Our third day was spent seeing the sights in Cairo. We moved up to more recent history for sure!

Our first stop in Old Cairo was the area known as Coptic Cairo. I’d never heard the term ‘Coptic’ before and I hope I’m explaining it correctly – the Copts are an ethno-religious group who believe themselves not to be of Arabic origin but of ancient Egyptian origin (of Pharoahnic descent) and represent the Christian minority in Egypt (around 10% of the population).

The hanging church is notable as it was built on the gate of an old Roman Fortress. ‘Ground level’ often shifts significantly in many of these areas due to flooding and blowing sand so underneath the church are partially excavated Roman ruins from around 30BC and the church itself dates back to the 3rd century AD. It’s so difficult to wrap your head around the activity of humans over hundreds of years so long ago!

Our next stop was the Mosque of Ibn Tulun – one of the oldest mosques (884 AD) in all of Africa and the largest in terms of total area of the site. We spent quite a bit of time here exploring as there were magnificent views to be had both from the roof and from the top of the minaret. Minarets are towers at the mosques that can be seen in the skyline all over Egypt and other Muslim countries (see second photo below). Their purpose is to identify the mosque and for announcing the call to prayer.

Directly next to the mosque is the Gayer-Anderson museum, named for Major RG Gayer-Anderson Pasha, a British dignitary who lived in the house from 1935 to 1942. It’s actually 2 houses in one – the main residence and a guest house both equally as large with many ornately decorated rooms. It was built in the 17th century.

We also visited the Al-Azhar Mosque – which is likened to Vatican City as a centre of Muslim religion. It was a beautiful spot and we were there during prayers so very ethereal!

Food was unfortunately not a focus for this trip. We ate at a lot of buffets and a couple of tourist restaurants when we couldn’t convince our guides to take us for falafel or shawarma at the very least. Our favourite sweet drink (from a very limited number of choices where we ended up eating) was Mirinda (orange, tangerine or apple flavoured pop). And this was probably our best food day of the trip – we got to eat street food – falafel and koshari on the Shariah al mu’izz il-din allah – Main Street old Cairo. Egyptian Koshari is comfort food at its best – pasta, rice, chickpeas, lentils, tomato sauce and fried onions!

After our (very late) lunch, our last stop was the The Egyptian Museum. Ideally it would be good to have an entire morning to spend here. As it was, our guide took us to the highlights of this huge collection!! I was originally disappointed that the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza wouldn’t be open yet for our visit but this was so spectacular in its own right! I’ve read before that many of the artifacts aren’t labelled and this is true, but the sheer number of them is amazing! And the key attractions are adequately explained – Tutankhamen’s tomb contents, the hall of the tomb of Yuyu and Thuya (including their very well preserved mummies on display), mummified animals and countless sarcophagi, statues and hieroglyphs.

The next day we checked out of our hotel and hit the highway headed west to the Black Desert and the White Desert. Our 4X4 was well used and adorned with the horns of a ram….. and with 6 people crammed in (the 3 of us, the driver, our guide and the driver’s son along to help) plus luggage and camping gear it made for an uncomfortable ride overall. Add to that the fact we were driving for nearly 8 hours and that the suspension was super loose (not sure if on purpose or not) and I was more than maxed out on ‘ass time’ for the day!

Also, I just don’t get driving in Egypt (or India for that matter). First, the concept of ‘stay right (or left when in India) except to pass’ simply doesn’t exist. And literally 80% of the time people drive in more than one lane at a time – in traffic or when there’s no one else on the road! And this trip to the desert was notable in that they’re building a 6 lane highway but it’s in various stages of completion. So drivers just pick which side they want to travel on. I tried to take a photo – we’re in what should be one half of a six lane freeway but vehicles are going in both directions. And 2 transport trucks are taking up all 3 lanes!!! My (mostly) rule (and logic) following nature doesn’t allow for these concepts 😆 and I literally had to stop looking!

Our first stop was almost 4 hours in at the Black desert. It was dead calm and the temperature was a perfect 20C or so. And sooo quiet after the din of the city – it was wonderful! We spent 20 minutes or so wandering and climbing to the top of one of the hills of basalt lava deposits. It was stunning and would have been a great place for a picnic. Instead we stopped at a sketchy roadside cafe about an hour later. Surprisingly, it turned out to be one of the best meals in Egypt! We didn’t have a choice, we ate what we were brought, but it was a selection of dishes including shakshuka, beans and a delicious tomato salad!

After lunch we stopped at Crystal Mountain at the beginning of the White Desert. We were told that the crystals were formed after a meteorite strike in the area. Hilariously, we had some mechanical problems as we were leaving Crystal Mountain. We were the only ones out there in the middle of the desert and were definitely contemplating what it was going to look like if they couldn’t get the vehicle started again!! Fortunately our driver had 20+ years of experience and knew his vehicle well and we were up and running with no further glitches in about 15 minutes!

Finally we arrived at the White Desert in the early afternoon and spent a couple of hours 4x4ing through the sand looking at different formations. The landscape is truly stunning!

The other major down side of our desert visit was that we weren’t informed til our lunch stop that it would be our last actual bathroom for 24 hours. Likely TMI, but toileting in the desert isn’t my idea of fun – I need time to prepare, to wrap my head around it! Also, it was sooo cold and we were told there’d be blankets – and there weren’t – just woefully inadequate sleeping bags (with sand in them). There were good things about the camping ⛺️ too – sunset, stars, sunrise and a delicious dinner prepared over hot coals.

The next day we reluctantly piled back into the 4X4 and headed to the Wadi Al-Hitan – Valley of the Whales. Literally hundreds of whale skeletons have been found in the stage of evolution where they are transitioning from land to ocean animals and still have vestiges of their hind limbs! This is a UNESCO world heritage site with a newly opened museum that is super well done! We had no idea where we were going when we set off across the desert (turns out there’s a road, but the short cut is about 45 minutes through the open desert)!

Our final stop before arriving back in Cairo at the train station for our overnight train to Aswan was the Magic Lake (named as such because it changes color several times a day). People swim and sand board here (we didn’t) and there’s also some great 4X4ing terrain. Malorie took the initiative to ask if we could drive (so many kudos to her cuz I was dying to but too chicken to ask). She took the wheel first through some of the deeper sand and then it was my turn. I was super surprised when the driver let me head out on to the road so I got to take us up to full speed and practice using my horn to pass. Got some stares when people went by – it’s not common to see women driving. It was a blast!

See you in Aswan!! (note: the wait for the overnight train was cold and uncomfortable at the station outdoors for almost 3 hours. But the train itself had surprisingly comfortable beds!)