The Travelling Teacher: Egypt - The Faces of Ancient and Modern Egypt

December 13-15

Hello everyone!

After an information overload, being bombarded with detail about over 3000 years of Ancient Egyptian history, my brain needed a break. Luckily the country isn’t just a land of monuments. There’s plenty about modern Egypt to enjoy as well.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo

The Red Sea at Hurghada

A five-hour bus ride northeast from Luxor transports you to the sea. Specifically, the Red Sea, and to a place which didn’t really exist 100 years ago, let alone 1000.

Our bus drink. Tasted like rough cough medicine. Glad I shared it!

Our bus journey took about 5 hours

Hurghada is an excellent place to do nothing. It’s also famed for its diving, which I would have done if I had a decent pair of ears that haven’t had...well, I’ll spare you the details.

There were some fish near shore but the best sea life is a boat ride away

No diving meant more time for ice-cream

It’s a popular place to visit from Europe to get a bit of winter Sun. The sea felt nice and was a LOT warmer than the pool, which was what I imagine an ice bath feels like.

Across there is Saudi Arabia, I think

Completely understand why no one else braved the water

After two nights in Hurghada, the final stop on my tour was the capital: Cairo. Big place, with almost 17 million inhabitants. It seems as if most of them have a car and are driving them all at the same time. Trying to cross the road was akin to signing your own death certificate.

Traffic jam near Tahrir Square

Cairo is also home to the Egyptian Museum. Time for another brain overload as there are over 120,000 items in the building.

Many artefacts will move to a new museum in Giza in 2020

A mummy of Yuya or Thuya, Tutankhamun's great-grandparents

Its most famous item is the blue-and-gold mask which belonged to King Tutankhamun. Having seen his face in the Valley of the Kings, I can assure you that he would have looked very different to the excavation team that found him in 1922 with this 11 kg face covering on. His special exhibit (no photos) had many other amazing items, including some beautiful collars and corselets. Imagine how much stuff would have been in the other tombs which had already been robbed.

Statue of King Tut

The footstool for this chair has images of his enemies - so,
you know, he's squashing his enemies when he sits

Tut’s sarcophagus is too big for the exhibition room. Sarcophagi, actually. They work like Russian dolls.

The first of many to be opened

The smallest is still in the tomb in the Valley of the Kings

The museum answers a lot of questions about Egyptian life and technology. They used mirrors to apply cosmetics, they created stone weights for measuring, and had incredible jewellery. I thought the museum itself was poorly labelled but our guide once again proved himself to be an encyclopaedia.

An example of a mirror

A razor. I'll stick with Gilette...

Some questions were left unanswered. How on earth do you move a sarcophagus made of basalt into an underground tomb? How did they make such intricate carvings on a rock which is so hard? Some wonderings get lost to history.

The original Rosetta Stone is in the British Museum in London

Nowadays we use diamond to cut basalt - but they didn't have diamonds...

Other queries emerged during a visit to Khan El-Khalili market. Who actually buys this rubbish was the main one. As I bought a cuddly toy camel, I guess I might be part of the problem.

The area first became a market in the late 1300s

One of the prettier shops in the market

This market is a bit of a tourist trap. Other places, such as El-Abd bakery, are better places to buy better items. Well, one item: baklava. I do like baklava, eating 7 large pieces in one sitting in Hurghada. The sugary assault on my poor teeth was worth it. Yum.

Find me a local who would buy this T-shirt

I would buy this every week if I lived in Cairo. And
then probably visit the dentist every week...

I bought these on a stroll around the city. Initially formed on the eastern side of the Nile (the west was for the deceased, remember), Cairo now sprawls for miles in all directions. There are some islands in the middle of the river which make for a pleasant walk. Well, until it starts raining. Yes, it rained. Wasn’t expecting that.

Many Muslims, so many mosques are dotted around Cairo

A soldier sitting on a barrier overlooking the Nile

I was expecting hustle and bustle, particularly as I based myself hear Tahrir Square. You may recognise the name from the news. It is here where modern Egyptians find their voice, often against the government.

Tahrir Square as the rain - yes, rain - started to fall

Renovations meant it wasn't possible to stand in the main part of the square

Most notably, this happened in 2011, when continuous protests over a two-week period led to the resignation of the Mubarak government. Apparently up to two million people protested in and around Tahrir Square at this time. Two million. A massive moment in modern Egypt.