When I visited Egypt four years ago, I expected frustration and annoyance. I supposed I’d be hustled by street urchins and harassed by touts. I thought it’d be a junior India of sorts. I was wrong.
Granted, you’ll get annoyed if you follow every seemingly friendly Mohammed to his cousin’s souvenir shop. But if you travel smart and keep a positive and light-hearted attitude, you’ll love Egypt. Just like I did.
It wasn’t Pharaonic Egypt that I fell in love with (but maybe it would have been if I made it to the Valley of the Kings or Abu Simbel) but modern Arab Egypt. I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t even make it to the Egyptian museum. So what exactly was I doing in Egypt for almost a month?
I spent time relaxing on the shore of the salty Red Sea in the Sinai, crossed the broad expanse of the Nile delta, peered across the Suez Canal, ambled along the Corniche in Alexandria, journeyed out to the Siwa Oasis, and waited out Ramadan in Cairo.
I tried to assemble some of my favorite photos from my time in Egypt, part of a longer 6-month overland Middle East trip, from Istanbul to Cairo. Unfortunately, I didn’t capture the nighttime bustle of Cairo’s Islamic quarter or the near vacant streets that daylight hours of the Muslim holy month witnessed. Photos couldn’t recreate the innate hospitality I experienced one evening while walking through a Cairo neighborhood as fast was broken.
Hopefully, I have given you a sense of the raw beauty of the Sinai, the peculiarity of the Siwa Oasis, a glimpse of the famed Suez canal, a peek at one of the ancient wonders of the world, and the vast emptiness that is the Sahara Desert.
Soft Beach at Tarabin, Sinai
The beach in Tarabin, Sinai
Soft Beach, Sinai
Sunrise from Mt Sinai
The Burning Bush, St. Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai
The Pyramids at Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza
Stephen at the Pyramids
Resting with camel, near the pyramids of Giza
The tourist police at the pyramids
Cairo
Alexandria’s Corniche
The Suez Canal at Port Said
Tire tracks in the desert near the Siwa Oasis
Sands dunes near the Siwa Oasis
Mud brick buildings in the Siwa Oasis
Sailboat in the Nile Delta
Desert is such a mysterious place. One of the fascination form my former work was building something in the desert, and the possibilities of me living there. We all know it didn’t happen, so I have to make the opportunity on my own!
Splendid photos of desert.