Round the World 2015: Egypt - Cairo and Alexandria

After the 15th flight of our trip, we arrived in Cairo, Egypt more than half way around the world east to west from where we began. The flight from India crossed the Arabian Peninsula. We were able to see cities on the Gulf of Arabia that I’m guessing were in one of the Emirates. After that it was a lot of sandy brown with a few dark brown, rocky ridges until we got to the Red Sea where we could see the Suez Canal(s); then sand again until we saw the agricultural lands and pyramids around Cairo.
Our friend, “Uncle” Ahmed, picked us up at the airport and took us on a whirlwind tour of Cairo and Alexandria. Egypt seems refreshing after India. Sorry India. Traffic is modestly better. It would be better still if the whole city wasn’t double parked. Ahmed says there has been a recent surge in car ownership) in Egypt so many drivers are inexperienced and haphazard. It can take hours to cross Cairo even at midnight. I don’t know how he does it, but thanks Ahmed. Egypt drives on the right side of the road which takes getting used to after 3 months on the left side.

We stayed in Ahmed’s apartment in the neighborhood of Heliopolis in the same building he grew up in. Heliopolis was developed in the past hundred years with wide avenues and boulevards with sidewalks that seem comforting. Our first night we had an excellent meal at the Citadel View restaurant and then saw the sound and light show at the Pyramids of Giza (sorry we had problems with the camera). The next day we visited the Mosque of Mohammed Ali (the Albanian Ottoman ruler, not the boxer) on the summit of Citadel. We also visited the Coptic churches of St. Mary’s (the “hanging church” built above old roman ruins) and Abu Serga, the cavern church built above an abode once occupied by Mary, Joseph and Jesus. At night, we took a felucca (sail boat) ride on the Nile followed by a late pizza dinner in the Maddi neighborhood, home to most westerners before the revolution that brought down Mubarak.

Ahmed drove us 220 km north to Alexandria (“Alex”) on the Mediterranean Sea. He gave us history lessons along the way. We followed the south bank of the Nile Delta through millions of acres of agricultural land reclaimed from the desert. We saw truckloads of melons, peaches, tomatoes and oranges and groves of olives and bananas. We drove the Corniche (El Gaish Road) that hugs the coast along Alexandria’s 18 km length. The city extends only a few kilometers inland. Egypt is more alive at 10 at night than all day long and people in Alex all seem to gather along long the seashore.

We stayed a night in Ahmed’s summer condo on the beach 40 km west of Alex. The coast is like a ghost town of thousands upon thousands of vacation condominiums waiting for the summer season to begin when school gets out next month. For as far as one could see on the beach there was almost no one (maybe a fisherman). We also stayed a couple of nights in a resort hotel. We almost had the place to ourselves.

The Mediterranean is an amazing aqua blue. I'm sorry, but it reminded me of mouthwash. The waves broke right at the beach. Ten feet from shore and the water is over your head, but you float like a bobber. Not much of a tide in the Mediterranean. When the wind was offshore, smog from the refineries turned the sky pink and reflected purple in the waves. The atmosphere’s thickness is 1/1,000^th the diameter of the earth (relatively less than an eggshell). It’s our protection from radiation, the air we breathe, and the vapor that becomes our rain. In close proximity to tens of millions of people, it is clear that we sure have a way of messing it up.

Egypt‘s population is 90 million and growing by 2 million a year. There may be some Bedouins and oases, but most everyone lives within a few kilometers of the Nile River or the coasts. We haven’t seen any extreme poverty. People seem to have at least what they need. We did drive Cairo’s northern ring road through thousands of illegal, unpermitted, multi-story residential buildings (the Cairo Post indicates there have been nearly a million units built, many of which are not safe). We saw a collapsed building and one that was severely leaning and one collapsed in Alexandria while we were in the country.

Egypt is currently under military rule. Other than frequent checkpoints, it is not very obvious. Everyone we have spoken with is happier with the current situation. Life is safer and more stable and long-standing projects are getting completed with military efficiency.

We heard the Muslim call to prayer in India, but in Egypt you can hardly miss it six times a day.

Citadel View Restaurant