Egypt in Photos

Alexandria library — The library at Alexandria, Egypt

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.