway leading from the south-eastern corner to the valley temple, neither of which have been fully investigated.In a cemetery north of the pyramid complex, Petrie also found 146 mummy-portraits dating to the Roman Period. One of these can be seen in the small museum at Kom Ushim and more Faiyum Portraits are in Cairo Museum.

05/04/2013

El-Fayoum Oasis Valley of Whales

(Wadi El Heetan) Wadi Al-Hitan, Whale Valley, in the Western Desert of Egypt, contains invaluable fossil remains of the earliest, and now extinct, suborder of whales, the archaeoceti. These fossils represent one of the major stories of evolution: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. This is the most important site in the world for the demonstration of this stage of evolution. It portrays vividly the form and life of these whales during their transition. The number, concentration and quality of such fossils here is unique, as is their accessibility and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. The fossils of Al-Hitan show the youngest archaeocetes, in the last stages of losing their hind limbs. They already display the typical streamlined body form of modern whales, whilst retaining certain primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. Other fossil material in the site makes it possible to reconstruct the surrounding environmental and ecological conditions of the time.
In 2005, the UNESCO announced the Valley of Whales a protectorate since it contains fossils of whales that date back to 40 million years ago, The road to the valley has been recently constructed, making it easier for non 4-wheel drive cars to get there. Furthermore, a wilderness desert campsite is also available, offering fire pits and water closets where campers can then enjoy sunset and sunrise at this spectacular site.

05/04/2013

El-Fayoum Oasis Lake Qarun

Lake Qarun has been a source of fish and a habitat for waterfowl since time immemorial. The lake's main water source is drainage from agricultural land, which enters through two major drains called el-Batts and el-Wadi. This water has become increasingly saline as agriculture has intensified and the water is now more saline than seawater. Freshwater fish and invertebrates have largely disappeared and marine species have been introduced. This lake is of international importance for wintering waterbirds including Black-necked Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis, and Northern Shoveller, Anas clypeata.
A fruitful day can be spent here in el-Fayoum (1h30 driving distance from Cairo) seeing the numerous ancient sites including the small but excellent museum.
Lake Qarun abounds with fish, especially Bulti, which is said to be better than the bulti caught from the Nile itself. Large quantities of Bulti caught here are sent to Cairo. Mullet, eel, sole and shrimp are also available as the lake becomes saltier. The new Wadi Rayyan lakes are also now open for fishing Nile carp and Nile perch.
At 215 square km, Lake Qarun, Egypts largest salt water lake, is open to fishing from Mid-June to Mid April. The Lake used to be known as Berket Al-Said (the Fishing Lake). One night in 1245, a cold wind blew, freezing the lake and all the fish in it. A canal overseer walking along the shore the next morning reported seeing thousands and thousands of fish, layered according to species and stacked up like bricks of a house.
Discovery of prehistoric fishing tackle last year at the Fayyoum Oasis confirms the area’s status as hunting and fishing paradise as far back as 7200BC. Its popularity as an elite hunting retreat continued from the Pharaohs who built vacation palaces here through to the late King Farouk, whose hunting lodge there has been converted to a hotel at Lake Qarun

05/04/2013

Rayan Valley (Wadi El Rayan):

El-Fayoum Oasis Rayan Valley (Wadi El Rayan) Declared as a protected area in 1989, Wadi El-Rayan, known for its waterfalls, is about 65 kilometers southwest of the Fayoum town. The contrast of the blue lake and the golden desert, alone, demands appreciation. Not only is the valley a protected area, but it is also home to several historic and signifcant sites, including Phaoronic and Roman ruins, lakes and waterfalls, and Egypt’s frst natural heritage site, Valley of the Whales.
After passing through the gates, there are a couple of cafeterias and several vendors selling, pottery wood crafts and baskets of all kinds and sizes, which Fayoum is known for.
Following that, the wide open desert becomes more beautiful with sculpted yellow dunes. There you will see, three sulphur springs at the southern side of the lower lake with extensive sand dunes. Jabal Manaqueer Al Rayan at the south and southeast of the springs is where marine fossils and archeological remains are found and Jabal Madwera, near the lower lake, is known for its extensive dune formations.
You will also enjoy the flora and fauna there. Vegetation is found around the springs and at the base of large dunes, covering around 13 species of plants.
The area is also home to the world’s only known population of the endangered Slender-horned Gazelle as well as eleven species of reptiles and nine species of mammals. In fact, the valley has the world’s smallest fox, the Fennec Fox, as well as a small population of the threatened Docras Gazelle.At the waterfalls, there are several cafes that offer hot and cold drinks, as well as fresh grilled fish.
Visitors can also take a boat ride around the serene lake or fsh during the early mornings around the waterfalls.

01/03/2013

Aswan,

Egypt's sunniest southern city and ancient frontier town located about 81 miles south of Luxor, has a distinctively African atmosphere. Its ancient Egyptian name was Syene. Small enough to walk around and graced with the most beautiful setting on the Nile, the pace of life is slow and relaxing. Days can be spent strolling up and down the broad Corniche watching the sailboats etch the sky with their tall masts or sitting in floating restaurants listening to Nubian music and eating freshly caught fish.

In Aswan the Nile is at its most beautiful, flowing through amber desert and granite rocks, round emerald islands covered in palm groves and tropical plants. Explore the souk, full of the scent and color of spices, perfumes, scarves and baskets. View the spectacular sunsets while having tea on the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel (Named due to the location of the Nile's first cataract located here). Aswan has been a favorite winter resort since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it's still a perfect place to get away from it all.

Every night Nubian dancers and musicians perform in the Cultural Center, just off the Corniche. Folklore troupes recreate scenes from village life and perform the famous Nubian mock stick-fight dances.

Aswan is a strategic location which currently houses a garrison of the Egyptian army, but which has also seen ancient Egyptian garrisons, as well as that of General Kitchener, Turkish troops of the Ottoman empire and the Romans.

The city proper lies on the east bank of the Nile. Relax here, visit a few mosques, but then prepare for an adventure. The bazaar runs along the Corniche, which continues past the Ferial Gardens and the Nubian Museum, and continues on to the Cemetery, with its forest of cupolas surmounted tombs from the Fatimid period. Just east of the cemetery in the famous area quarries is the gigantic Unfinished Obelisk. Just to the south of this, two Graeco-Roman sarcophagi and an unfinished colossus remain half buried in the sand.

The most obvious is Elephantine Island, which is timeless with artifacts dating from pre-Dynastic times onward. It is the largest island in the area. Just beyond Elephantine is Kitchener's Island (Geziret el-Nabatat). It was named for the British general Haratio Kitchener (185--1916) and was sent to Egypt in 1883 to reorganize the Egyptian army, which he then led against the Sudanese Mahdi. But the island is known for its garden and the exotic plants the Kitchener planted there, and which continue to flourish today.

On the opposite shore (west bank), the cliffs are surmounted by the tomb of a marabut, Qubbet el-Hawwa, who was a local saint. Below are tombs of the local (pharaonic) nobles and dignitaries.

Upriver a bit is the tomb of Mohammed Shah Aga Khan who died in 1957. Known as the Tomb of the Aga Khan, it is beautiful in its simplicity. A road from there leads back to the Coptic Monastery of St Simeon, which was built in the sixth century in honor of Amba Hadra, a local saint.

Just up river a bit, there is also the old Aswan dam, built by the British, which was enlarged, expanded, but unable to control the Nile for irrigation.

01/03/2013

24/01/2013

Farafra Oasis
See the Traditions of the Desert

The most isolated oasis in the Western Desert, Farafra is the closest oasis to the White Desert, a desert dreamscape populated with unusual chalky rock formations. A safari in the White Desert is a must-do on your Western Desert exploration trail.
While in Farafra, you can also visit the unusual Badr Museum or take a short ride from the oasis’ only town, Qasr Al-Farafra, to reach the Bir Sitta hot springs and the El-Mufid Lake.
During your stay, you’ll also have the chance to see local arts and crafts and buy items like; sweaters, socks and scarves knitted out of camel and sheep wool from locals.
Temperatures in Farafra are cool from October to April and can reach 35-45 C in summer.

24/01/2013

The White Desert

The White Desert is justifiably the most well-known desert destination in Egypt - and for a good reason. The quantity of unearthly and beautiful wind-carved rock formations shaped in the form of giant mushrooms or pebbles is unequalled in any desert in the world.
Farafra is nearer than Bahariya to this 300 kilometres protectorate, yet it offers a more limited choice of tours and safaris. However, it is still the perfect starting point for an overnight journey into the infinite whiteness...