A GLIMPSE INTO BULGARIA’S COMMUNIST PAST Close to the centre of Sofia, in an ordinary, non-descript housing block, is a unique time capsule. The Red Flat is an apartment that has been set up to replicate a family residence typical of 1980s urban Bulgaria. I went along for a look, and found unique museum providing a fascinating insight into life in communist Bulgaria. After buying my ticket at a shop around the corner, I buzzed the Red Flat from the…
JORDAN To show due respect to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, I decided to spend three days exploring ancient Petra. And I’m here to tell you, they were three fascinating days. The presence of Covid-19, and the consequent absence of crowds at tourist destinations, have been constants during my odyssey. My visit to Petra was no exception, with the place near deserted. Entry to the ancient city is via the Siq, a 1200 metre long chasm…
‘The car has Jordan plates on it, and by law as a visitor you are only supposed to drive a vehicle with tourist plates. So if the police stop you, tell them you work for the Australian Embassy.’ It was really a matter of ‘when’ the police stop you in Jordan rather than ‘if’, so after this advice from the manager of the hire car joint I left with some trepidation. I was out of luck trying to hire a…
Egypt Although I had spent over a month in Egypt, and had visited a few places on the arid edge of the Nile Valley, I hadn’t gone deep into the desert. Having spent many years living in Central Australia, I was keen to see the country’s dry interior. I had read a little about the Siwa Oasis, and decided to extend my car hire for a few days so I could drive the 300km inland from the coast to have…
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…
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…