Egypt - Exciting. Exotic. Enchanting.

Here's another blog from a travel experience that influenced my writing. I hope you enjoy reading it.

In 2005 I travelled to Egypt with a girlfriend. That holiday is still up there as one of my favourites. So much so, that’s its one of the few places in the world I’m determined to get back to… one day.  We stayed at the Marriot Cairo which is an absolute oasis compared to the surrounding bustling streets. 

Our hotel was lovely relief from the dust, smog, heat and hustle and bustle that is Cairo. I even sampled some Egyptian Hookah.

Our first day we made our way to Cairo Museum, even though a trip to the museum was part of our tour, we couldn’t wait. We weren’t disappointed. We caught a cab to get there and what an experience that was. Every single car I saw was riddled with scratches, dents and worse. Red lights meant nothing to the drivers and neither did traffic lanes. And they constantly honked their horns.

Unfortunately our camera's were confiscated before we even walked through the doors of the museum. These are the only pictures I have.

The artefacts in the museum were scattered everywhere with no apparent thought to their layout and sadly, many of the pieces had little or no information detailing what they were. Despite all that it was still amazing.  We saw many many sarcophagi of different shapes and sizes, some as small as a little child, some as big as a van. We saw 5000 year old wooden statues and the remains of a Queens intestines that had been preserved in Alabaster jars.

The treasure of Tut-ankh-Amun was incredible. So much gold and so many pieces to see. The jewellery was beautiful and amazingly intricate and the colours were very well preserved. It’s hard to believe these pieces are thousands of years old. I’ll go into more detail about his tomb in a future travel blog.

The pyramids of Giza are mind blowing. Until you see them it’s impossible to comprehend just how big they are. The individual blocks are enormous too and when you learn that each block was carted from Aswan and shipped 750km up the Nile its mindboggling. In the pictures below look at the size of the pyramid then see the next photo where I'm standing in amongst the giant blocks. It's gives you some appreciation of just how enormous these constructions are.

I was completely unprepared for the amount of history on display in Egypt. Hieroglyphics were everywhere. I couldn't get enough of them.

The Sphinx was just as impressive, although it has some damage to its nose. It’s bizarre that right across the road from it is KFC and Pizza Hut.

In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the haunches of a lion, the face of a human and sometimes the wings of a great bird. It was considered treacherous and merciless. The Sphinx is said to have guarded the entrance to the Greek city of Thebes, and travelers had to answer a riddle in order to pass through. Apparently those who can’t answer the riddle were killed and eaten by this ravenous monster; a fate considered to be typical in mythological stories. Can you answer the riddle? "There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?"

The answer is "day and night"
(both words are feminine in Greek).

I would've been eaten.

History fascinates me, which is why my latest book Treasured Secrets is based around a 13th century missing treasure. It was so much fun to research that era and weave fact and fiction into my story.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this week’s travel blog. Check more of my travel blogs here.

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