All posts in Egypt

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK II

By | January 14, 2014 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, History, Unseen Egypt | Comments Off on UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK II

Somewhere along the way, and a few thousand years, monuments such as Karnak fell into disrepair. Between the ever relentless sands of the desert reclaiming its territory, the Nile’s inundation, and the passage of time, they almost faded out of memory. Every now and then through the millenia, travellers and explorers would stumble upon an obelisk here, or statue there, and if they were persistant and lucky enough, maybe a pylon and gate into a mysterious past. Read more…

UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK I

By | December 30, 2013 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Travel + Leisure, Unseen Egypt | Comments Off on UNSEEN EGYPT: LANTERN SLIDES PLACES WEEK I

Lots of reasons prevented any writing in the second half of 2013, mainly the state of affairs in Egypt after the bloody coup of June 30th of that year. Everyone had high hopes for Egypt to emerge trimuphant after the rosey days that followed the Jan25 revolution. But it seems that the people didn’t really understand what freedom is, what it means, and most of all, what it takes to keep it. They failed, and Egypt was lost. Hopefuly the next time the people rise up, they will have learned from their mistakes. Read more…

101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 26–30

By | April 24, 2013 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on 101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 26–30

By Islam El Shazly and Sue Ryan

This latest edition of 101 Places to Take your Family in Egypt has been a long time in the making. Halfway through working on the content our site was attacked by a massive BotNet that targeted websites running on WordPress, we were one of the unlucky ones, and the site was defaced. Alhamdulillah, the damage was repairable and we managed to get the site back online within a few days, but we were working behind the scenes to secure the website against any further future attacks, and insha’Allah we will do our best to prevent that insha’Allah.

Thank you for your patience… Read more…

SIWA: THE FIELD OF TREES

By | March 17, 2013 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | 1 Comment

By Susan Ryan

Siwa Oasis is the most westerly of Egypt’s oasis, about 725 km from Cairo, with Libya  just 50 km away. It is worth the trek even if your children usually ask “are we there yet?” after an hour of travelling. Reaching Siwa takes between eight and 10 hours by bus or car from Cairo, but if you break the journey up with stops in Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh you will better appreciate the variety of landscapes you pass through. If you have four days or more for your Siwa trip, it is ideal to have a day in one of those coastal cities before your immersion in desert for the last four hours of travel. Read more…

101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 21–25

By | February 27, 2013 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on 101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 21–25

By Islam El Shazly and Susan Ryan,

You would be hard pressed to find a tourist in Egypt who hasn’t been to the Pyramids or to Sharm El-Sheikh, but finding the odd tourist who is willing to get off the beaten path and separate from the crowds to discover where the road would take them or what they will find, that’s a totally different matter. Read more…

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XVIII

By | February 20, 2013 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XVIII

By Islam El Shazly

This week we mark the finale of this series of Wednesday Nostalgia, hopefully we accomplished what we set out to do, which is reconnect the people in Egypt with their past and their heritage. Something that was lost to us for far too long, but now since the thick veil of 60 years of tyranny has been lifted, we are free to dig and find that which has been lost, and relish in the memory of our predecessors and build on it. Read more…

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XVII

By | February 7, 2013 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XVII

By Islam El Shazly

Tradespeople, craftsmen, artisans, farmers, and people who are handy with their hands and with a tool are all but extinct in Egypt. Same as people who have pride in the work they do, they too are all but extinct. Over the generations, less and less youth became interested in the trades, or in learning a craft, they were misguided into thinking that anything other than being an employee in a company is beneath them. And the ones who end up working in a trade, end up just doing a job, they want it over and done with, so we get sloppy work and shoddy workmanship. Even the clothes they wear are usually unkempt and dirty. Read more…

101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 16–20

By | January 30, 2013 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on 101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 16–20

By Islam El Shazly and Susan Ryan

Most tourists have a very limited time when vacationing, there’s the time wasted in the travelling itself, and the fact that most people barely get two or three weeks vacation at the most from their work. So they don’t have much of a choice when coming to Egypt, they’re usually stuck with the same uncreative itinerary as most everyone else, and that can lead to an unsatisfactory experience. Or so they are led to believe. Read more…

WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XVI

By | January 23, 2013 | Egypt, Heritage + Conservation, Wednesday Nostalgia | Comments Off on WEDNESDAY NOSTALGIA: LANTERN SLIDES WEEK XVI

By Islam El Shazly

Less than 48 hours from now (Wednesday, January 23, 2013) Egypt will mark two years since the Jan25 2011 revolution, and looking at the state of affairs in Egypt it seems that it hasn’t really proceeded any further after the euphoria of the 18 days that toppled Mubarak and his horrid NDP and State Security forces (Amn Dawla).

Then again it all depends on one’s point of view and whether one is a glass-half-full-person or a glass-half-empty-person. Read more…

101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 11–15

By | January 22, 2013 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on 101 PLACES TO TAKE YOUR FAMILY IN EGYPT: 11–15

By Islam El Shazly

What do James Bond and Indiana Jones have in common? Well aside from the fact they’re both fictional, they both fought baddies in exotic locations in Egypt, like the Gayer-Anderson House, and Abu Simbel. Indiana Jones went a step further by finding the Ark of the Covenant in Tanis! Even Hercule Poirot visited the great temples of Abu Simbel in Death on the Nile: A Hercule Poirot Mystery.

Indiana Jones is also based to an extent on Giovanni Belzoni, the famed nineteenth century explorer who also carried a whip around. Read more…