© Richard Randall

KARNAK

Visiting Karnak was for us the second most impressive site after the Pyramids of Giza. I may have said that about some of the other places we visited in Egypt, but Karnak was absolutely amazing. Karnak is only 2.5km North from the centre of Luxor, and the whole site of Karnak is spread over 100 acres. The Precinct of Amun is the only part which is accessible and this area covers 62 acres. To fully appreciate such a vast area we spent the best part of the day there. You could quite easily whiz round in a couple of hours though, or spend 4 or 5 hours and really examine everything. As with most of the sites in Egypt they are extremely busy in the morning when all of the tour groups arrive. If like us the heat doesn't pose a problem for you, then visiting in the afternoon will enable you to look round almost on your own, which is much nicer. Karnak consists of three separate temple enclosures, the Precinct of Amun is the grandest, in dedication to the supreme god of the New Kingdom, it is an amazing eighteen times larger than the Parthenon. Obviously the sheer scale of Karnak was not born over night, it expanded over 1300 years from its XII Dynasty core. At the height of its supremacy Karnak's wealth was colossal. During the reign of Ramses III a list of assets included, 65 villages, 433 gardens, 2395 sq kms of fields, 421, 662 head of cattle, 46 building sites, 83 ships and 81,322 workers and slaves. We saw so much during our visit to the temple complex of Karnak, too much for my two finger typing to write about! In full detail I could easily fill a book, but very briefly we explored, the Temple of Amun, the Temple of Ramses III, The Great Hypostyle Hall, The Jubilee Temple of Tuthmosis III, The Temple of Khonsu, The temple of Opet, The Precinct of Mont, The Aten Temple, The Precinct of Mut, The Open Air Museum, The Pylons and the Obelisks, to name a few. Karnak, and the Pyramids at Giza have to be seen to be truly appreciated.

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Once we had seen the main sites we had wanted to visit in and around Luxor we went back to Cairo. We travelled from Luxor to Cairo by train, but I don't remember anything about the journey so I guess it must have been very uneventful! Whenever we were in Cairo we always stayed at the same hotel, they were used to our frequent comings and goings, and gave us a choice of rooms. We always chose one that looked out over the Nile, it was so nice to lay in bed relaxing whilst watching life on the river. After a relaxing couple of days back in Cairo we caught a train to Alexandria ~ El- Iskandariya, it took about two hours.

ALEXANDRIA ~ EL-ISKANDARIYA

Egypt's second city Alexandria had a very cosmopolitan feel to it, its sights looking back to when it was the capital of Greco Roman Egypt, and the seat of Cleopatra. Its nineteenth century architecture reminding us of colonial days gone by. In 332 BC and just twenty five years old Alexander the Great wrested Egypt from the Persian empire. Ignoring Memphis the ancient capital, he chose to build a new city connected to his Macedonian homeland. He decided on a site in the fishing village of Rhakotis, leaving things in the hands of his architect Deinocrates he travelled to Siwa, then onto Asia where eight years later he died. The corpse of Alexander the Great was returned to Egypt but the priests refused to bury him at Memphis. His final resting place remains a mystery, although many archeologists are of the opinion that his body lies somewhere beneath Alexandria. Although we only stayed a few days in Alexandria we liked it, and whilst we were there we visited Fort Qaitbey (Citadel of Qaitbay). This limestone sentinel is a landmark originally built during the 1480's, with later work by Mohammed Ali, it has great views of Alexandria. Inside the keep is a mosque whose minaret was blown away in 1882 by the British, and upstairs was a small naval museum with Roman and Napoleonic sea battle relics. The fort occupies the site of Pharos, Alexandria's great lighthouse and one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The lighthouse was built during Ptolemy II's reign ~ c.279 BC, on instruction of an Asiatic Greek, Sostratus, possibly conceived by Alexander the Great. It would have stood between 125 and 150m high with a statue of Poseidon on its summit. Alexandria is the centre of Egypt's wine and spirits industry, and yet bars were not that plentiful. One in particular that we knew of and were looking forward to visiting had closed down when we were there. There were many other sites to visit in Alexandria but as we were only there for a short time, and alcohol was not on sale in many places, we had other things on our minds! Monty's Bar at the Hotel Cecil was a nice place to stop and watch the world go by, but a favourite of ours was the Spitfire Bar. The Spitfire Bar had the feel of an English pub so we were happy, and they sold imported and local booze. It was supposedly popular with expats although we were not there long enough to hear any. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view, there were a lot of fast food joints ~ yuk! We saw McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Wimpy and a Baskin Robbins, which were all very busy with locals, mainly teenagers and young families. Thankfully, there were lots more interesting and more tasty options available as well. Having said that, one morning we went to The Trianonon, situated on the corner of Sa'ad Zaghloul and Ramleh, for a light snack. Famed as the swankiest patisserie in Alexandria, where Cavafy once worked upstairs, and with an ornate interior complete with gilt columns, popular for its flambee dishes and serving beer, we thought we couldn't go wrong. We both ordered a beer which was served promptly and more importantly cold. We had drank most of our drinks by the time our food arrived, Richard began to eat his, and thankfully before I had eaten any of mine I spotted an interloper nestling on my plate. We spoke to our waitress and as we were obviously not going to be eating our food asked to speak to the manager. When the manger came to our table he offered us some different food, which we declined. We just wanted to leave, but didn't want to be chased for leaving without paying our bill, although quite why we showed such courtesy when both the manager and waitress didn't seem to think there was a problem I don't know! For good measure before we left we decided to let all of the other patrons sitting nearby know about the bug in my food, oddly enough the staff had wanted to keep this very quiet! As soon as we were outside I threw up, the thought of eating bugs didn't really get my appetite going. Whilst leaning against the wall outside the entrance to this 'upmarket' cafe/restaurant, several people were deterred from entering, and most of the other people who had been sitting near our table inside also left ... I wonder why?! For our short stay in Alexandria we stayed at the cheap and cheerful, Union Hotel 164 26th July Street. The hotel was Art Deco, very clean with very helpful friendly staff, our room was bright, spacious and en-suite. I remember that the beds were probably the most uncomfortable we had ever slept in, they had wooden slats on top of which was a very thin mattress, needless to say we spent most of our time out exploring. Maybe that was the plan of the hotel, to get the guests up and out early, no relaxing in bed in the mornings! Our room did have a lovely huge covered in balcony, which more than made up for the hard beds, it was complete with chairs and a table where we sat and played cards, and watched the hustle and bustle of the people on the streets below and the crowds waiting for the tram. During the day we walked along the sea front, the beaches were surprisingly busy with local people, mainly families. All of the women, young and old, went into the sea fully clothed, leaving the water to return to the beach seemed to be a real struggle for them with metres of soaking wet fabric clinging to their bodies. During our walks along the coast we were approached by several groups of young people, mainly guys, for a change they didn't want to sell us anything they just wanted to chat, practice their English skills. The local people were friendly and although it was busy there was a feeling of calm. We didn't do much in Alexandria, but as well as Fort Qaitbey there were many other sites of interest. Destroyed in the fourth century, Cleopatra had begun building a temple for Antony, the Caesareum, it was completed by Octavian who dedicated it to himself. Originally it had two obelisks out front which remained there until the 1870's when they were moved, one to London on the Embankment, the other went to New York's Central Park. Commonly referred to as Cleopatra's Needles, a misnomer: erected in Heliopolis fourteen centuries earlier, the obelisks were moved to Alexandria fifteen years after she ended her life. Alexandria's principal Synagogue is worth a look, there was an elderly lady who spoke English, French and a little Hebrew there to show visitor's round. Before 1957 there were approximately fifteen thousand Jewish people in the Community, now there are less than seventy elderly Jews in Alexandria. The Coptic Cathedral of Saint Mark across the road is another place of interest. The Roman Theatre is also worth a visit as are the Fine Arts Museum and the Greco-Roman Museum. The other main sites to visit are the Anfushi Tombs, Ras el-Tin, the Western Harbour, the Eastern Harbour, Pompey's Pillar, the Catacombs of kom es-Shoqafa, the Zoo, and Nouzha Gardens to name a few. Next for us was a bus journey to Siwa.

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