All posts in Egypt

CLEOPATRA BEACH

By | June 19, 2011 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | 3 Comments


Cleopatra Beach

Cleopatra Beach.

By M. Butcher

Cleopatra Beach in off the Mediterranean along  the North Coast of Egypt.  It is a beautiful place to take a walk and even have a picnic.  The water is clear but the beach is rocky. It is a nice place to visit but swimming is not permitted as the waves smash against the rocks and can carry you away. The sand is almost white.

Our kids love to run and play in the waves and rocks close to the shore, as you get farther out, the rocks get slippery and it gets harder to walk. There are lots of rocks to climb on and the kids like to pretend they are the king of the castle. Read more…

Alexandrian Weekend Away

By | May 3, 2011 | Egypt, Travel + Leisure, Travel Chronicles | 1 Comment

Surf Breakers.

by M. Butcher

On a Thursday night after my husband finished work, we decided to drive to Alexandria for the weekend. We called around and got a room at a hotel right on the Corniche. We left soon afterwards and for the most part the drive was pleasant. We had to slow down many times because of construction on the road but it didn’t take too long to get there. Read more…

Alexandrian Graffiti

By | March 25, 2011 | Egypt, Politics, Travel + Leisure | Comments Off on Alexandrian Graffiti

by M. Butcher

We have all seen it in our travels, on the sides of the road, on bridges, buses, and overpasses. Almost everywhere a spray can may reach. As with art, graffiti is subjective, what some consider to be art, others consider it to be trash. Our modern idea of Graffiti has changed and we are seeing more beauty in the designs on the street.

Graffiti is the name given for images or letters scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any method on public property. Graffiti and graffito come from the Italian word graffiato meaning scratched. It has existed for long time going all the way back to Ancient Greece and even the Roman Empire. Read more…

WALK PROUD. WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN.

By | February 20, 2011 | Egypt, Pax Islamica, Politics | 3 Comments

Opposition supporters wave flags amid the crowd in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 9, 2011. Egyptians counted the economic cost of more than two weeks of turmoil on Wednesday as re-invigorated protesters flocked again to Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand President Hosni Mubarak quit immediately. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

by Islam El Shazly

For the first time in history a revolution has been organized as a public event with an open invitation, more like a date between two lovers, the time and the place was known almost two weeks in advance. Without further confirmation, people from all over Greater Cairo started converging onto Midan Al-Tahrir – Tahrir Square – and it was not just left at that, people started gathering at major squares in every governorate in the country. A new day was dawning on Egypt. A new era that no one saw coming. The date was January 25, 2011. Read more…

MASR – THE PEOPLE

By | January 12, 2011 | Egypt, Politics, Travel + Leisure | 1 Comment

Egypt: Partly submerged palms above Nile dam, Upper Egypt. Lantern Slide Collection, Brooklyn Museum.

By Islam El Shazly

The people of Egypt are for the most part gentle emotional people, they have been deprived of their right to participate in the way this great country is being governed. From the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha, through the British occupation then the calamity that was the Coup d’état of 1952 and its disastrous after-effects, the people have not been able or allowed to voice their concerns about their country. Read more…

JOURNEY TO UPPER EGYPT

By | January 8, 2011 | Egypt, Travel + Leisure, Travel Chronicles | 1 Comment

By Dean Chartier

This is my first effort in writing about my travels here in Egypt, I’m kind of starting in the middle of the trip, odd I know, why not start at the beginning? Well my journey to up the Nile was a pretty amazing trip for me, even though it was kind of touristy. I was able to peel most of the tourism away and have a good look at life in that part of Egypt. I will not speak much of visits to the temples and other historic sites, I’m sure you can find that information elsewhere, and for me it was kind of secondary anyways. This was my first trip to a Muslim country since I became Muslim and my trip up the Nile allowed me to get away from most of the western influence I have seen in Cairo and Alexandria. I will write more about those experiences a little later.

Fishermen in Alexandria.

Another reason this was a special experience for me is that being from Canada, I don’t get to hear the call to prayer from a Masjid, or have the luxury of having a Masjid within an easy walk of wherever I am. Read more…

AL-MU’IZZ STREET – CAIRO’S GRAND STREET

By | December 18, 2010 | Egypt, History, Travel + Leisure, Walking Tours | 1 Comment

A long time ago in Cairo, with the pyramids in the distance, farm lands and the aqueduct. From the book "The Grand Street".

By Islam El shazly

The Grand Street of Historic Islamic Cairo, the heart of the once capital of the Fatimid Empire; as old as Cairo, it saw its fair share of kings and vagabonds. Walking through it amidst the ancient villas and the architectural marvels left behind by four dynasties, is like being transported into the world of the Prince of Persia – without all of the sand demons.

Taking a turn into one of the little alleys that spring out throughout the length of the street on a quiet day, stop for a moment and close your eyes, you can almost feel the ghosts of all the people who walked through here over the ages. There are shadows here. The time of the Fatimid also gave rise to their cousins, the Assassins. They lurked in the shadows. Read more…

TOP 10 DESSERTS IN EGYPT

By | June 17, 2010 | Egypt, Food + Beverages, Travel + Leisure | 18 Comments
Honey.

Honey, you are so sweet. By blentley on Flickr.

by Islam El Shazly

Egypt shares some desserts with the Levant, but they are a bit different when it comes to taste.

All the ingredients in the desserts are natural and include a lot of sugar; you will find that Egyptians like their sugar. These desserts are not like anything you have tried before, unless you have visited Egypt and decided to try them.

Below is a list of just a few of the most brilliant desserts you can find in Egypt, and believe me there is a lot more different kinds of desserts available: French, Danish, Italian, etc., and even more different kinds of Egyptian desserts but I think this list is enough to get you started.

Warning! Major calories here; but the taste is worth each one of them. Read more…

WADI RISCH-RASCH

By | May 1, 2010 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel + Leisure | 1 Comment

Dovecote.

A little desert trip labelled: “Following the footsteps of the last king of Egypt; King Farouk.”

by Naeem Mayet and Saaleha Bamjee
Photographs by Naeem Mayet

Sometimes, Cairo, with all of its rich fullness and grainy texture, displaces the mind’s quiet.

As both vanquisher and subduer, Al-Qahira fills the spaces between thoughts with its Life and Living.

You would imagine that in order to reclaim some of yourself, it would take a great many hours to escape the city’s penetrating charm.

Read more…

GOING FOR A WALK: AL-KORBA

By | April 11, 2010 | Egypt, History, Travel + Leisure, Walking Tours | 3 Comments

by M. Butcher

When looking for things to do with or without kids it’s always nice to take a walk. We like to take the kids out in Korba because they have wide sidewalks and there are lots of stores and coffee shops to pass by. The streets are wide and easy enough to cross with kids and it is stroller friendly.

A mansion in Al-Korba.

Read more…