On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 19:31:34 +0100, "Canopus"
wrote:


"Alan S" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 16:45:07 GMT, "Tashi" wrote:

|Good health and high spirits!
|some info for you.

Thanks for that. Could be very useful.

I will be in Cairo for only three nights, probably May 2006. Not on a
tour. Extension of time may be possible, but not likely.

Any suggestions for a three-night, incl two days, stay would be
appreciated. I know it's too short, but I wish to at least see the
Pyramids and the Museum, plus whatever else of Ancient Egypt I can in
that short time.


Cheers, Alan, Australia

You will be hard pushed to do much more in three days. Unless you are doing
a flying visit to places so you can say "seen that, done that" then you need
a day for the museum and a day for the Giza Pyramids (El Haram). Try to get
to the Dashur pyramid site near the southern suburbs of Cairo which have two
spectacular pyramids. There is the Red Pyramid which you can go down into
and while you are in the bottom chambers take note of how they are
constructed. They used large blocks carved perfectly around corners which
add nothing to the structural strength of the pyramid, but, would have been
very difficult to do...no one can say why they did it, but, you find this
construction technique on only the very oldest structures. The there is
also there the Bent Pyramid with much of its white facing stone still
intact, a marvel to behold and gives you a true idea what they all must have
been like at one time. Dashur is not frequented too much by tourists so the
atmosphere is more sublime.

Rob

Thanks Rob

It's not so much "seen that, done that" as a stopover
en-route to a longer trip to Europe and America. So I have
to prioritise times - more time in Egypt is less somewhere
else. Particularly when the other half is much more
interested in Vienna, Prague, Paris and NYC than ancient
monoliths like me (intended:-)

News reports here of Cairo are a bit daunting; I saw your
post on the minibus. How safe is it for a 58 yo 6' tall
obviously Western caucasian to wander around alone by such
means? Or for a similarly obvious 4'10 1/2" (never forget
the half-inch) lady to do the same thing in the bazaars?


Cheers, Alan, Australia