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 Cairo
Modern Cairo is a dazzling varied metropolis that hums with
activity all year round. A city of contrasts, where a
thousand minarets adorn the skyline alongside a sea of
sky-scrapers. Each of Christian and Moslem civilizations
which Cairo has hosted has left its imprint on the city in
the form of customs, celebrations, monuments and artefacts.
A Centre of cultural, social, intellectual, economic and
political activity, Cairo also holds a diversity of world
famous hotel chains, glittering night-clubs, casinos and
discos. Cairo, Egypt's capital, where East meets West,
combining the exoticism of one and the sophistication of the
other, is the largest city in Africa and the heart of the
Arab world. Its ancient civilization, unique history and
culture blend harmoniously with the modern refinements of
the 20th century.
Egypt presents the visitor with many
striking contrasts, particularly in its landscape and in the
ancient, Christian and Islamic elements of its heritage.
Signs of Westernization and tradition are sometimes found in
startlingly incongruous juxtaposition, but more usually the
new is adapted to blend harmoniously with the old. The
country itself is united by the great river which flows down
its entire length, and which is indeed the creator of the
country.
Without the Nile Egypt would not
exist. Along its banks the majority of the people live and
cultivate the land as their ancestors have done for
thousands of years. This narrow, fertile valley is flanked by
the desert - a desert which is always threatening to take
over the cultivation. Today controlled by dams and barrages,
the Nile no longer floods the country every year. The
building of the High Dam at Aswan flooded the whole of the
Nile valley between Aswan and the frontier with Sudan,
creating Lake Nasser. Preserved from the threat of
devastating floods, Egypt is now protected from the dangers
of famine by the regulation of the water. Egypt has a landscape which is surprisingly varied, but all
of the terrain derives from a combination of water and sky,
cultivation and desert.Throughout
Upper and Middle Egypt the floodplain is broad, and the
cultivation rich: there are fields of wheat and sugar cane,
and groves of palm trees everywhere. In the Faiyum the
lushness increases. Roads run between orchards which are
enclosed by high mud-brick walls crowned with dried palm
fronds. Within the orchards, a dappled light filters through
the palm trees, shady walkways are canopied with vines and
roses, and flanked by orange and lemon trees, mango and
banana. The quiet is disturbed only by the cooing of turtle
doves and pigeons, perhaps the iridescent green flash of a
bee-eater, or the call of the hoopoe.
The mighty monuments of the pharaohs
and of the Greeks and Romans, the magnificent mosques, the
Coptic monasteries- both the ones which lie in ruins and
those still thriving-all reflect the many stages of Egypt's
rich past. Yet, amidst the signs of change, Egypt continues
to exude a strong sense of exchangeability. There is much in
the life of the countryside which also evokes the past: the
daily and seasonal cycles of farming life seem in many ways
to be little different from the scenes depicted on the tombs
of three or four thousand years ago. The shaduf and the
saqia wheel are still used to life water from the river to
the canals, and from the canals to the fields. The simple
plough drawn by oxen or camels, the winnowing of wheat and
the manufacture of mud bricks and pottery, are all echoes
from the past. All the same there is much that is different.
Egypt remains one of the most significant states in the Near
East, and as in so many places there is conflict of
'progress' with tradition.
   
Giza
Inside the pyramids at Giza - At Giza, the best part is going inside the pyramids of Cheops (Khufu), Chaphren and Mykerinos. The ramps leading down into the pyramid are kid size (an adult has to bend over). Inside, you emerge into the galleries, some with very high ceilings. The sensation of being inside these huge piles of stone is unforgettable.
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