Ancient Egypt

What comes to our mind when we think about Egypt? Pyramids, Mummies, Nile, and possibly the movie Scorpion King. I had the same view when I thought about traveling to Egypt! Always wondered about how pyramids are built, what’s the history behind mummies and how Nile river flows in the middle of the desert, and how did Egyptians lived such a royal life. Post Egypt travel I can say, if not indetail, I have managed to get convincing answers to my questions.  Truely, the place is beyond Pyramids and mummies. It has more than 4000 year old history with an amazing storyline to support with beautiful architectures, which still exists in the country. The government has managed to do a very good job in saving all the historical monuments, art, and their culture. In current state, Egypt is fully Arab occupied and no Egyptian blood exists anymore, nowhere in the world. Isn’t it pretty surprising that they don’t exist at all? Few claim to be the current generation, no proof though. Looking at the people, it seems true that they are extinct. One thing I can claim that they have the amazing history and lived life King size.

Places to be seen 

• Cairo – Pyramids (Giza), Great Sphinx of Giza, Cairo Museum
• Luxor – Luxor Temple, Karnak temple, Valley of Kings, Valley if Queens, Temple of Edfu, Calossi of Memnon
• Aswan – Nubian Village, Abu Simbul, Temple De Philae
• Nile River – Throughout Egypt, Nile river flows and it has its own beauty to look through different cities. It looks so different and beautiful in each city.
• Sharm El Sheik and Senai Mountains

To chilax we visited Sharm El Sheik which is beachy place. We kept it last, after all our tight travel of history. I did nothing than just relaxing. Infinity pool, luxury treatment, Coral Beach with loads of fish was super fun to enjoy the whole relaxing 2 days. It has a drive of Senai Mountain which is also very beautiful. I realized that the Arabian Sea is possibly the first place I visited where the sun rises.

The Pyramids

Who doesn’t know about the Egyptian pyramid! These are built during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilisations in the world. Especially the Giza pyramids are some of the most magnificent man-made structure in history build under the influence of King Khufu. Did you know that the great Pyramids of Giza weighs 6.5 million tons? Such a gigantic structure. Difficult to believe that it’s human construction. In total there are more than 130 pyramids identified in the region but the most famous one is the Giza pyramids.

Nubian Village

Nubian is small tribal community lives on the bank of Nile river towards the desert portion of Aswan and is isolated from the other part of the country. The village is so pretty and beautiful which is filled with vibrant colors. Every house are painted with blue, green, yellow, orange colors with some good art. From Aswan, the view of the village is very eye catching. The people there are very kind and allow the tourists to visit their houses and serve hot tea. Their occupation is agriculture and women sell homemade ornaments and jewels to the tourists. It was indeed a nice experience.

Tombs, Temples, and Mummies

Egyptians believed in carrying rich culture. Their history and Gods are very much similar to Hindu historians. They strongly believed in reincarnation, the release of the soul post death and afterlife. The story is, The Ba (soul GOD with Eagle faced human body) will put back the soul to the same body and they live the same king/queen life post death in the sky, for which the mummification process were followed. For the soul to identify the body, mummies were preserved building huge tombs and temples.

The stories are carved in various temples which explain the richness and belief. Valley of Kings has more than 30 tombs where various kings and queens bodies were mummified. All the tombs have beautiful carvings and paintings which looks like its newly done but the fact is they are thousands of year old sculptures and paintings.

Interesting facts about Egypt (my hearings and thoughts)

By the name of Egypt only we start thinking about how different it is from the other parts of the world. I believe as a traveler we will have more closure to the actual culture, real history from the adults who know some good facts about the country, and the inner beauty of the city than being a tourist. I heard few interesting facts which are really very different than normal which I would like to share.

• Now Egypt is completely Arab occupied and no Egyptian blood exists. The whole Egyptian civilization vanished thousands of years ago.
• Giza pyramids have the astronomical configuration which is set to align with the stars in the Orion belt. Scientists claim that in the modern era also it is not possible to build it so accurately and with the same amount of time.
• We all know that the Nile is the longest river in the world. Did we know that the river is so flourished and will always have enough water in-spite of it being flows in the middle of the desert!?
• Only 20% of the country is occupied by land, rest everything is deserted.
• Few believe and claim that Egyptians are aliens from some other planet.
• The nearest historical life for our modern world in terms of the living such as usage of utensils, eating food with forks, knife, and spoons, footware, wooden beds, having dogs and cats as pets etc. Note – This is my observation based on the preservations done in the Cairo museum.
• Nubians speak their own language and do not have the script. This language is selfcreated and is not spoken anywhere in the world. Interestingly they pet crocodile
• It is claimed that even with our modern equipment and machineries it is very tough and nearest to impossible to rebuild the architecture which has been built 4000 years ago with no such modernization 

I am thinking, every bit of the facts about Egypt is interesting and few are mouth opening. I am glad for the fact that I got to visit this country

My traveling experience

I and my friend decided that we will pick Egypt considering our interest and the budget of course. Since we were only Girls we went through some challenges as the country is not westernized and pretty male dominant. In-spite of challenges I can surely tell that this will really be one country which all of us should have it on our bucket list. The major income Egypt get is through tourism. No doubt that they have good facilities for all the tourists and travelers. It is a budget friendly country and can afford to stay with minimal cost.

As a country and the wealth they hold is amazingly beautiful. The architecture is beyond the imagination. Hats off to the people who were involved in paintings, sculptures and the monument construction including Pyramids. We always tend to applause and give credit to Kings and Queens for all the tombs, temples, and pyramid creations. If I think about it, the major work will be done by millions of talented people who made it happen. As per me, it’s unbelievable that a normal human can do such kind of wonder. That’s the reason possibly one of the monument is listed in the wonders of the world record and still managing to hold the place.

Overall it was a good package of wonders, knowledge gain, fantasized history, and Beach. Though I had my challenges Vedika (my travel partner) and I managed to get through the trip. As a touristy place, it has spoilers too. As a traveler the learning I have got from this trip is unforgettable. This is my story of EGYPT!

Reference

Putting some references which might help readers

• Meramees Hostel Cairo – Stay is good and can easily travel to Giza with Uber. Cairo museum and Nike boardwalk is at walkable distance
• Bob Marley Hostel Luxor – In the center of the city and is accessible to Luxor temple at the walkable distance
• Concorde Sharm El Sheik

Note – Multiple tours are organized from hostels and be mindful of paying money. Prefer group tours which help you in making new friends from different parts of the world. Am sure it will be more fun.

Just go, see all the beauty of the world. TRAVEL!