Journey to Egypt

[Fluvius Camillus]

Greetings!

In about a year I will probably be travelling to Egypt! However, the journey will last more than a week and we will probably travel along the Nile. I was wondering, if the historians here or the people who have been to Egypt before, can recommend what to visit. I can look up things in magazines but probably you guys know some very nice locations from the EB time period (or anything else worth visiting!).

Things like Thebes and the pyramids are obvious of course, but there is probably so much more to visit.

Thanks for the help!

~Fluvius

[Burebista]

Expect to pay for every little service there. Like 1-5 dollars for someone pointing you to the bathroom and such. Also , 6 months , the weather is extremely hot so choose a nice month. Don't expect to be amazed , Greece is better and Turkey tops both.

Historically , you will probably see a lot of arabic culture and the pyramids , but not much except that i'm afraid, maybe some ruins that are pretty much indistinguishable.

[Olaf The Great]

Make sure to eat everything.

[pezhetairoi]

If you can arrange for it, a nice Nile cruise upstream will take you within range of many of the old monuments. Abu Simbel is the one furthest upstream that's worth seeing, the Valley of the Kings is visitable I believe (one of my coursemates has been there before), of course, the Pyramids are there. If you really are that bored that you don't mind a journey, why not head to Siwa Oasis, where Alexander the Great was declared a demigod? Another idea is that you can try playing as the Ptolemaioi, and scrutinise the Egyptian provinces for their wonders and cities, and see which ones are still standing at least partly--I believe quite a few of them are.

[Ludens]

This thread has been here for two days, so the majority of EB regulars will have seen it by now. I am going to move to the Frontroom to see if you get more responses there.

[Fluvius Camillus]

This thread has been here for two days, so the majority of EB regulars will have seen it by now. I am going to move to the Frontroom to see if you get more responses there.

Thank you.

~Fluvius

[WinsingtonIII]

One of my flatmates just spent 6 months in Egypt, I could perhaps ask him where he would recommend visiting. However, I believe he spent much of the travel time (as opposed to studying time) traveling throughout Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, etc. but I know he did travel some in Egypt as well.

[A Nerd]

What about visiting that necropolis something or other. I thought I saw somewhere that it was in Egypt. Roman, Greek or something like that. My history is lacking so correct me if I am wrong!

[aimlesswanderer]

My little bro and his wife honeymooned there for 2-3 weeks last december. They were careful with what they ate (no food stall meals, etc, hotels and big restaurants only) but they were constantly sick with diarrhea and such. There were also vast numbers of hawkers and people who harassed them everywhere.

They also said that there were signs all around that the country was slowly going backwards. There were plenty of metal detectors and security checkpoint going into hotels and such, but they were nearly always turned off or simply ignored. Infrastructure was crumbling, and even in the wealthiest neighborhoods there was garbage everywhere in the street.

Also be prepared to pay lots of bribes (baksheesh). Example - there is a tourism policeman (yes, they exist, and presumably have much better opportunities for bribes) with a large gun standing in front of a great photo opportunity in the museum. However, he tells you that you can't take a photo - without paying him, that is.

They said the sites/ruins were great, but the rest was a bit much for so long. They recommend short trips.