There are always two sides to one world.
What a way to start the year, than to explore Egypt in seven days and learn the history and culture it has to offer. Sure Egypt is one of those beautiful places you’d love to experience, but where do you start?
Being in Cairo, near the grand pyramids, I can say they are far more majestic in person than you would ever see on the television. The sheer size of them is enough to overwhelm the most travelled of nomads. But let’s take a real look at Egypt. Is it all beauty and wonder, or does it have a few hidden secrets too
Ancient culture between women and men:
The culture here is so interesting and much more vague, should I say? As women in Egypt, they had these nice clothing that curved they bodies and showed a lot of skin. Showing of the skin or tight clothing was and has always been allowed. As for the men, they wore wrapped around skirts called the Shendyt.
The Museum:
We stooped by at the Egyptian museum in Cairo and got to experience the eerie Mummy’s room. There are over 100 thousands pieces in the museum, I was astonished by how the tour guide explained most of the items in the museum including the treasurers from Tutankhamun’s tomb that is set at the value of 2 trillion dollars. Very gold pieces I should say, almost everything in this museum is surely made out of the gold (granite) steel, even the shoes themselves were made out of gold/silver rusty steel. During the tour you are introduced with the different items and most likely gods. There are some Cascades and these huge giant sculptures that Egyptians believe to be their gods.
Valley of the Kings:
Exploring the valley of the kings (where old kings were buried) became the most scariest part of the trip. The temple was strictly for the old kings. People were able to loot the tomb back in the days before the valley was built, they were capable of taking some treasures along with them. Valley of the kings was a way to block people from taking what was not theirs. The Tomb of Rameses became the most respected as that is where most gods were buried. Could you imagine how much the grave robbers stole from those timeless tombs.
The Love Temple:
One of the most interesting temples is the Philae temple, just 12KM South from Aswan. On entrance there are two granite lions and an erected Euergetes 2. Philae temple actually translates to the temple of love, at first glance while sailing towards the entrance by boat. You quite ask yourself, what is so amusing about it? It looks rusted and actually abandoned from a mile away. The temple was dedicated to the goddess named Isis, the Mother of God. The Romans also built their temple close to the Philae temple because they wanted to show some sort of close friendship with the gods.
Entering through the main entrance you are met with the three different temples even though they are not as close to one another as you would think. Abu Simble temple, the temple was separated into two sides. One belonged to himself and the other one belonged to his favourite wife Nefertari. Ramesses II had 39 wives, so you can imagine, he had to have a favourite to dedicate his temple to
Nile dam:
When the dam was built, the dam threatened to flood the area so that caused the moving of all three temples close to each other. This took them 8 years to remove the temples and safely place them in one sanction. Egypt said that what they can do is hold talks with the Ethiopians and see a way forward. Even though the dam is expected to be completed in 2020 hopefully, So far the dam looks like it has created more sores then business opportunity.
Fun time:
Now after that dramatic history history lesson, I was introduced to the most amazing part of my trip. The floating balloon. The balloon is believed to oversee the different temples and even the river was beyond expectations. Being spared the few minutes just downing the nice sunset and amazing view was just unimaginable. I have learnt a lot from this place, I have even heard things that I never thought were true. Being in this place, on this island was just a true inspiration for me. The highlight behind all this, even after I have heard of the bad idea of riding a camel in a dessert I was not going to leave this place without being on one. Call me the “too late” type. But the best highlight was simply climbing the Camels, I thought being on a horse was interesting yet I never thought that the camel ride was beyond exciting. People say I should also try elephant riding, who knows, I might just take the plunge and try it out.
