WHERE: 136 miles/200 km northwest of Cairo. BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA: www.bibalex.org. TRIANON CAFÉ: Tel 20/3-483-5881. FISH MARKET: Tel 20/3-480-5119. Cost: dinner $35. FOUR SEASONS HOTEL: Tel 20/3-581-8000; in the U.S., 800-819-5053; www.fourseasons.com. Cost: from $530 (off-peak), from $650 (peak). WINDSOR PALACE HOTEL: Tel 20/3-480-8700; www.paradiseinnegypt.com. Cost: from $100. BEST TIMES: Oct–Apr for cooler weather; Oct of even years for Alexandria Biennial.
A Maze of Bazaars and Medieval Monuments
ISLAMIC CAIRO
Cairo, Egypt
An amble through this ancient quarter of Cairo assails the senses and confounds the mind. Chickens, horses, and sheep walk the narrow, potholed streets, which are further congested by donkey carts, itinerant street vendors, and people going about their daily lives. Dust and rubble often obscure the faded architectural grandeur of what is still the intellectual and cultural center of the Arab world.
There are a daunting number of sites to see here, but start at the spectacular 12th-century Citadel of Saladin, a heavily fortified bastion that was founded by the chivalrous foe of the Crusaders and offers a matchless panorama of Cairo’s minaret-punctuated skyline. Amid the sprawl rise the marvelous carved stone dome of the 15th-century Mosque of Qaitbey and the spiral minaret of the 9th-century Mosque of Ibn Tῡlῡn, one of the grandest and oldest places of worship in Egypt. Adjacent to the mosque are two joined Ottoman-era homes containing the Gayer-Anderson Museum’s vast collection of pharaonic artifacts and Islamic art. An even more extensive collection, spanning the 7th to 19th centuries, is found to the north at the Museum of Islamic Art. Still farther north is the richly ornamented Qalawun complex, built by three important Mamluk sultans; it contains a madrassa, a hospital, and elaborate mausoleums.
Cairo’s wonderful and chaotic centerpiece is Khan el-Khalili, one of the world’s great bazaars, started as a caravansary in 1382. Lose yourself in the bewildering warren of back alleys, awash with the smells of spices, incense, and leather. This is where Cairenes still shop for their dowries, cotton galabiyas, fezzes, and shishas (hookahs or water pipes). You can practice your haggling with merchants specializing in everything from carpets, gold, and fabrics to perfume and cosmetics (including pots of kohl with which to line your eyes, Cleopatra-style).
Take a break from it all at El Fishawy, the Khan’s most famous coffee- and teahouse (it’s been open around the clock since 1772). You can bask in its 19th-century European décor of gilded mirrors, hammered brass, and marble-topped tables, puff on a water pipe, have your fortune told, and order some of the city’s best coffee. Later, you’ll want to lunch at the Oberoi-managed Naguib Mahfouz Café, named for the Nobel Prize–winning author of The Cairo Trilogy and famed for its excellent Middle Eastern dishes. Locals flood the recently opened Taj al Sultan at Al Azhar Square for dinner; the fusion of Egyptian and Indian cuisine is echoed in the dazzling glasswork, antiques, decorated pillars, and woven rugs.
As Africa’s largest city, with a metropolitan population nearing 20 million, Cairo faces serious infrastructure issues and intense poverty. Yet the Egyptians’ legendary hospitality remains. Living up to its name is Le Riad Hotel de Charme, a short walk from the Khan on the pedestrian-only street of Al Muizz li Din-Allah. It features an inviting collection of 17 suites and a peaceful rooftop garden. Sophisticated solitude also awaits at the Four Seasons at Nile Plaza, where you can gaze at the citadel from your room or board a private felucca just steps from the hotel and enjoy a cruise along the river.
GAYER-ANDERSON MUSEUM: Tel 20/2-364-7822. MUSEUM OF ISLAMIC ART: Tel 20/2-390-9330. NAGUIB MAHFOUZ CAFÉ: Tel 20/2-590-3788. Cost: lunch $15. TAJ AL SULTAN: Tel 20/2-2787-7273; www.tajalsultan.com. Cost: dinner $40. LE RIAD: Tel 20/2-2787-6074; www.leriad-hoteldecharme.com. Cost: suites from $345. FOUR SEASONS AT NILE PLAZA: Tel 20/2-2791-7000; in the U.S., 800-819-5053; www.fourseasons.com. Cost: from $550. BEST TIMES: Nov–Mar for pleasant weather; Feb or Mar for Al-Nitaq Festival celebrating Cairo’s vibrant theater, poetry, and art scene; Nov for Arabic Music Festival.
Storehouse of a Great Civilization
MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES
Cairo, Egypt
Exploring Ancient Egypt’s empty tombs and monuments will leave just about anyone hungry to gaze upon the relics that were found inside. Which is why a visit to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (aka the Egyptian Museum) is a must. Housing an unparalleled collection of treasures that are arranged chronologically from the Old to the Middle to the New Kingdoms (which date from 2700–2200 B.C., 2100–1800 B.C., and 1600–1200 B.C., respectively), it is so vast that if you allowed just one minute to examine each of its 136,000 pharaonic artifacts, it would take 9 months to see it all. Many visitors focus on the breathtaking mummified remains of 27 pharaohs and their queens, along with the 1,700 objects unearthed in 1922 from the small tomb of the relatively insignificant (but now iconic) Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut). An astounding 40,000 other items remain crated in the basement, evidence of the chronic space shortage that has plagued Egypt’s greatest museum since its 1858 founding. A visit here is overwhelming, to say the least. Catch your breath with a stroll to nearby Tahrir Square, where thousands of Egyptians gathered peacefully during the 2011 revolution.
The Ministry of Culture broke ground in 2002 on the $500 million, 120-acre Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM for short) in Giza, barely a mile from the pyramids (see p. 378). The complex, designed by Heneghan Peng Architects, will include restoration laboratories and a giant, sloping alabaster wall that glimmers in the desert sunlight. The 3,200-year-old, 36-foot-high Statue of Ramses II was moved to the site in 2006. The museum will also be a new home to many of the King Tut objects. Sections of the GEM may open as early as 2013.
The Egyptian Museum houses the coffin of the priest Petosiris.
MUSEUM OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES: Tel 20/2-579-6974; www.egyptianmuseum.gov.eg. GRAND EGYPTIAN MUSEUM: www.gem.gov.eg.
Eternal Wonders of the Ancient World
THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT
Giza, Saqqara, and Dahshur, Egypt
The only wonder of the ancient world to have survived nearly intact, the Pyramids at Giza embody antiquity and mystery—and their logic-defying construction continues to inspire plenty of speculation. The funerary Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu) is the oldest, and it is also the largest in the world, built circa 2500 B.C. with some 2.3 million limestone blocks, weighing an average 2.75 tons each and moved by a force of 20,000 men. Two smaller pyramids nearby belonged to Cheops’s son and grandson. Lording it over them all is the famed Sphinx (Abu al-Hol or “Father of Terror”), which you can learn more about—along with something about pharaonic history—during the booming, melodramatic, but surprisingly entertaining nightly sound-and-light show. Still, the pyramids are most magical at dawn and dusk, or when bathed in moonlight and silence, after the last tourists have gone.
As greater Cairo’s population approaches 20 million, growing suburbs infringe on Giza’s former isolation, but 20 miles south by car, less visited and even older pyramids pierce the sky. The most famous is the Step Pyramid designed for Pharaoh Djoser by Imhotep, Egypt’s most beloved architect, priest, and healer. Archaeologists are still uncovering intact tombs around the Step in the complex of Saqqara, the cemetery of Memphis, which was the capital of the Old Kingdom from 2575 to 2130 B.C. Farther south, the Dahshur pyramid field attracts still fewer visitors. Ticket lines won’t be long to visit this site’s steeply sloped Bent Pyramid and to descend the thrilling—though tight—staircase into the Red Pyramid, Egypt’s first “true” pyramid with smooth sides. Both predate the Giza pyramids by 50 to 100 years.
The elegant and recently restored 19th-century Mena House is set within 40 acres of manicured parkland less than half a mile from the Giza Pyramids. The wondrous monuments loom in full, unobstructed view from many rooms, the breakfast terrace, the nine-hole golf course, and the garden-enveloped swimming pool. The hotel’s original wing was where Churchill and Roosevelt initiated the plans for D-day and
where Begin and Sadat signed the 1978 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Back in Cairo, many of the palatial rooms in the Four Seasons at the First Residence have more distant pyramid views.
The Sphinx has the head of a human and the body of a lion.
WHERE: Giza Pyramids are 11 miles/18 km southwest of central Cairo; it’s another 20 miles/32 km to Saqqara and Dahshur. OBEROI MENA HOUSE: Tel 20/2-3377-3222; in the U.S., 800-562-3764; www.oberoimenahouse.com. Cost: pyramid-view rooms from $320 (off-peak), from $465 (peak). FOUR SEASONS AT THE FIRST RESIDENCE: Tel 20/2-3567-1600; in the U.S., 800-819-5053. Cost: pyramid-view rooms from $600. BEST TIME: Nov–Mar to avoid scorching summer weather.
Heavenly Pursuits
MOUNT SINAI AND THE RED SEA
Sinai, Egypt
According to the book of Exodus, Moses spent 40 days and nights on the rocky slopes of Mount Sinai before he was given the Ten Commandments. For today’s pilgrims, the challenging “Path of Moses” up Mount Sinai takes just a few hot daytime hours—or part of a dark night if you’re seeking a magnificent sunrise: It’s 3,750 rock steps up to the 7,500-foot summit for expansive views. Or ride a camel along the gentler “Camel Path” (even if you choose the latter, you’ll still have to tackle the final 750 steps on foot).
At the mountain’s base, built around what was believed to be the site of the “burning bush,” is Saint Catherine’s, the world’s oldest functioning monastery. Continuously inhabited since completion in A.D. 550, it’s said to have been home to the Byzantine monk who constructed the stepped path up the mountain. Today, about a dozen Greek Orthodox monks live here, overseeing the largest collection of codices outside of the Vatican, a 6th-century mosaic of the Transfiguration of Christ, and some of the world’s finest illuminated manuscripts and oldest Christian icons.
Many visitors choose to pair their heavenly climb with rapturous scuba dives off the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. The waters of the Red Sea were praised by Jacques Cousteau as “a corridor of marvels—the happiest hours of my diving experience.” They are famed for their diverse marine life (10 percent of the species are endemic) and spectacular visibility (often in excess of 150 feet). While Israel and Jordan (see p. 456) have their own Red Sea resorts, those in Egypt grant the best access to the finest dive and snorkeling sites. From Sharm al-Sheikh and its smaller, bohemian neighbor to the north, Dahab, a range of day boats service the Straits of Tiran and Ras Mohammed, Egypt’s first national marine park, replete with dramatic rock overhangs, sheer underwater cliffs, and deep pools full of barracudas and hammerheads. Sites like Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef feature innumerable starfish, sea urchins, mollusks, and crustaceans, while farther offshore, divers can explore the ghost hull of the Thistlegorm, a British Merchant Navy ship that sank in 1941.
Sharm’s recently opened Four Seasons has gorgeous rooms tucked into the coastal hillside, while the nearby Savoy Sharm El Sheikh offers lodging options from standard rooms to supremely luxurious ocean-view villas. Bypass the crowds at Sharm altogether on one of Tornado Fleet’s live-aboard boats and enjoy even more pristine reefs, steep drop-offs, sea-mounts, and shipwrecks.
WHERE: Sharm al-Sheikh is 357 miles/575 km southeast of Cairo; Saint Catherine’s is 137 miles/220 km north of Sharm al-Sheikh. FOUR SEASONS RESORT: Tel 20/69-360-3555; in the U.S., 800-819-5053; www.fourseasons.com. Cost: from $360 (off-peak), from $470 (peak). SAVOY HOTEL: Tel 20/69-360-2500; www.savoy-sharm.com. Cost: from $115 (off-peak), from $325 (peak). TORNADO FLEET: Tel 20/22-331-213; www.tornadomarinefleet.com. Cost: 6-night dive trips from $1,000. Originates in Sharm al-Sheikh. BEST TIMES: Apr and Nov for pleasant weather; May–Aug for optimal diving conditions and fewest divers, though days are hot.
Irreplaceable Monuments Where Egypt Ends
ABU SIMBEL AND ASWAN
Lake Nasser, Upper Egypt, Eygpt
On the 34th anniversary of his reign, the never-modest Pharaoh Ramses II ordered the colossal Sun Temple of Abu Simbel to be carved into the side of a cliff—with four 65-foot-high statues of himself, seated, to grace the exterior. The immense monument took 36 years to complete. More than 3,000 years later, an ingenious UNESCO operation saved it and 22 other monuments (including the Temple of Isis on Philae) from being submerged forever when the dam was built at Aswan. From 1964 to 1968, the $40 million rescue plan worked to move Abu Simbel to higher ground before the Aswan High Dam created the 300-mile-long Lake Nasser, or “Nubian Sea.” Tourists didn’t discover the lake till 1993, when its waters were first cruised by the 52-cabin M.S. Eugénie, a faux steamboat named after a French empress and decorated to evoke fin de siècle Egypt. Guests aboard it—and its slightly larger, Art Deco–style sister ship Kasr Ibrim—gaze at the temple-dotted shores and beyond to the empty desert, with its wind-hewn natural pyramids and bluffs.
Journeys begin or end in Aswan, on the banks of the Nile, where palm-studded islands and elephantine granite boulders lend a wild beauty to Egypt’s southernmost town. Aswan’s position at the crossroads of caravan routes once meant a flourishing trade in gold, slaves, and ivory; the souk—almost as lively as Cairo’s (see p. 376)—still brims with spices, perfumes, and produce. Thousands of items rescued before the creation of Lake Nasser are in the city’s Nubia Museum, but the best way to soak in the region’s history is aboard the small, traditional wooden sailboats known as feluccas. Check in at Aswan’s Old Cataract Hotel, set on a picturesque bend in the river that inspired Agatha Christie to write Death on the Nile. Completely restored in 2011, the hotel preserves its marriage of Edwardian and Oriental elegance.
The figures of Pharaoh Ramses II wear the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
WHERE: Aswan is 133 miles/214 km south of Luxor; Abu Simbel is 176 miles/283 km south of Aswan. HOW: U.S.-based Travcoa leads an 8-day journey including Aswan and Abu Simbel. Tel 800-992-2003 or 310-649-7104; www.travcoa.com. Cost: from $3,495, all-inclusive. Originates in Cairo. M.S. EUGÉNIE AND M.S. KASR IBRIM: In Cairo, tel 20/2-516-9656; www.eugenie.com.eg. Cost: 3- to 7-night cruises from $240 per person per night, all-inclusive. Departures from Aswan or Abu Simbel. OLD CATARACT: Tel 20/97-231-6000; in the U.S., 800-221-4542; www.sofitel.com. Cost: from $370 (off-peak), from $440 (peak). BEST TIMES: Nov–Mar to avoid the heat of summer; Feb 22 and Oct 22 for semiannual Abu Simbel Festivals, when the day’s first rays of sunlight illuminate the Sun Temple’s murals of Ramses II and Egyptian deities.
The Watery Lifeline to the New Kingdom
LUXOR AND A NILE CRUISE
Upper Egypt, Egypt
Herodotus described Egypt as “the gift of the Nile,” and to sail along the river’s ageless green shores is to understand why ancient Egyptians worshipped it and why it remains the lifeblood of the country. It retains a timeless quality: Pajamaed children run from mud-brick settlements to wave at your boat, men waist deep in water wash their oxen, lateen-sailed feluccas glide by—the same scenes that inspired Plato and Flaubert. In earlier days, cruises began in Cairo, but now more than 300 ships ply the calm waters between Aswan (see previous page) and Luxor, where a matchless concentration of ancient ruins includes the Temple of Horus at Edfu, Egypt’s best preserved, and the Temple of Sobek and Horus at Kom Ombo, with its mummified crocodiles. One of the finest of the larger ships is the all-suite Sonesta Star (Goddess, featuring 33 elegant cabins, each with a private terrace. For a completely different experience, book a cruise on one of the restored 19th-century wooden sailboats called dahabeahs, such as Nour El Nil’s 120-foot Assouan, which offers six airy and gleaming white cabins and two suites. Relatively new to the tourist market, these vessels introduce small groups to the leisurely, Victorian style of travel, taking time to fit in swims, desert walks, and village visits.
The city of Luxor lies on the site of ancient Thebes, the capital of Egypt’s New Kingdom; its population at one point numbered 1 million. On the north end, along the Nile’s east bank, stands the most astounding religious shrine of antiquity, the Temple of Karnak, part of a complex that was constructed over a period of 1,500
years and sprawls across 100 acres. The awe-inspiring 60,000-square-foot Hypostyle Hall contains 134 hieroglyphic-clad columns 70 feet high and 33 feet around. A 2-mile Nile-side promenade, once lined with sphinxes, leads south to the Temple of Luxor. Across the river, in the sandy hillside, is ancient Egypt’s most famous necropolis, the Valley of the Kings. After the female pharaoh Hatshepsut built a mortuary temple and was the first royal to be buried here, more than 60 male pharaohs followed suit. Centuries of plundering emptied all the tombs except Tutankhamun’s (whose treasures are now in Cairo; see p. 376), but the decorated subterranean vaults are still a wonder to behold. Among the burial places of royal wives and children in the nearby Valley of the Queens is the seven-chambered tomb of Ramses II’s consort Nefertari, an intricately painted labor of love for the favorite of the pharaoh’s 40 wives.
After a long, dusty day spent exploring the tombs, repair to the Sofitel Winter Palace, a 19th-century hotel on the river promenade. In the original wing, high ceilings, giant armoires, Oriental carpets, and ornate crystal chandeliers welcome you. The garden is the largest and most beautiful in town, and a cool haven for tea. Alternately, get away from the Luxor crowds and closer to the Valley of the Kings with a stay at Al Moudira, built in 2002 using material salvaged from old Egyptian villas. Its 54 palatial rooms are decorated with antique Egyptian furnishings, and meals in its domed, Ottoman-inspired Great Room mix Mediterranean and Eastern influences.
Larger dahabeahs coexist with traditional feluccas and modern craft on the timeless waters of the Nile.
WHERE: Luxor is 133 miles/214 km north of Aswan and 415 miles/668 km south of Cairo. SONESTA STAR GODDESS: In the U.S., tel 800-766-3782 or 617-315-9100; www.sonesta.com. Cost: 3- to 7-night cruises, suites from $540 (off-peak), from $675 (peak) per night, all-inclusive. ASSOUAN: Tel 20/65-78322; www.nourelnil.com. Cost: 5-night cruises from $1,500, all-inclusive. WINTER PALACE: Tel 20/95-238-0425; in the U.S., 800-221-4542; www.sofitel.com. Cost: from $215 (off-peak), from $540 (peak). AL MOUDIRA: Tel 20/12-325-1307; www.moudira.com. Cost: from $250 (off-peak), from $380 (peak). BEST TIMES: Nov–Mar to avoid the heat; 2 weeks before Ramadan for the music, parades, and horse races of Luxor’s Festival of Moulid of Abu al-Haggag.
1,000 Places to See Before You Die Page 61