Tag Archives: Nile

Visit to Maydoum Pyramid at Meidum – Day 4

Blasdale Home Posted on by

Early morning starts are not an issue, on holiday I typically wake at random intervals and look out of the window. Rosemary is not always best pleased when I point something out to her, but I don’t want her to miss anything. But she’s often awake, too. Anyway, we woke before the wake-up call, dressed and headed out for breakfast. For breakfast, today I had a small amount of fruit only. The previous day of heavy eating was beginning to weigh heavily on my stomach.

We walked out of the boat before 7.00, clutching our bottles of water. The hour’s drive to the pyramid was through many villages and fields, on a very hazy day. The pyramid was not in sight until we were right on top of it. Loads of three-wheeler taxis, donkey carts etc. Quite fascinating looking at the crops being grown. Alfalfa for the cattle, oranges, bananas, wheat, and masses of garlic. The cultivated area here extended a long way West of the Nile with some large irrigation canals. The roads were mainly tarmacked dual carriage, with speed humps every mile or so. The pyramid was on higher ground, in a dry area. Nearby, there was construction of new factories. LG has a factory somewhere, and we saw a Samsung factory being built. Egypt is trying to encourage construction in the desert instead of the green Nile belt. Crop production needs to increase as the population of Egypt increases.

At this pyramid there was masses of security. The road had barriers, so the buses had to zig-zag down the entry road, police here had solid metal, floor mounted shields. We were the only tourists at the pyramid. Apparently, there are perhaps a couple of tours a day.

As well as the pyramid, there were some tombs of eminent nobles. The chamber tombs were built of mud brick, some going back to the 4th dynasty of the Old Kingdom

The strangely shaped Maydoum Pyramid was started by King Huni at the end of the 3rd dynasty. King Sneferu, 1st pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, is said to have completed it. The height is about 70 meters. The entrance is on the North side and leads to a 57 meter long passage where there are two small chambers and the burial chamber. We were able to walk down a staircase deep into the pyramid to the burial chamber. Well worth the walk down. Steep, cramped, not for the tall bod, and definitely warm down there. Ended in a climb up two wide-runged vertical ladders. With no free hands (my two were clutching my camera & my phone which I was using as a torch), I did find it a tad tricky.

Soon we were back at the boat, which immediately set sail for El Minya. We took the opportunity to investigate the on board shop where we purchased ourselves some traditional Egyptian clothing, for a dinner to be held on some future night, and a stone cat from Sinai (an essential, R told me). Lunch today was huge, an Egyptian lunch. Chicken, beef, lots of salads, dips, sesame, aubergine, tomatoes etc. Small dishes placed on the table for sharing. We’d managed to sit down with two semi-vegetarians. so were rather overwhelmed by the the quantities of meat dishes. One chap had kidney stone problems, so had learnt to avoid raspberries, chocolate, tomatoes and spinach. He said it really helped him avoid the stones forming.

The afternoon was spent recovering from the indulgence, lying around like dead sheep, but we still managed a cup of tea at the appropriate time.

When we returned for lunch, there was usually a towel construction on one of our beds – an animal, flower or human. Do not understand why, but it seems to be standard for cruises.

Today was Friday, the holy day. The calls to prayer appear to be a competition. You are in view of several mosques at the same time, all with slightly differing clocks. At dawn, midday and sunset the call to prayer was particularly vocal, with each mosque appearing to compete with the neighbouring mosques for their congregation. I was not aware of the afternoon and evening prayers. We had another George Hart lecture This time on Pharaohs and Nomarchs (sic, Nomarchs) covering the Middle Kingdom and a preview of the tomorrow’s sightseeing. I do admit that Heavy Eyelid Syndrome does come with these talks.

Then it was time for preprandials and dinner. (We seemed to have abandoned our no-drinking-on-a-school-night rule.)

Cruise day from Cairo to Beni-Suif – Day 3

Blasdale Home Posted on by

We now made a start on our 600-mile Nile river cruise to Aswan. The long cruise from Cairo to Aswan is still a little unusual, not many boats do this stretch. Nile cruises typically run between Luxor and Aswan. The long cruises operated up until 1991 after which the middle section of the Nile remained closed. In the Nineties members of the al Gama’a al-Islamiyya Islamist group fired at tourist vessels and in 1997 the group killed 62 people, mainly tourists, at the site of Deir el-Bahari in Luxor. The Arab Spring in 2011 and ensuing chaos following the election of Mohamed Morsi made policing the river a low priority. It reopened briefly in 2013 until a change was made to Foreign Office advice. The long cruise started again on the 26th November 2014 following lobbying from travel companies, including the local agent Traveline. Traveline owns our ship, the SS Misr, and provided the Egyptian guides for our trip.

We set sail some time early in the morning, around 4 am apparently. I woke Rosemary at 5.30 to tell her we were travelling, and hence “doing things”, which I thought would please her, but she was not best pleased. There was a late breakfast at 8.00, after which we spent the morning on the deck watching the banks go by. It was not very warm, and I was reduced to putting on my Fat Face sweatshirt. There were many birds to spot, Crows, Pigeons, Egrets, Ibis, Swallows and Kingfishers. The Swallows were swooping over the water feeding on insects, the Egrets seemed to be the garbage collectors. Pied Kingfishers were very abundant when you knew where to look. Nice to watch the mix of green fields and housing. Lots of brick works with their tall chimneys. There was also the constant waving and whistling between the people on the shore and boat. We saw a dredger moving along the Nile, I assume it was moving to another location to dig out some of the irrigation canals. Its method of propulsion was to use its digger bucket, dipping the bucket into the water and swinging it towards the back, alternatively on either side.

Other features of the landscape were the number of Dalek-like pigeon lofts. Pigeons are a favourite food in Egypt, not that we were served with any. The number of chimneys on the bank numbered thousands. These were the brick works. Some were derelict, while others were still in use and a small number were actually firing bricks. Egypt has natural gas, so another feature was the number of power cables and power stations on the bank. Some brilliant towers.

To break the day up, we had a talk by the guides, Sherif and Anwar, and then our usual large lunch, back on deck followed by a fire drill (when I found the first life jacket I picked up could not be closed). More time on deck and then tea. After tea, we had a lecture on The Pyramid Age by George Hart. George is a retired Eguptologist from the British Museum. This lecture covered the old period, the Pyramid Age. Just before the lecture started, the tender was launched with a lot of commotion. The tender then had trouble starting its engine, so the accompanying police launch had to rescue them. Unfortunately, the lecture was due to start, so we never saw the outcome of this crisis. I think the tender was launched because of low water levels. I learnt on the last day of the cruise, there was a man at the foredeck of the SS Misr who constantly probed the water to find the depth throughout the whole voyage. I knew there was a crew member who came on deck before we went under a bridge. He would check a height measure against the height of the funnel, and then stand at the front of the boat with the measure upright to make sure we were lower than the bridge. I am not sure what would have happened if we here too high. I can’t believe we could have slowed down in time. If we were found to be too tall, the funnel could be lowered along with all the sun parasols over the loungers. This did happen at one bridge, the crew prepared the deck before we had reached it.

The boat moored up at Beni-Suif at dusk. We were moored up in a secure area, complete with watchtowers, police guards and of course a gated area immediately alongside us.

Dinner, but first cocktails at the bar, Gin Fizz for R and a Mojito for Steve. Tonight was an International buffet. Lamb rack for the meat, and some Red Mullet on the bone for the fish. The Mullet was very nice, though bony. After the dessert came the banging and the cake. Round the room it came, passing Rosemary by. Other tables were asked where the people from room 201 were. I was told by R to go and point out where she was, but somehow I ended up with a glass of red wine instead. Some loss of communication (or perhaps not)! Eventually Rosemary was located and duly received her cake, with a large piece of chocolate with her name iced on. The guides gave her a silver ankh, which was a lot more than I did and very kind of them. She cut the cake and the slices were duly passed around. Another birthday to come I hear.

Early night as we had an early start in the morning, a 5.45 am call for the next day.