Cairo - 3 hours away across the Sahara

Wagons hitched, guns loaded, sirens blaring, 25 coaches headed off to Cairo some 3 hours away. I was in a private vehicle but was not allowed to leave the convoy. The picture is one of three trucks of armoured guards, with sirens on. Yeah! 3 hours of gruelling low speed Cairo traffic. 85 million people live in Egypt and 25 million car driving ratbags live in Cairo. There is no public transport system to speak of (makes NSW look good) and fuel is cheap.

The Cairo Museum

To set the scene; 25 busloads of Aussies, 10+ busloads of other nations, all simultaneously crowded into the museum, sans cameras, trying to listen to Museum guides explaining Egyptian history in languages matching their linguistic origins. It looked more like the entrance to the Easter Show and the toilet queue was just as long.  

 King Tutankhamen’s 110-kilogram 24carat solid gold coffins, 20-kilo head adornment and gold thongs (Tut called them sandals) are the star attractions. All of the items found in King Tut’s tomb are on display and are truly breathtaking demonstrations of mastery of cloth, wood, metals and gems. Tut lived a privileged life as King until he mysteriously died at 19yrs from a hole in the back of his head. At least KRudd was allowed to step down, alive.

There were also miscellaneous carved rocks from the Old, Middle and New Egyptian Kingdoms to fill the rest of the museum and amuse the fee paying tourists.

Interestingly, a more complete and richer Egyptian Museum is to be found in the Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. The naughty Napoleon Bonaparte took home many artefacts from his Egyptian campaign and the French Consul General in Egypt took some more. The Italians acquired most of it for reasons unknown.

The Pyramids…

To touch the pyramids is both a mystical and painful thing to do. Did you know that some Egyptians still make their bread by placing it on rocks in the sun until it is cooked? It was 55 degrees at midday when we finally arrived at the Pyramids; Cairo needs a cross-city tunnel.

The pyramids shimmered under the heat haze of the Egyptian sun, wavy camels slid across the horizon, 25 coaches roared to a stop on the Sahara sands disgorging sun burnt Aussies with terabytes of empty camera memory cards. It was a sight to behold.

Everyone must touch a pyramid once in his or her life. You connect with the sand blown land, the heat, the architectural extravagance and the labour of tens of thousands of Egyptian slaves who’s lives were spent in their 30 year+ building. It was very disappointing and disrespectful that several tourists had to be chased off the pyramids as they climbed up their sides to capture a trophy photo.

For many of us, photo’s taken, and safely back inside the air-conditioned coach, we reconciled to the magnitude of human achievement that the pyramids are. This was quickly brushed away with “go faster” excitement as 25 coaches and a few private vehicles raced down the hill to be the first to the SPHINX.