It was during the Easter holidays. Summer had just started in Cyprus. We were having a long weekend. So we thought of visiting Egypt. We booked Salamis cruise for Egypt from Limassol and got the visa for Egypt. Although me and Bhuwan just got the entry permit (no visa) as our stay in Egypt was only about 12 hours.
We boarded at Limassol port at 1:30, as the departure time of our Cruise was at 2:30 PM. We were about 30 from amdocs. We had with us cap, ginger (for sea sickness), and lots of water for beating the heat of Egypt. And of course all of us were ready with our dig cams. For most of us this was the first time on cruise. So we were all excited about our first experience on cruise. We got on to the cruise at about 2:15 PM. It was a sunny day. Most of the passengers were on the deck enjoying the sun.
The view of the port was eye catching. In front of our cruise was another cruise which was also about to leave for Egypt. Some small boats were also there on the port. All of us were enjoying the sun and the breeze on the deck and looking for the gals out there on the cruise :-). The ship started at around 2:45 PM for Egypt. We were given the schedule of the entertainment events to be organized by the cruise for the two days. In the night after dinner a magic show was organized. Some dances were also performed by the cruise crew. Some of us went to Casino to try our luck.
We reached Egypt next day at about 8 AM in the morning. Three buses were waiting outside the port amid heavy security. May be that was due to the fact that there was some bomb blast in Eastern Egypt the previous day. We got into bus number 3. We were received by our guide Marwaha. She had done her masters in Egypt history or archeology ( I don't remember exactly) from Cairo university. I was not expecting our guide to be so much educated. The name of our bus driver was OSAMA. Initially I couldn't believe my ears and tried to check the name plate on his shirt pocket. Anyway, he was not that dreadful looking. Marwaha started talking about the sources of economy of Egypt. She told us that main sources of income to Egypt are Suez Canal, Gold, and Tourism. The people living in cities are generally educated. The people in village are not generally educated. Also nowadays many industries are being setup in Egypt.
Then she started talking about history of Egypt -- The Pharaoh, the pyramids, the mummies, king Tutankhamen. She told us the places we were about to visit. The museum, Great pyramids of Giza, sphinx, and the papyrus factory.
We reached the museum and started following Marwaha. Many things in the museum were the result of the discovery of some British archeologist who had found the treasure of Tutankhamen king. It is said that the whole crew of the British archeologist met death one by one due to the curse of opening the Tutankhamen’s treasure.
It was a big museum. It would have taken many days to see all of it. So Marwaha showed us only the most important things. There were many monuments out there of ancient Egypt. It looked like the ancient Egyptians were to rich in gold. There was a mask of a man made up of solid gold, the bed made up of gold, even the sleepers which king used to wear were made up of gold.
The ancient Egyptian used to keep the mummies inside the coffin completely made of gold. They also kept many things inside it which they believed that the king will need in the after life. Many things out there belong to king Tutankhamen’s period. The ancient Egyptians believed in many gods. King Tutankhamen proposed to believe in one god. But the priests didn't like it. So they killed King Tutankhamen. Marwaha also showed a famous painting called as "The judgment day". It was painted on papyrus. That’s why it was still intact and rich in color. According to that picture after the death of the person, in the after life, the heart of the deceased is weighed on a balance against the "feather of truth". If the heart was "heavy with sin" it was thrown to a monster ("the devourer of hearts") and the deceased could not enter into the company of the gods.
After the museum, we went to see the gr8 Pyramids of Giza. The pyramids were visible from a long distance when we were still in the bus far from the Pyramids. They looked like well formed mountains from a distance. As we reached near to them we felt negligent in front of those huge structures. There were two pyramids side by side. They were very huge. The sun was shining like anything. It was too hot out there. We started taking the snaps trying to give impression as if holding the whole pyramid. But it was really a difficult job to cover the whole pyramid. There were many children and men selling the models of pyramid and other things. We were told in the bus by Marwaha, not to take anything from them as a hell lot of bargaining is involved in it and also they may cheat you. She also warned us not to take camel ride as they will allow you to sit on camel for free but they will charge money for getting you back on the ground from camels back. So we ignored them. We went inside one of the pyramids. It was too congested inside the tunnel. People were going bothways. There was no window or anything and the tunnel through which we were moving was also very narrow and low. We were going bowing our back, with too little of air inside it to breath. At the end of the tunnel was a big hall where they kept the mummy. We came out of that huge pyramid and started towards the Sphinx.
Carved from the bedrock of the Giza plateau, the Sphinx is truly a mysterious marvel from the days of ancient Egypt. The body of a lion with the head of a king or god, the sphinx has come to symbolize strength and wisdom. Behind the sphinx stood two huge pyramids. Someone told us that there is a place out there from where we can see 11 pyramids in a row at a time. It was really very hot outside. The wind laden with sand had made it even worse. The sphinx and the pyramids were standing magnificently there braving such harsh conditions for thousands of years. It was a memorable day to be along with those huge structures.
Our next destination was the papyrus factory. There was a person on the reception who told us the process by which they prepared the papyrus. They used the stem of the papyrus plant for making it. The bottom of the stem is pyramid cal in shape and the leaves were like the rays of sun coming out of the shoot. They rolled the stem and keep many such stems side by side for a few days. After a few days all of them get glued to each other and form the paper sheet.
Papyrus is mostly used for keeping the paintings preserved for many days. I bought a painting of “The Final judgment” with ancient Egyptian alphabets drawn on the periphery of the picture for 7 Cyprus pounds. Some of us have also bought the gold rings. On our way back we were taken to the Nile cruise for lunch. We enjoyed belly dance along with our lunch as the Nile cruise moved in the river Nile.
We were back to our cruise by 8:30 PM. We were a little bit late on our schedule. We started our way back to Limassol having dreams of king Tutankhamen and the pharaohs.
