Egypt, a place of mythologies and timeless beauty, presents a rainbow of sights and experiences spanning millennia. Egypt delivers adventures best savored from a local viewpoint, from the famous pyramids and great deserts to the busy streets of Cairo and calm Nile waters. This is your best guide to seeing Egypt like a native. Explore Cairo’s Vibrant Heart Starting your Egyptian journey with Cairo, the vibrant but captivating capital Cairo’s local guide recommends seeing the busy Khan El Khalili market. This is more than simply a market; it’s a window into the core of ancient Cairo, where you might bargain over rates like the residents. Explore the less-traveled alleys and neighborhood coffee shops where locals hang to play backgammon and drink classic mint tea. Savor traditional Egyptian cuisine. Egyptian food is a sensory extravaganza, and dining there like a local takes one beyond popular eateries. Look for koshary, a popular local meal prepared from pasta, grains, lentils, and fried onions in Cairo; usually presented with a spiced tomato sauce and garlicky vinegar. See a street seller for a really local taste and savor freshly prepared falafel and ful medames, mainstays of the Egyptian breakfast. Cairo Egypt Travel Packages Embrace the Nile’s Charm A Nile cruise provides a classic Egyptian encounter. While many visitors like these, residents know the greatest time to take a felucca, a classic wooden sailing boat, is at sunset when the river is bathed in golden tones. A slow sail provides breathtaking views of the Nile’s banks, where life seems much as it has for millennia. Choose a less marketed cruise from Luxor to Aswan, stopping at less well-known locations like Edfu and Kom Ombo to tour ancient temples at your own speed. Unlock Secrets of the Desert Egypt’s deserts provide settings for the daring that seem like another planet. Visit the White Desert, where among bizarre, wind-carved rock formations you may tent under the stars. Local guides can show you secret desert treasures, including distant hot springs and crystal mountains not included on standard tourist maps. Step Back in Time in Luxor and Aswan Gates to Egypt’s past are Luxor and Aswan. Early in the morning, see the Valley of the Kings in Luxor to escape the heat and throng. Local guides can provide information on less-known tombs featuring startling hues and hieroglyphics. In Aswan, tour the energetic Nubian communities. These vibrant communities provide friendly welcome and an opportunity to learn about a unique Egyptian culture. Purchasing handcrafted goods straight from nearby artists not only offers distinctive keepsakes but also helps the local business. Participate in local festivities. Should your trip fall around an Egyptian celebration, don’t hesitate to participate in the festivities. Nationwide celebrations of holidays, including the traditional spring festival Sham El Nessim, abound. Residents enjoy traditional cuisine, including feseekh (salted fish), and picnics in public parks. Taking part in these celebrations gives a genuine experience of Egyptian community and culture. Learn the Local Etiquette Knowing and appreciating local customs and manners will help you to engage with the people. Simple acts of respect for the culture could be dressing modestly or saying “shukran” (thank you). Conclusion Experiencing Egypt as a native is about embracing the exploratory and connecting nature. Discover the culture by eating traditional food, Nile-navigating, and interacting with the energetic local populations. Expertly guided trips from Pyramidstrip reveal the hidden treasures and rich legacy of this ancient nation. Traveling off the traditional tourist routes will help you to really understand Egypt. Every step will reveal friendly hospitality and teach you ageless customs, enhancing your trip. Leave with memories of a lifetime, a better awareness of the Egyptian legacy, and a fresh respect for its people and way of life.
Ancient engineering feats such as the Pyramids of Giza are so impressive that even today scientists and engineers cannot be sure exactly how the pyramids were built, but they have learned a lot about the people who built them and the political power needed to make it happen. The builders were skilled Egyptian laborers living in a nearby 17-acre temporary city, while bakery remains and piles of animal bones show that they were extremely well-fed for their work. Archaeological excavations at the remarkable site have revealed a highly organized society, rich in resources, which must have been supported by a powerful central authority. Some archaeological sites such as tombs and temples as well as ancient papyri in Egypt show that the builders of the pyramids used the Nile River as well as a network of artificial waterways to bring materials and stones to the Giza Plateau for use in construction, including granite from Aswan quarries, copper cutting tools from the Sinai Peninsula, and timber from Lebanon and to support workers, they also delivered livestock from farms near the Nile Delta, according to National Geographic. Communities across Egypt likely contributed labor, as well as food and other necessities, in what in some respects became a national project to showcase the wealth and control of the ancient pharaohs. Scientists and engineers are still debating how the pyramids were built. It is generally believed that the Egyptians moved huge stone blocks to the heights along large slopes, greased with water or wet mud, using a system of sleds, ropes, pulleys and cranes. Some suggest external slopes either winding or spiraling around each pyramid, while a more controversial theory suggests that internal slopes were used. These pyramid-building secrets may lie beneath the surface, and when future imaging technology reveals the arrangement of the blocks inside, it will provide a blueprint for how the Egyptian builders created these timeless monuments. “A lot of people think the site is just a cemetery in the modern sense,” says Harvard University Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian, ”but it’s much more than that. In these ornate tombs, you have incredible views of every aspect of life in ancient Egypt, so it’s not just about how the Egyptians died, but the question is: How they lived. Tomb art includes images of ancient farmers working their fields, tending livestock, fishing, hunting birds, practicing carpentry, wearing costumes, and performing religious rituals and burial practices. The inscriptions and texts also allow for research into Egyptian grammar: “Almost any topic you want to study about Pharaonic civilization is available on the walls of the tombs in Giza.”
Ramses built it to record his military victories and built a temple next to it out of love for his wife, and his Holy of Holies witnesses the sun’s rays twice a year. On its walls are spread Pharaonic inscriptions and hieroglyphic writings that bear witness to King Ramses’ victories in his military wars, most notably the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites, which witnessed the first peace treaty known to ancient history. In addition to that, the temple embodied another image of the Egyptian pharaoh’s personality, which is the romantic side and his love for his beloved wife Nefertari, for whom he built a temple of love, next to his great temple and sanctified her femininity and described her as a goddess in some inscriptions and raised her status and position in ancient Egyptian society. The Abu Simbel Temple was first discovered in the modern era in 1913, about 200 years ago. Before that, the temple was completely covered by sand, and the temple was completely buried under the sand for a long time. The temple remained in this state until a Swiss traveler named “Johann Burg Hart” came in 1813. He was on an official mission to discover the sources of the Nile in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. During his journey using a Nile boat, he noticed a part of the temple appearing and recorded it in his diary. Three years later, an Italian explorer named “Jovan” came after him. Archaeologists considered him an antiquities thief because he was excavating for antiquities with funding from the British delegate at the time of the occupation. His excavation was in an unscientific manner that harmed Egyptian antiquities. He took with him many small statues of the temple to Britain, and they are currently in the British Museum in London. However, he is credited with discovering the temple because he removed tons of sand from the temple, which took him about 10 consecutive years. The reason for naming the temple Abu Simbel goes back to the locals who refused to show the discoverers the location of the temple, but the discoverers communicated in a way that a child showed them the location of the temple, and this child was attributed to the name of this temple “Simbel” – which is a common, unwritten story – but the temple was called “Per-Ramesses” by the ancient Egyptians, the pharaonic name meant “the house of Ramses, beloved of Amun, who was glorified by his victories”. The Abu Simbel Temple was built approximately 3200 years ago, or in the 12th century BC, and this temple was built by one of the most famous kings of Egypt throughout ancient Egyptian history, because he ruled for a long period and made great efforts in Egypt from an architectural and military perspective at this time, and he is Ramses II, the third king of the 19th dynasty in the time of the modern state, according to the division of the Greek historian “Manetho” who divided the pharaonic rulers into “families”. The walls of the Abu Simbel Temple recorded the wars of Ramses II with his enemies, who ruled Egypt for 67 years and cared about the architecture of the temples in addition to his strength and military campaigns. He was keen to show his greatness through the temple and its structure carved into the solid rock of the mountain. The facade of the temple is preceded by 4 giant statues representing King Ramses II sitting on the throne in the traditional position. The height of the facade is about 33 meters, its width is 38 meters, and the height of each statue is about 20 meters, indicating the enormity of the temple and its facade. The statue exceeds the size of a normal human many times. On the right and left, and between the legs, there are smaller statues representing members of the royal family, in addition to other statues of two deities and the sacred sun disk, in addition to the presence of 22 baboons, the number of the regions of Egypt at this time, which symbolizes the worship of the sun. He chose it because this animal comes out to the sun at sunrise every day and raises its hand, and he considered it to be rejoicing at the sun’s emergence, which was embodied in the temple. Egypt was the first country to know peace treaties, as shown by the walls of the Abu Simbel Temple, which recorded the first written peace treaty between the Pharaohs and the Hittites of Anatolia in Asia (Turkey, Iraq, Syria) and other regions. These wars lasted for about 23 years, until King Ramses himself came out at the head of an army in the most famous Battle of Kadesh in ancient Egyptian history, and victories were recorded for the two kingdoms, but they were fierce battles that took place in the Syrian city of Kadesh, in which both sides suffered heavy losses. Next to the great temple of King Ramses II in Abu Simbel, there is another temple, the small temple of Nefertari. Although Ramses had 100 children after marrying 24 women, Nefertari was his beloved and favorite wife, so he built a temple of love for her next to his great temple, in a precedent that is the first of its kind in Pharaonic history, to the point that he ranked his wife among the gods without a scientific explanation for this meaning that King Ramses did. The Temple of Nefertari is dedicated to Ramses’ wife and beloved, and he wrote historical phrases to her, confirming that this temple is for his wife, for whom the sacred sun rises. The facade of the temple of the wife consists of 6 large statues, 4 of which represent King Ramses and 2 represent Queen Nefertari. The height of each statue is about 10 meters. On the right and left there are small statues of princely children, sons of the king and queen, each with his name written next to...
The Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and the Cairo Tower are among the most famous and most visited historical landmarks in Cairo, which receive great media publicity. But what about other landmarks with a long history such as the Babylon Fortress, the Church of Saint Abu Serga, and the Windsor Hotel? Many of these monuments date back more than two thousand years, but do not receive the same great media coverage or fame among tourists that other landmarks receive. Take a tour with us to some of these landmarks and discover the history behind them: Babylon Fortress.This fort is more than two thousand years old, as it was built in 300 AD. The Babylon Fortress, which once reached the Nile River, was built to protect the transport of ships between Upper and Lower Egypt. It is one of the few Roman monuments that still stay to this day. Church of Saint Abu Serga.The Church of Saint Abu Serga was built in the fourth century, and was named after Saint Sergius; a martyr during the reign of the Roman Emperor Maximian, Its importance is due to the fact that it was the last place at the end of the Holy Family’s journey in Egypt. Windsor Hotel.The Windsor Hotel is the first of its kind in Egypt and Africa, and was built before many famous hotels in London and Paris. The hotel was originally a Turkish bath for the royal families in Cairo, and then became known as the “Shepheard” Hotel. The “Shepheard” Hotel was a favorite of English soldiers and many foreign public figures, as it hosted Mark Twain and Josephine Baker. Beit Zeinab Khatoun.Beit Zeinab Khatoun is more than 500 years old, and is characterized by the Islamic architectural style. It has now become one of the most famous cafes in Cairo and a favorite among people and tourists. Gayer Anderson Museum.The museum, which was the headquarters of Major General Gayer Anderson Pasha, was built in honor of him. The museum, built in the 17th century, houses Gayer-Anderson’s large collection of furniture, carpets and antiques. Mohamed Ali Palace in Shubra El-Kheima.When Mohamed Ali Pasha wanted to isolate himself, he chose the Shubra El-Kheima area. It is said that he chose this area specifically for its tranquility and proximity to the Nile River, while others suggest that he chose it because it was outside the borders of Cairo. Egypt had never seen anything like this palace at the time, as it was distinguished by the presence of a uniquely designed entrance and spacious courtyards.
