As I write this, I have been back from Egypt for over a month. I’m still trying to figure out what I really thought of it.
The only significant beauty I saw in the country were the head coverings and faces of the young women. I saw no tree lined and flower filled parks, no waterfalls, no mountains, no attractive modern buildings, no attractive sea coast, no canyons. I saw lots of sand both on the ground and in the air. Cairo and Alexandria were dirty, smoggy, over crowded and unattractive. Luxor and Aswan were much cleaner, less crowded and far more inviting.
The best parts were built over 2000 years ago. Tourism is a significant percentage of Egypt’s GNP. Money has been dedicated to those areas that tourists will pay to see. Most of the money to preserve Egypt’s antiquities is from UNESCO and European and North American countries. I saw no Egyptian tourists. Even our guide admitted that Egyptians in general have no appreciation for their own history and heritage. Obviously there are exceptions such as Atef and Egyptians who have studied Egyptology. With the notable exceptions of the new Library of Alexandria and the Nubian Museum in Aswan, I saw no significant modern buildings in the country. Many buildings remain from the British times, but for the most part, they have been allowed to fall into disrepair and have not been maintained. The Aswan High Dam is impressive, but it was built by Russians not Egyptians.
Amazingly, I saw no evidence whatsoever of commerce on the Nile River. I am used to seeing huge rafts of barges on the Mississippi and its major tributaries in the US, but I saw only one single raft and it was empty. I would think this waterway of ancient times would still be in heavy use, but it is not except for the tourist boats. I have no idea how goods are transported to upstream cities like Luxor and Aswan. I saw only one train outside of Cairo and it was a passenger train. I saw no freight trains. I saw no large truck traffic. I saw overloaded Japanese pick-ups with produce being taken to markets, but how are other supplies transported? Satellite dishes were everywhere. Mud shacks in the hills next to the Nile had satellite dishes. This would indicate that they also had TVs. Cell phones and cell towers were very visible. How do these products get to these places? One answer might be by air as the airports were very modern, but air freight is very expensive. This is still a mystery in my mind that I have no solution for.
After seeing ancient Egyptian temples for two weeks, they start looking very much alike. The first real temple that we saw was at Karnak. This was the granddaddy of them all and most temples we saw after Karnak paled by comparison. Abu Simbel was a major exception as it did totally wow me. There are many similarities in the design and decorations on the temples. We saw several of the major gods over and over on different temples. The ancient Egyptian gods were based on animals. There was Horus the falcon god and evil Seth the hippopotamus god. There was Sobek the crocodile god and Hathor the cow goddess. I liked these gods. These were the animals that the Egyptians knew and fit into their religious beliefs.
What about the people? Those that worked in the tourist industry, were working there because they could make a living that way. I’m sure that these were good and desirable jobs. The people waiting on us were efficient, but in general very reserved and without much of a sense of humor. People seldom smiled. I felt that there was an undercurrent of resentment in the people. They relied on our spending money there, but if it wasn’t for he money, they’d rather not put up with us. I didn’t really feel welcome and the people did not strike me as happy people. Yes, Egypt is a poor country, but I have been to other poor countries where I found the people to be incredibly joyous. Belize comes to mind in this regard. I just didn’t see much joy in the Egyptian people. I did not get the impression that education is a high priority. We saw schools, but we also saw the children working in carpet factories instead of obtaining an education.
What about the food? The foods of the Mediterranean area were in general available and good. The olives, honey, breads, hummus, tahini and fish were good. The beef was terrible by my standards. The chicken was so-so. The “lamb” was strong tasting and tough. I think that it was more likely mutton than lamb. The eggplant lovers were in heaven with all the eggplant dishes. We were told not to eat the fresh vegetables and fruits but they did look good. Almost all our meals were buffets. I basically don’t like buffets and this trip did nothing to change that opinion. For some reason, the hot food on the buffets was often not very hot. Desserts were usually very good. The beer was available and good. The wine was very expensive and not very good. By the way, there was no alcohol of any kind served on any of the Egypt Air flights including the transoceanic flights. Surprisingly, coffee was not in great supply. I’d have to hunt for a waiter to get a cup of coffee and it was not very good coffee. The best cup of coffee by far that I had on the whole trip was in the breakfast room at the Best Western that I stayed in at JFK.
The bottom line is that I’m glad that I went on the trip. It was a once in a lifetime trip and I saw many things that I had dreamed about seeing most of my life. Would I go again? I would not do the same trip again. The only place that I could see myself returning to would be Luxor. We didn’t have time to go the Luxor Museum and there is also a museum there on mummification that highly recommended. I’d like to see Luxor Temple in daylight and I’d like to return to Karnak on my own to tour it as I wanted to. There were also some sites on the West Bank that we did not visit that I would like to visit. All in all, I think that I fell for some of the tourist hype on Egypt and my expectations of the trip were too high. It was a good trip, but it just wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be.