City of the Dead

The first thing that we really got a good view of was the massive cemetery they call the "City of the Dead." The "City of the Dead" is also a"City of the Living" as many of the poorest people in Cairo make the cemetery their home. Almost everywhere you looked you could see makeshift housing and people scurrying about doing their daily chores and carrying water.

I guess the next thing you'd say we were introduced to was the traffic. Having traveled all over and experienced some of what we think is the worst traffic nightmares, like the Long Island Parkway at rush hour, the San Diego Freeway between Los Angeles and San Diego on a Friday afternoon, or the beltway around Washington, D.C., well, let me tell you, that's nothing compared to Cairo. The traffic was horrible. The road conditions were not good and the slightest thing could, and often did, bring traffic to a standstill. You can't imagine how bad the traffic is until you've experienced it firsthand. But, Anne and I were anxious to arrive at our hotel, the Holiday Inn at Giza because we knew from there we would get our first glimpse of the great pyramids at Giza. We weren't disappointed at all.

The hotel was not without it's little quirks, like most hotels. There were two things in particular. First, no matter how well you managed to make sure the shower curtain was inside the tub and apparently closed, the floor still got soaking wet from leaking water. Second, you're cautioned not to drink the water or even use ice cubes in your drinks. I soon learned why. We put some sodas on ice one night in the sink. The next morning when I returned the bottom of the sink was covered with sand that had been in the ice cubes. The restaurant was good and served western style meals, but we stayed away from all fresh vegetables and salads as advised by our tour guide.

Arriving at the hotel after a full day, Anne and I were both pretty tired. All I wanted to do was get something good to eat and just sit back and relax. Anne learned that there would be a light and sound show, like the one we attended at the Acropolis in Athens, that first evening, but I begged off feeling I was too tired to attend. Unfortunately they would not repeat the show while we were there and we would miss it altogether. Believe me I've regretted being the reason we missed that show and have wished a thousand times we had gone. Sorry honey!

With the exception of traveling from Port Said to our hotel at Giza, the only other thing we accomplished was to exchange some of our money into Egyptian Pounds at a pre-approved government office. As is often the case, in third world countries there is a black-market for US dollars, and Egypt was no exception. To get the best rates possible you went to pre-designated government offices and not to the local banks. This required us to walk several blocks from the hotel, the first time we were alone on the streets of Cairo. Changing the money took some time, but I have to give it to the Egyptians. They did things with a flare. Our visas, obtained from the Egyptian Embassy in New York, had beautiful and colorful stamps on the pages of our passport, and the money exchange receipt form also contained such stamps. I still have the receipt a full 17 years later. Walking the streets was a bit uneasy at first. There weren't to many people on the streets in the area that we were in and those that were did not look that safe. We were approached several times by individuals offering money on the black-market, but declined having just changed some money. We did stop to look in several stores on the way back. We made our first purchases there, a gold Ramses II cartouche for Anne and a gold Key of Life for me, both well known Egyptian symbols.

Continue to the next page to discover the treasures of Sakkarah and Memphis, the old kingdom.