Cairo

Cairo

During my stay at Cairo I visited the following destinations:

Cairo the City

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

The Pyramids of cheops & The Sphinx

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All Photographs are thumbnails, Please click on them to enlarge.

Cairo the City

Cairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in Africa. It is Located on both banks of the Nile River near the head of the river's delta in northern Egypt, the site has been settled for more than 6000 years and has served as the capital of numerous Egyptian civilizations. The city also reflects Egypt's growing poverty, and it struggles to cope with problems caused by massive population growth, urban sprawl, and a deteriorating infrastructure.

In 1992 Cairo was estimated to have a population of 6.8 million and known to be the fourth most populated city in the World. Every 72 seconds a new child is born within the city of Cairo.

Good points: Most of city seems never to sleep and all of the restaurants and shops seem to be open well in to the early hours of the morning.

Bad Points: The high poverty level is very noticeable within the city, with no real infrastructure most of the buildings are in a state of disrepair and a lot of the population are living well below the poverty line. The roads in Egypt are Chaos; the roads are always totally full and nobody pays any attention to traffic signals or lights, check your insurance policies before crossing the roads.

Rating 4 / 10

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities

Said to be one of the greatest museums in the world this contains some greats artefacts, the most widely known is Tutankhamun’s treasure with the centrepiece being his funerary mask.

If you viewed all of the 136, 000 exhibits in the museum, allowing one minute for each, it would take you around nine months.

There is another Forty thousand more items in the basement and not on view at the museum, where many have sunk into the soft ground, necessitating further excavations.

Good Points: Tutankhamun’s treasure was defiantly the highlight of the museum for me; it is a very scary feeling looking into the eyes of the mask, defiantly worth the entrance fee just to see that.

Bad Points: The museum contains a lot of historically important exhibits and not so many exhibits that are impressive to look at, may be very interesting for a historian but no so much for the general public.

Rating: 7 / 10

The Great pyramid of Cheops & The Sphinx

The pyramids in Egypt are among the most impressive man made structures in the World, many historians have ideas but no one is sure exactly how these great structures were built.

The original purpose of the pyramids was as large burial chambers for the great rulers of Egypt who rained between 3000 – 5000 years ago.

The largest of the pyramids in this group is the pyramid of Cheops (originally 145m high with a square base of 232m).

The sphinx is a crouching lion with a human head carved in solid rock, probably representing King Chephren.

Good Points: Anyone who visits the pyramids can not help being amazed at there size and beauty. Probably the most impressive structures I have seen.

Bad Points: The area around the pyramids is fairly messy, with a lot of litter on the ground, also the armed tourist police are here in great numbers. There is also a large amount of beggars and pushy salesmen trying to sell cheap and tacky goods here.

Rating: 9 / 10