Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Day 1b. Cairo, Egypt (Dinner on the Nile and Papyrus-Making)

Located in the heart of Cairo, the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities holds many of the treasures that have been recovered from the tombs. Most noteworthy are the treasures of Tutankhamen. Unfortunately, they would not allow us to bring cameras into the Museum so I don't have pictures from there.

We drove through the streets of Cairo, and eventually...




...we crossed the Nile river



At some point quite a few of us were getting hungry, and our guide "Bob", treated us to authentic Egyptian Falafel sandwiches! It takes similar to the way they make them in Montreal though, so, this wasn't a totally new experience for me.


Some of the minarets of Egypt's mosques, peeking out at us over the city



At around 7:30 PM in the evening we reached the papyrus-making "factory". I say "factory" loosely, because this plant is hand-cut, dried, and hand-pressed, weaved, and then painted upon.

Here's an example of how they make papyrus:













I bought two souvenirs from this place, a papyrus painting of the Colossi of Memnon (especially after I heard the story associated with them), and a small crystal pyramid.

Our shopping completed, our next stop was a restaurant on the Nile River!
Hand-made bread!

The Nile by night!
(I'm amazed that the Nikon D5100 captured this pretty well!)

Jean and me
It was so great to have a good air-conditioned meal! 
Jaelle


From there, we left and checked into the the Sofitel Karnak Hotel in Luxor.


Next Stop: The Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatchepsut

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