Day 88
Sleeping location: Dahab Roof Hostel, Cairo
Distance (km today/total): 0 / 6865
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 57500
Distance walked: 15km
Day in three words: Egypt’s got history
After breakfast in the hostel (cheap and tasty) we headed off to explore Cairo at a decent...ish... time. First stop was the nearby Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which is kind of a big deal. The collection of stuff was absolutely incredible, although the museum itself was a bit dated, the labelling was pretty nonexistent, there were a lot of repeated things (eg 20 identical tombs/vases/scrolls). They could have done a lot more with a lot less stuff, but even so it was still well worth 3hrs of our time, and we learned about the history and the context of some of the things we’ll see on our way down the Nile. The best stuff was in the Tutankhamun section, and the craftsmanship on some of the jewellery was astonishing, not to mention that this stuff was over three bloody thousand years old. I took a photo of his gold death mask but was then asked to delete it as photography was not allowed, despite signs saying that photography was ok, and despite the fact that it was definitely ok to take photos of other death masks. Egypt has this obsession with rigidly sticking to rules that don’t make sense at all; another example is that we had a mandatory police escort “for safety” for most of Egypt, but not for the genuinely dangerous traffic of Cairo.
Towards the end we saw royal mummies, which were incredibly creepy but also totally unique and totally worth the steep extra charge. It is incredible to know that you’re looking at the face, skin and (sometimes) hair of someone who was alive 3500 years ago. There were also some interesting stories, which I include here in a section called Funny Mummy Facts:
-Some parts of the mummy of Ramses II were pinched and sold on the internet
-When a major mummy horde was found at Luxor and transported to Cairo, the customs officials didn’t have an appropriate category so they booked it as salted fish
-One mummy was buried with what was first thought to be a baby, but then turned out to be her pet baboon
-Another mummy had her face stuffed with fat to give the impression of life, but they used too much and her cheeks exploded
After the museum we did some extensive wandering around Cairo. First up was our first glimpse of the Nile, which is going to be our companion for the next 2000km. After this we spent a while on Gezira Island, which is a pretty upmarket area of town with a lot of old colonial buildings and a lot of embassies in said buildings*. We were hungry but it was such a fancy neighbourhood that there were no cheap eats, so after much holding off we settled for a very average and quite expensive meal by the river. The way back to the hostel involved a walk along a flyover until a nice man told us it was 5km until the next point we could descend, then a walk back along the flyover, then a detour through more crazy market where I bought a little bag that will hopefully replace the lost stuff sack for my quilt. We had a quiet beer on the hostel roof, then went out for dinner nearby, which was tasty but again way too expensive. Some restaurants in Cairo add about 25% in taxes and “service”, but it’s not always obvious from the menu and there’s often a nasty surprise when the bill comes.
*But not the Sudanese embassy, which we need, which is located in a MUCH less salubrious part of town
Distance (km today/total): 0 / 6865
Estimated climb (m today/total): 0 / 57500
Distance walked: 15km
Day in three words: Egypt’s got history
After breakfast in the hostel (cheap and tasty) we headed off to explore Cairo at a decent...ish... time. First stop was the nearby Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which is kind of a big deal. The collection of stuff was absolutely incredible, although the museum itself was a bit dated, the labelling was pretty nonexistent, there were a lot of repeated things (eg 20 identical tombs/vases/scrolls). They could have done a lot more with a lot less stuff, but even so it was still well worth 3hrs of our time, and we learned about the history and the context of some of the things we’ll see on our way down the Nile. The best stuff was in the Tutankhamun section, and the craftsmanship on some of the jewellery was astonishing, not to mention that this stuff was over three bloody thousand years old. I took a photo of his gold death mask but was then asked to delete it as photography was not allowed, despite signs saying that photography was ok, and despite the fact that it was definitely ok to take photos of other death masks. Egypt has this obsession with rigidly sticking to rules that don’t make sense at all; another example is that we had a mandatory police escort “for safety” for most of Egypt, but not for the genuinely dangerous traffic of Cairo.
Towards the end we saw royal mummies, which were incredibly creepy but also totally unique and totally worth the steep extra charge. It is incredible to know that you’re looking at the face, skin and (sometimes) hair of someone who was alive 3500 years ago. There were also some interesting stories, which I include here in a section called Funny Mummy Facts:
-Some parts of the mummy of Ramses II were pinched and sold on the internet
-When a major mummy horde was found at Luxor and transported to Cairo, the customs officials didn’t have an appropriate category so they booked it as salted fish
-One mummy was buried with what was first thought to be a baby, but then turned out to be her pet baboon
-Another mummy had her face stuffed with fat to give the impression of life, but they used too much and her cheeks exploded
After the museum we did some extensive wandering around Cairo. First up was our first glimpse of the Nile, which is going to be our companion for the next 2000km. After this we spent a while on Gezira Island, which is a pretty upmarket area of town with a lot of old colonial buildings and a lot of embassies in said buildings*. We were hungry but it was such a fancy neighbourhood that there were no cheap eats, so after much holding off we settled for a very average and quite expensive meal by the river. The way back to the hostel involved a walk along a flyover until a nice man told us it was 5km until the next point we could descend, then a walk back along the flyover, then a detour through more crazy market where I bought a little bag that will hopefully replace the lost stuff sack for my quilt. We had a quiet beer on the hostel roof, then went out for dinner nearby, which was tasty but again way too expensive. Some restaurants in Cairo add about 25% in taxes and “service”, but it’s not always obvious from the menu and there’s often a nasty surprise when the bill comes.
*But not the Sudanese embassy, which we need, which is located in a MUCH less salubrious part of town
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