Egypt travel blog
Temples, Taxis and the End of my Tether After a really enjoyable week in Luxor I decided to head further south down the Nile Valley to Aswan. I had booked a rail ticket a few days before departure, but a train collision that killed 32 people north of Luxor had me thinking that my service may be delayed. However, multiple fatality railway accidents are not uncommon in Egypt, and since the network transports hundreds of thousands of people every day,…
Egypt Where Luxor city now stands, the capital of Egypt once straddled the Nile. During the height of the empire, mighty rulers reigned from the ancient city of Waset (Greek name ‘Thebes’). Immense wealth permitted the raising of massive monuments to the living and the immortal, and exquisitely ornate tombs were prepared to take the nobility to the afterlife. Exploring Luxor today, with its innumerable (and incredibly well preserved) ancient sites all clustered together, is an unforgettable experience. I was…
Part II When most of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were re-discovered, they had already been ransacked and plundered back in ancient times. To save the royal mummies from such disturbance, officials took them from their original resting places and reburied them elsewhere in caches. Not so the tomb of King Tutankhamun, which lay largely undisturbed for millennia. British Archaeologist Howard Carter had been working in Egypt for 31 dry and dusty years, much of it exploring…
It was already well on the way to the forecast high of 42 degrees in Luxor when I left my accommodation and walked towards town. I was heading to the Valley of the Kings, one of Egypt’s most astounding ancient sites. For around 500 years, the monarchs and noblemen of the Egyptian Empire were buried in the sides of a steep valley west of the Nile within spectacularly ornate tombs. The mighty Ramses II, and King Tutankhamun, were amongst the…
I had spent an enjoyable, but ultimately disappointing, couple of days searching the area west of El Alamein for the Blockhouse (see Searching for the Blockhouse Part I). I was still keen to find this surviving landmark from the final battle at El Alamein, but I was running out of ideas. The following day, Germans tanks and troops counterattacked, and a fierce battle raged around the Blockhouse. Holding a small, approximately one square kilometre area that included the Blockhouse, the…
Somewhere along the railway line, west of El Alamein, Egypt, stands an unremarkable, low concrete building. There are many of these old railway workers’ huts, in various stages of ruin, stretched out along the line. However this particular place was the scene of an extraordinary occurrence in 1942, when compassion and humanity prevailed over war’s chaos and carnage. After spending a few days in the noise and bustle of Alexandria, I hired a car and drove west on the International…
‘He fell fighting to end wars. Let his efforts be not in vain’ An afternoon sea breeze is blowing, shaking the scant grasses that struggle up between the coarse white gravel. I am alone, and far enough from the major highway that the only sounds I hear are natural. Before me stands the Australian War Memorial, near the entrance to the El Alamein War Cemetery, glaring white in the early afternoon sun. On one side of the monument, carved into…
The city of Luxor, a little over 650km south of Cairo, boasts an embarrassment of ancient riches. With a staggering number of tombs, temples and monuments, it rivals the Pyramids for the title of Egypt’s greatest archaeological show. After some fascinating days exploring the Giza plateau, I booked a ticket on the southbound train to the capital of the ancient Egyptian empire. I have to admit I find massive train stations a bit intimidating. They are always more chaotic than…
Having spent the first day of my visit to the Pyramids of Giza getting a feel for the place, and venturing inside the Pyramids of Khufu and Khafre, I returned the following day ready for some wider exploration. I must admit to not knowing a great deal about the historic reserve before my visit, thinking it was all about the three big triangles and the Sphinx. I was amazed, and a little embarrassed, to discover there was a lot more…
The Pyramids of Giza are amongst the most recognizable built structures on earth. I don’t know how many hundreds, or most likely thousands, of photos I have seen of The Big Triangles, nor how many times I have seen them on tv. Having traveled to Egypt, I was wondering if the ‘familiarity’ of the pyramids would detract a little from seeing them in real life. I also wondered if the fact that the Cairo sprawl nearly reaches the paws of…