Dreaming of Egypt... A trip to Marsa Matrouh

09/07/2010 from Malpensa at 12.00 and arrive at their destination in the late afternoon. By bus we travel about 30 km to reach the village Bravo Almaza Beach. We cross the periphery of Marsa Matrouh, old houses that seem at times crumbling, markets with stalls of all kinds. Leaving the city covers an area is almost deserted, with few houses scattered Bedouins. We arrive at the village, very nice and the sea. Through a beautiful garden where there are swimming pools you reach the beach, white, long, fine sand and the sea, though a bit 'rough, revealing their Caribbean colors. Really seems to be in the tropics and the Mediterranean.

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In the days after the sea calms down and becomes very beautiful, clear and transparent colors that fade from blue to green. The beach is huge, with a few rows of umbrellas, plenty of room for long walks. The village is very well organized with lots of activities and good entertainment, especially in the evening shows that will surprise, the food is varied and of good quality.
After a few days of sea, sun and relaxation, when we begin to turn red in a slightly disturbing .. we decide to make the first trip: 2 days in Cairo.

 

CAIRO - GIZA

Cairo: starting in the morning, at 4 am. We expect about 500 km to arrive in Cairo. The bus is small, only 5 for us, the bumps are so many views the road paved with potholes and loosely. Arriving in Cairo welcomes us once had gray smog that surrounds the city. We visit the Citadel of Saladin, in a dominant position on the city, with the 2 mosques, one of which opened with arcades dating back to 1300. We in Egypt in July, but here's a pleasant climate with a little 'air, under us the smog envelops the old part of town. We come then to the Egyptian museum, old house without air conditioning, not for long though, because in a few years in the area will move into a new building of the pyramids as the findings that continue to bring to light are no longer in the current museum. Let the treasure of Tutankhamen, his great wealth and refinement of the figures. Our guide, Ali, a graduate in Egyptology, explains some details that differentiate the statues of the pharaohs. Those of the first kingdom are still standing because at that time also Pharaoh was considered a deity, then in the New Kingdom are also represented on his knees because he had no divine value. Also different was the significance of the beard: if it was straight meant that Pharaoh was still alive, though it was curved and the Pharaoh was already dead. A hand was usually open and one closed fist, symbol of peace and power.
After visiting the Museum, lunch at a restaurant barge along the Nile. In the afternoon visit to a market in the old part of town, narrow streets full of shops and stalls, we are surrounded by vendors who offer us all, especially we the only tourists ... let us not also too inside, here there are still sellers Water running through the streets with a small barrel and a single cup from which people drink, in turn, then we take the bus and cross the city of the dead zone of crumbling buildings that once were graves, and where people live, the area full of mosques and minarets, especially given the impressive whole. We arrive at the hotel in late afternoon, the hotel is out of town, near the airport in the evening, so we are stuck, do not go out and witness a marriage in an Egyptian hotel.

The next day we expect the visit to the Pyramids of Giza. The city of Giza is now one with Cairo as the buildings are uninterrupted. The pyramids are just behind the houses and suddenly appear behind the buildings. The pyramid was the tomb of the pharaoh and his queen in the 'Old Kingdom (Dynasty III and IV) and partly in the Middle Kingdom (Dynasty XI and XII) and had a symbolic meaning, representing the rays of the sun. Before we admire them from a vantage point from which you can see all three, then we get closer. All around the desert and camels, dirt, too, does not seem to be one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.
The pyramid of Khufu is the largest with its 230 meters on each side, that of Khafre is the only one that has kept the white coating on the tip and then the smallest that of Mycerinus. Adjacent is the Solar Boat, inside a building. It 'was discovered in 1954, was dismantled and rebuilt to carry it to the place where it is now. 43 meters long made entirely of wood with only the pieces together by ropes, was preserved in a surprising way, had always also a symbolic meaning for the tomb of the pharaoh.
A little 'offset from the pyramids, although the picture seems very close, there is the Sphinx, carved from an outcrop of rock that recalled the shape. Represents the Pharaoh Khafre with the appearance of a cat, symbol of royalty.
Later we visit the Papyrus Institute where we show the working of the papyrus and then to dinner at a restaurant outside the city, housed in a tent.
In the afternoon visit the ancient city of Memphis, founded during the 1 st dynasty and then very important as a center of Egypt even though it was the capital. Now little remains except a few statues of Ramses II as significant as lying with the headdress typical crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, the statue originally stood in front of the temple. Here is another of alabaster sphinx that even if it is actually made of stone and dating from the 18 th dynasty. Then we go to Saqqara, which together with Giza was one of the main necropolis of Memphis and the surrounding area is rich in vegetation, palm trees, as full of water.
Here is the step pyramid of Zoser, the fourth dynasty pharaoh, the third millennium before Christ, is therefore one of the oldest in Egypt. Beneath the pyramid entrance to the tunnel and various site access with a colonnade side niches representing the passage of the mummy of Pharaoh before arriving at the tomb.
After this last visit we begin the return trip to Marsa Matrouh where we arrive in the evening. Two days were intense, but very satisfying, we have seen the archaeological sites and we had an idea of ??a huge and impressive cities like Cairo, where you should definitely come back, pausing longer to understand more but should not be Easy!

Afternoon in Marsa Matrouh

In the afternoon we visit the city of Marsa Matrouh, which is about 30 km from our village. Along the road are several Bedouin homes. Here the Bedouins have become settled in this area because there is water and can grow figs and olives. They can be recognized by other Egyptians because they usually wear the keffiyeh. Marsa Matrouh in Arabic means distant port city is a resort for the Egyptians themselves. In the city there are many 4 star hotels but rather squalid considered by our standards, the Way of Alexandria is the leading full of stalls selling all, but here too many china and a few original objects, with the promenade along the seafront.
The typical Egyptian holiday is in getting up late in the morning, be on the beach until around 19, but without prejudice to the sun and then under an umbrella, sitting in chairs .. not simple deck, with only two rows of umbrellas close to each them and the rest of the huge beach and free. Even here the sea has beautiful colors, though not as beautiful as the village from us but where people take a bath the water is still low and therefore a milky blue. The whole coast of Alexandria in Egypt as a whole has a beautiful sea, in fact, the construction of residences and villages is vibrant and lively, but some parts are close to the delta of the Nile to Rosetta, which leads slime. Almaza Beach, where there is the village is really the best place, not at all in Arabic means Almaza diamond.
Rommel visit the Museum, located inside of a hill right on the harbor, appears to have been dug by the Romans to store grain, then used as headquarters by Rommel during the German advance in the Italian World War 2. Then we go to the beach of Cleopatra with beautiful colors. The legend says that if you enter the cave and you bathe with sea water rejuvenates you, here the queen Cleopatra, Mark Antony accompanied to swim when he was in Egypt. Egyptian women have come to believe that a lot, fully dressed with their burqas at times almost completely full and leave wet but happy. The mosque of Marsa Matrouch not be visited because it still has a hundred years and is therefore not considered monument but only a place of worship. We walk a little 'down the main street browsing through the stalls, not so much affected by what' that is for sale, but the people around us.

SIWA OASIS

Another excursion is full of charm to 'Oasis of Siwa, about 300 km from the village, to reach you proceed along the only paved road (only since 1985) through the Western Desert or Libyan Desert as the oasis is only 65 km from the border with Libya. The oasis covers over 94000 square kilometers, in a depression 20 meters below sea level; 20000 people live there, Bedouins of Berber origin that preserve ancient traditions such as those concerning women, when they are still single are free to spin it openly, but once married just out of the house, accompanied only by her husband or a male family member wear a full veil and blue and black colors that leaves only the eyes uncovered. The means of transport typical of the place is the cart, pulled by the donkey, we also try to cross the city. There are a lot of kids pulled by some 5 or 6 years, very good at maneuvering the cart and the donkey.
The 'oasis is rich in crops, olive trees and date palms, there are lakes and thermal springs and beyond the Green .. the great sea of ??sand ..
We visit the Mountain of the Dead necropolis with tombs carved into the mountain and with paintings inside, including representatives of various deities Nut, the goddess of darkness. The graves were later used by the Greeks and Romans as you can see the different paintings and finally during World War 2 were used as shelters. From this hill I admire the landscape below with palm trees, the old city and the desert.
Then we visit the remains of the ancient city of Shali, built in karshif, material mixture of salt and mud that dissolves easily and in fact the city has virtually dissolved during the heavy rains of 1926. What remains, such as the ancient mosque is still very charming. Then we visit a typical house in Siwan, built especially for tourists, but it takes the typical house on two floors in karshif.
Then take one of the many carts for tourists and we go to the Temple of the Oracle of Ammon, or say where he went to Alexander the Great consulted the oracle about his divine origin. The entrance has a double door, Pharaonic and Greek. Engraved in the rock are some scrolls dating to Dynasty XXVI.
The last stop before lunch: The Source of Cleopatra, stone swimming pool that contains spring water, it seems, was cited by Herodotus as the source of the Sun because its water was warm in the morning and then cool down during the day and boil until midnight. Dozens of local kids are having fun to dive into the clear waters.
We have lunch in a restaurant in a tourist complex used by tourists wishing to stay overnight in Siwa.
After lunch, two in the hot sun of the afternoon, we travel by jeep in the desert around the oasis. The jeep in the dunes and you forward even if the time is not the best because of the heat high, the spectacle of the desert leaves you speechless.
After about an hour of raids on the dunes, tired, covered up, but glad we return to our village where we are still waiting for a few days relaxing by the sea