Egypte / Egypt 2002

June 30, 2002 – Cairo

I try to sleep in the departure hall but it is not so easy despite the policemen and the soldiers who don’t care.

Finally at 5:30, I go outside because the dawn is there and I want to check where the bus will stop. I am the only foreigner there, everyone seems to have taken a taxi yesterday instead of waiting for the bus.

So I take the bus #356 to downtown, after going to the other terminal, we are heading for 2 EGP to the Museum. We are only 3 from the airport but on the way we will fill the bus. The trip lasts only 1 hour and at around 7am, we arrived at Midan Abdel Moniem Riad, located just behind the museum entrance at around 200m from Midan Tahrir.

After getting off the bus, I meet Gavin, “the other westerner” from the airport. He is from Scotland but as his wife is French, I can speak with him in this language, not a bad start for the first minutes in Cairo. He knows where the Sun Hotel is so I didn’t have to take a look to my guidebook. The New Sun Hotel (or Sun Hotel, don’t know why they put New first) is located just 10m from the subway station and has a great view on Midan Tahrir. The hotel is at the 9^th & 10^th floor of the building on Talaat Harb street. In the hall of the building you have to go to the rear on your left to take the lift to the reception.

I ask for a bed in the dormitory (15 EGP) instead of taking a single room, I will meet people straight away. The room has 4 beds and there are an American guy and a Malaysian, both are sleeping. I just leave my bag there and I join Gavin at the reception where he is asking some questions for a possible stay when he will visit Egypt with his family.

Gavin kindly invites me for a breakfast at his hotel, the Semiramis, 5 stars hotel, just behind the Ministry of Interior, Mogamma. Gavin is in Cairo for business that is what can explain the difference between the cost of my room and his price (over USD 100). We talk a lot and we find some common points: French of course (through his wife), Brussels (we worked there)…

The only big breakfast of the trip (thanks Gavin for the pic and the breakfast!!)

Around 9am, after a great breakfast, I leave him and I walk out this huge hotel. A few meters outside, a taxi driver ask me to take him to go to the pyramids because the museum is crowded at this time of the day, why not !! I have no plan for this morning, so the pyramids first and after I will see the museum. We arrange a good price 10 EGP to go there, it is cheaper compared to the usual quoted price on the internet forums (15 EGP). On our way to the site, I am training to use the Arabic words that I know. But the closer we are from the pyramids and the more details I learn from my driver. If he accepts such a fare to come here, it is because he wants me to visit a papyrus museum, then that I use one of his friend’s camel to visit the pyramids and after that he will drive me back to Cairo. But unfortunately for him, I prefer to take my time and I would like to walk all the way on the site to fully appreciate him. I give him the 10 EGP and tell him that I am sure he will find a tourist to go back to Cairo.

10 piastres banknote (0.1 EGP)

The entrance to the pyramids costs me only the 10 EGP for the ticket because they forgot to ask me the ticket to take pictures (I will further explain my point of view on these camera tickets).

The site is wonderful. With the entrance I took, you have a direct view on the sphinx with the two biggest pyramids behind. Just behind the sphinx, there is the pyramid of Kephren. I am really surprised by the number of tourists on the site. I thought that adding the summer time with the side effects of the September 11 events, there will be less tourists. But there, you clearly understand and see the attraction aroused by the Pharaohs time. The locals are here to make business with everyone and a lot of children speak easily any major language to sell their articles. Many camels are here for a ride in the desert: 20 EGP an hour at this time of the year without bargaining.

The sphinx and the Kephren pyramid

The sphinx was well restored even if some of the work is not that good, the general vision is very impressive and you quickly forget the bad treatments just being focused on the power that surrounds this piece in this place. You can have a closer view by entering on the left, the guard tears the entrance ticket as a proof (it is possible to come back after a while but you have to insist to enter again, it is bargaining as usual!!). The sphinx is 72m long and 20m high. His nose and beard are missing but you can see the later piece at the British Museum in London.

The sphinx

The pyramids that you can see behind the sphinx reinforce the spectacular aspect of the last visible site of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The 3 pyramids are: (137m high), Kephren (136m) and Mykerinos (62m only!!). When you are at the basement you feel very little compared to these huge structures and you wonder how it was possible some millenniums ago to realize such a work with the modern instruments. I will not visit the insides of the pyramids because I was told that there is nothing really important to see inside, only corridors and huge rooms. I visit 2 of the 3 little pyramids next to Kheops big one. These visits are included in the entrance price.

The pyramid of Kephren is more impressive than the one of Kheops even if it is not the tallest one but it was built on a ground which is higher than the one of Kheops and the top of the pyramid is still covered with its original limestone.

Pyramide of Kephren

Finally I will stay more than 3 hours on the site, just walking around and visiting little pyramids or tombs.

After the visit, I take the exit near the Mera House Oberoi and the golf (yes there is a big 18 holes at 100m of the pyramids). Just after the hotel, I avoid the taxi drivers and I take the CTA bus #357 to go back to downtown for 2 EGP. After 45 minutes, I get off near Midan Tahrir in the middle of the street (that‘s Cairo stops!!) and I go to the museum.