Overland to London - Cairo

 

The 3rd Dynasty Stepped Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara

Day 37    Tues 1 July                 CAIRO

Departure time: 9 am

          This morning our local guide – Salah or, as he likes to call himself, Son of the Pharaoh – will take us on a tour, first to Memphis the ancient capital of Egypt. Memphis was the first capital of the united Upper and Lower Egypt, dating from the period of the 1^st Dynasty around 3000 BC. Here is the great reclining statue of Pharaoh Ramses II, brother statue to the granite one now standing in Ramses II Square in modern central Cairo.  This statue at Memphis is of limestone and has been damaged by salts contained in the River Nile during the annual flooding. The annual Nile floods have now ceased since the Aswan High Dam was completed in the ‘60s.  Also here at Memphis is the famous Alabaster Sphinx, found on the site by an unnamed American woman who had read that the Sphinx was situated, in ancient days, between the two statues of Ramses II.

Reclining ramses II & the Alabaster Sphinx, Memphis

  

        Near Memphis is the necropolis of Saqqara which contains the original pyramid, the Stepped Pyramid of Zoser, Pharaoh of the 3^rd Dynasty (2778-2723 BC). This 6-tiered pyramid, designed by the architect Imhotep, is surrounded by other collapsed pyramids, and ancient mastabas, or ‘houses of eternity’, which date from the pre-dynastic period and are one or two-tiered mudbrick tombs. We will visit two of these. The first will be the Tomb of Mereruka, a powerful official of Pharaoh Teti of the 6^th Dynasty, who died around 2340 BC. This tomb has some rather fine reliefs carved into the limestone walls of the burial chamber, many still with the original pigment, the composition of which has baffled scientists even though analyses have been attempted several times by modern chemical methods. Scenes from the every day life of Mereruka, his son and subjects of the Pharaoh have left a remarkable record of life in ancient Egypt. The other will probably be the mastaba of Princess Idut, a daughter of the 5th dynasty Pharoah Unas. This tomb has some magnificent  painted reliefs of everyday life during the 5th dynasty, including the butchering of an ox. 

Pyramid of 5th Dynasty Pharaoh Userkaf, Stepped Pyramid at back, Saqqara

          Close by we can enter the collapsed pyramid of Pharaoh Teti with its darkened mortuary and burial chambers. In this tomb is the remains of the original sarcophagus and on the ceiling above are painted stars, representing the celestial realm into which the Pharaoh’s spirit will ascend.

The three Pyramids at Giza

          From Saqqara we will head back towards Cairo, stopping for lunch on the way. Then on to Giza and the most famous Pyramids of all. The largest is the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) of the 4^th Dynasty (2723-2563 BC), then the Pyramid of Kafra (Kephren) and the smallest, the Pyramid of Menkaure (Mykerinos). The three Pyramids at Giza are the sole survivors of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and are the oldest by 1000 years! The area of the Great Pyramid is 13 acres and about 2,300,000 mainly limestone blocks, each weighing 2 to 8 tons, where hauled into place by troops of labourers, not yet using the wheel. (Rollers of wood were effectively used). For years, speculation has been hotly debated on the meaning of the Pyramids. Pyramidologists say that the construction was for mathematical and astronomical reasons and if the height of the Great Pyramid is multiplied by x number of times and a half, you have the exact distance between earth and sun etc. Von Daniken (Chariots of the Gods) and other sensationalists contend that they must have been built by extraterrestrial beings, or are energy points or beacons for space ships and that it was impossible for humans, at that particular point in the evolution of man, to have been able to build such constructions. These writers choose to overlook  evidence if it contradicts their theories, even ignoring papyrus and other evidence from ancient Egypt describing how the pyramids were built. Why should it be so surprising for a race of people as pre-occupied with death and the afterlife as the ancient Egyptians were (even to the extent of having a book of instruction for the afterlife – The Book of the Dead) to build such great tombs or monuments to a Pharaoh-God, if the object wasn’t to commemorate the Pharaoh’s memory for all eternity?

Detail of the Great Pyarmid of Cheops, & the Geat Sphinx at Giza

    Near the Pyramids is the ‘faceless’ great Sphinx, said originally to have been a likeness of Pharaoh Menkaure. The face was vandalised by various invading armies through the centuries, including the French or, if you believe the Asterix comicbooks, the nose was accidentally knocked off by Obelix in the days of Cleopatra ("she has such a pretty nose!"}. The remains of the Mortuary Temple of Menkaura is nearby.

Comments:                Happy Birthday John

Day 38    Wed 2 July                 CAIRO

Departure time: 9 am

          This morning Salah will take us to the Egyptian Museum here in Cairo; one of the world’s foremost museums and the best on ancient Egypt. Here are artifacts and implements from all the tombs excavated in Egypt. Salah will point out and explain many of the important exhibits, including the lifelike 4th dynasty painted limestone statues of Prince Rahotep, son of the Pharaoh Snefru and brother of Khufu (Cheops), and his wife, Nofret. I am always fascinated by their hypnotic rock-crystal eyes which give them a life-like appearance. Nearby is the sculptured stele of Menkaure, or Mykerinos, stepping out of the polished greywacke, flanked by the mother goddess Hathor and Anput, a local goddess.  But probably the best-known exhibits are those recovered from the tomb of the 18^th dynasty boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun who died in 1345 BC. His tomb, in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, was discovered by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, and the incredible riches recovered have become legendary along with fallacious stories of a mummy’s curse. Much of Tutankamun’s treasure is currently (1980) on tour in Europe (including the fantastic gold funerary mask) but many of the lesser items, as well as the solid gold coffin remains in the Egyptian Museum.

Sculptures of 4th Dynasty Prince Rahotep & his wife Nofret; Pharaoh Menkaure with  attendant goddesses & a crouching stone figure, Egyptian Museum

The gold funerary mask of Tutankamen & Tutankhamen with his wife, Ankhesenamun 

Unfortunately, the famous Mummy Room has been recently closed but on this same tour last year (1979) we were able to look closely at the unwrapped mummy of Rameses II. I wrote the following in a recent article: ‘It was rather bizarre to be able to look so closely into the amazingly well-preserved face and unseeing eyes of one of the most powerful men in the ancient World, who had died around 3200 years ago. It was difficult to relate this unwrapped mummy to the statue I had seen earlier in Memphis."

The mummy of Rameses II has the distinction of having had, in 1974, an Egyptian passport issued that listed his occupation as "King (deceased)". Egyptologists had noticed that the mummy was rapidly deteriorating and a trip to France was arranged for tests to be carried out.  Rameses II was received at Paris–Le Bourget Airport with the full military honours befitting a king. The mummy was forensically tested by Professor Pierre-Fernand Ceccaldi, the chief forensic scientist at the Criminal Identification Laboratory of Paris. Professor Ceccaldi determined that: "Hair, astonishingly preserved, showed some complementary data—especially about pigmentation: Ramses II was a ginger haired 'cymnotriche leucoderma'." (Madain Project).  Shortly after our 1979 visit, President Anwar Sadat closed the Mummy room to visitors, feeling it was degrading to look upon the dead so closely. He probably had a point. After Sadat’s assassination the Mummy room remained closed for several years before being reopened with a vastly increased entry fee.’

The unwrapped mummy of Ramses II & his passport, Egyptian Museum

    From the Museum we will go into old Cairo to visit the Church of St Sergius & Bacchus, a Coptic church dating from the 4^th century which, traditionally, has been the spot where the Holy Family, Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus rested after their flight into Egypt to escape the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ by Herod’s men.

10th century Greek Orthodox Church of St. George

Nearby is the Beni Ezra Synagogue which, according to folklore, is said to be on the site where the Pharaoh’s daughter found baby Moses in the bulrushes.  We will also visit the 10^th century Greek Orthodox Church of St George, built within the ancient Babylon Fortress of old Cairo.

'Sound & Light' at the Pyramids

The rest of the afternoon will be free in Cairo for shopping or further sightseeing and a visit to the ‘Sound and Light’ at the Pyramids is suggested and recommended. This can be arranged through the front desk at the Fontana Hotel. 

 

Day 39    Thu 3 July            CAIRO – o/n train to LUXOR

Departure time from hotel: 5.30pm     

Distant Pyramids from Cairo Tower

          Most of the day is free for you to re-visit the Egyptian Museum, shop in the bazaars of Cairo, or perhaps visit the Cairo Tower on Gizereh Island in the Nile, the top of which has spectacular views across the city, the Nile and the Pyramids on a clear day.

 

         Late this afternoon we will meet in the lobby of the Fontana Hotel to walk the short distance to the Cairo Railway Station for a 7pm departure by rail for Luxor. We have been provided with sleepers for the journey and dinner will be served on the train. As for the air-conditioning on the train – Inshallah! (If Allah wills, it will work!)

 

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.

Overland to London - Karachi via Athens to Cairo

 

The Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Day 34    Sat 28 June 1980      KARACHI - ATHENS

Departure time from Hotel:  4.15am   Flight no.  RJ191  Flight deps. 6.45am

            We are supposed to clock in at the airport at 4.30am and our tickets should arrive on a flight from Athens! ALIA (Royal Jordanian Airlines) flight RJ191 is scheduled to leave for Dubai and Amman at 6.45am. In Amman we change planes for the connecting flight to Athens. According to the timetable, we are due in Athens at 1.30pm and will be met there and taken to our hotel by a driver under contract to Sundowners. We will be staying at the Hotel Florida, or another nearby hotel until our flight to Cairo on Monday. This evening and tomorrow will be free time in Athens. The hotel is central – near Omonia Square, the smaller of the two main squares in the city. The other is Constitution (or Syntagma) Square where the former Palace, American Express, Tourist Office, Airline offices are found. The Plaka area of Athens is also within easy distance. This is the old area of Athens where much of the night life is found, as are the cheaper eating places. The Acropolis (also a ‘sound and light’, every night) with the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and other buildings can be reached on foot, as can the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Athens Archaeological Museum with its fine collection of Greek sculpture. You will have no problem filling in the next couple of days until our flight to Egypt.

The Acropolis from the Agora, Athens

 

Day 35    Sun 29 June                ATHENS

         A free morning to look around the Greek capital, visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon (free on Sundays) and the nearby Agora and Pnyx with their ancient crop of ruins. The Agora was the ancient market area of Athens.

        Athens  is among the world's continuously occupied cities with a recorded history going back over 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state, often in conflict with neighbouring Sparta, Thebes and with the invading Persians and it is widely referred to as the 'cradle of Western civilisation and the birthplace of democracy'. According the an ancient Athenian myth, Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom competed with Poseidon, god of the seas for the patronage of the as yet unnamed city. Cecrops, king of the area, was to be judge and it was agreed whoever gave the better gift would have the city named after the winner. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt-water spring appeared (another version says he gave the inhabitants the first horse), but Athena offered the first olive tree which was accepted and Athena became the patron of the city.

Ruins of Mycenae, of which Athens was an important centre by 1400 BC

    By 1400 BC, Athens had become an important centre of the Mycenaean civilisation and a fortress had been established on the Acropolis.  By the 6th century BC, widespread social unrest had led to reforms which paved the way for the introduction of democracy by Cleisthenes in 508 BC.  By this time Athens was a significant naval power and had supported the rebellion of the Greek Ionian cities in Asia Minor against Persian rule. This in turn led to the Greco-Persian Wars where a coalition of Greek states, led by Athens and Sparta eventually repelled the Persians, defeating them decisively at Marathon in 490 BC and in the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BC. This, however, had not stopped the Persians from capturing and sacking Athens twice during the wars.  The following decades became known as the 'Golden Age of Athenian Democracy, and guided by Pericles, embarked on an ambitious building programme which saw the construction of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis 

Columns of the Parthenon with Erechtheum at back.
Taken in 1970 when access to the Parthenon was still possible

      In 338 BC an alliance of Athens and Thebes was defeated by Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) at the Battle of Chaeronea. In 146 BC Greece and Athens were occupied by Rome and Athens was given the status of a free city because of its 'widely admired' schools.

Detail of the Elgin Marbles, British Museum
formerly on the Parthenon

There was another period of building under the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD  which saw the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. After the fall of Rome, Athens was sacked by the Visigoths and Slavs, although at this time Christian churches were established, including one in the Parthenon. In the Middle Byzantine period the city expanded and was relatively prosperous during the Crisades, but the city, and Greece, were conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1458 and a period of decline set in. Following the Greek War of Independence (1821-29), a Greek Kingdom was established and in 1834 Athens became the capital of newly independent Greece. 

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens

The Temple of Olympian Zeus, Lord of the Thunderbolt and King of the Gods, is worth a visit. Nearby is the ancient Hadrian’s Arch, built for the Roman emperor whose name crops up from one end of the Roman Empire to the other (e.g. Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England). This arch separated the old city of Athens from the city of Theseus.  One of the main attractions to see in Athens are the antics of the Evzones, or Presidential Guards. These guards can be seen at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier outside the Greek parliament building in Syntagma Square and also outside the Presidential palace. Every 15 minutes these motionless guards will change position and a changing of the guards takes place every hour. This is always a great photo opportunity.  

The Evzones or Presidential Palace guards, Athens

          This afternoon George, our Greek driver, has kindly consented to run us down the coast, 50 odd kilometres, to the beach at Cape Sounion.

Temple of Poseidon
Cape Sounion

    High on the Cape are the remains of a large 5th century BC Temple of Poseidon, the God of the sea and of earthquakes. A better spot for a temple to the sea god would be hard to find. The sunsets from Cape Sounion are stunning. There is plenty of time for a swim in the clear, blue Aegean and a kalamari (squid) BBQ meal in the beach restaurant with a shot or two ouzo, a bottle of retsina or  Domestica wine or a few glasses of the local Fix beer before returning to Athens.

COMMENTS:  See Simon for an excellent guide service through Athens – cheap rates

                                                 – restaurants a speciality!

Day 36    Mon 30 June         ATHENS – CAIRO

          A free morning in Athens while I pick up our tickets to Egypt for this afternoon’s flight to Cairo. We will leave the hotel at 1pm for the airport. Flight is scheduled to leave at 4.30pm, but it could be late (not uncommon for TWA - 'Try Walking Anyway').

The Theatre of Dionysus from the Acropolis

      In Cairo we will be met by a local representative who will act as courier for the duration of our stay in Egypt. He will inform us of the actual itinerary of the Egyptian sector. It will be after dark by the time we settle into the Hotel Fontana, Ramses III Square, Cairo.

The River Nile in Cairo, Egypt

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.

Overland to London - Dogubayazit via Trabzon to Ankara

 

Trucks crossing Tahir Pass in winter - this photo taken on a later trip in 1980

Thu 1 April               DOĞUBAYAZİT – ERZURUM                                                                                                                                                              276 kms

       Doğubayazıt is a small town some 25 kilometres from the border and is very much a Turkish military town with, besides the border with Iran, there is the border with the Soviet Union (Georgia and Armenia), not far away. We left Doğubayazıt at about 7.30 am and after passing through the small town of Ağrı, we climbed up over the snowy Tahir Pass (2,496 m or 8,188 ft). Ten years later when I crossed this pass while on leading a Sundowners Caravan tour, the driver and I had to fit chains to get over this Pass, avoiding the snow-bound Bulgarian lorries as we clanked our way up to the summit. 

         After a lunch stop was made at the little village of Harasan, we continued to the small Kurdish village of Dikendere. The villages here in Kurdistan are pretty basic, with flat-roofed houses constructed from the local broken grey stone that forms the basis of the surrounding hills. Conical piles of dung, used for fuel, were positioned throughout the village. Somehow the villagers managed to scratch a meagre existence with their brown-fleeced sheep in these sparse mountains.

Small Kurdish village on the road to Erzurum Two-wheel cart & sheep in Kurdish Village

        We reached Erzurum around 3.30. This city is situated in a very beautiful valley at an elevation of around 1900 metres (6,233ft), surrounded by snow-covered mountains. The city was known to the Romans and early Christians as Theodosiopolis.  In the centre of Erzurum are the Double, or Twin Minarets which are part of the Çifte Minareli Medrese, a 12^th century theological college built by the Seljuk Turks. I visited the Minarets just on the sunset, so didn’t see them at their best, and enjoyed an excellent dinner of döner kebab (lamb spit-roasted on a vertical barbeque) with salad, a sweet and a beer for 11.05 lira (1970 prices). We are staying at the Polat Hotel. 

Fri 2 April                ERZURUM - TRABZON                                                                                                                                                                                262kms

Early morning from the Polat Hotel in central Erzurum

    We left Erzurum at 8.30 for the scenic drive to Trabzon on the Black Sea. The dominant features of today’s drive are two spectacular passes through the mountains, both having narrow winding roads with spectacular and beautiful views. The first pass, Kopdağı, climbs to a height of 2409m or 7,903 feet through snow-covered mountains before dropping down to the small but beautiful town of Bayburt, dominated by the ruins of a Byzantine Castle, on the old Silk Road. A look at the history of Bayburt is a cameo of the history of Asia Minor. The town was either settled or conquered by the Cimmerians in the 8^th century BC, the Medes in the 7^th century BC, then came the Persians, the Kingdom of Pontus, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Bagratid Armenian Kingdom, the Seljuk Turks, the Aq Qoyunlu (a Sunni Turkoman tribal confederation), the Safavid Persians and finally the Ottoman Turks. Marco Polo passed this way on his epic journey along the Silk Road to China in the 13th century and in his Travels, he limited his observations of Bayburt to: "And on the route from Trebizond to Tabriz is a fortress called Bayburt, where there is a large silver mine." As with most Turkish towns, a bust of Kemal Atatürk is situated in a prominent position in the middle of the main road.

The town of Bayburt, dominated by a ruined Byzantine castle

        After lunch in Bayburt we drove through some very pleasant countryside. The soil in this part of Turkey looks rich and fertile and we made a stop in a delightful little valley called Ikisu.

Women hoeing in Ikisu Valley

The name Ikisu means the meeting of waters, or two waters. In this fertile valley I watched two women industriously hoeing their fertile wall-enclosed garden. Peach blossoms were just coming to their early spring best as I walked through the Valley to the little, tinkling Ikisu stream. The only building was a tea house, although there were some other buildings further up one of the hills.

We crossed the second pass at dusk. The Zigana Pass rises to a height of 2032m or 6,676ft, before descending towards the coast at Trabzon – Trebizond in Marco Polo’s Travels. We stopped for  dinner in a small village where we all trooped into the kitchen, looking at, then pointing to the dishes we would like, and then being charged accordingly. We reached Trabzon at around 10pm. and are staying in a camping ground some 3 miles from the city centre. As we are now at sea level, the temperature is much milder.

Spring blossoms in the beautiful Ikisu Valley

Sat 3 April                             TRABZON

        Today we headed off an excursion to the spectacular old Greek Orthodox monastery of Sumela, dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  This monastery is around 50 kilometres from Trabzon, set 1200m up on the face of a steep cliff on Karadağ, the Black Mountain, in the Altındere National Park.

The Sumela Monastery

        The Monastery is believed to date from around 386 AD, in the reign of Roman emperor Theodosius I. It became famous for an icon of the Virgin Mary known as the Panagia Gorgoepekoos, said to have been painted by the Apostle Luke.  To access this ruin we travelled by minibus to a small village some kilometres out of Trabzon, then transferred to the back of a truck for the most hair-raising ride I have had, or am likely to have. The road was nothing more than a goat track, no wider than the truck, in fact, at times the trees on both side were overhanging into the truck. On one side would be a solid wall of rock, the other a sheer drop of several hundred feet to a river. It was quite frightening looking over the side of the truck and seeing nothing for 3000 feet! The climb was steep, but the truck finally wheezed its  way to the tea house near the monastery. After a quick lunch, we climbed, on foot,  the remaining 1000 odd feet up a zigzagging track to the monastery, clinging precariously high above us. The monastery has been rebuilt several times and remained under special protection, first in 1365 when Byzantine Emperor Alexios III issued a Chrysobull, or Golden Bull, a decree which confirmed the freedom and autonomy of the Monastery. 

Ruins of inner buildings, Sumela Monastery

        When the Ottomans conquered Turkey, Sultan Mehmed II, in 1461, granted Sumela the sultan’s protection and it was given rights and privileges that were renewed by following Sultans. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the declaration of the independent Turkish Republic by Kemal Atatürk in 1923, the Monastery was abandoned during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. 

      The main buildings are now in ruins, but we were able to explore remnants of the monks’ cells, dining halls, chapels and even toilets! Some fine Byzantine frescoes remain, both inside and outside one of the chapels although many depictions of the saints  have had their faces and eyes defaced in accordance with the Moslem practice of not showing a human form. All of the lower frescoes have been badly defaced or destroyed by later vandals. On the whole, however, Sumela Monastery is a fascinating structure, and its position on the cliff face  is something to marvel at. This full day  trip was worth every hair-raising and breath-taking minute.

    

Byzantine frescoes in Sumela Monastery

Sun 4 April               TRABZON – SAMSUN                                                                                                                                                                             326kms

We left Trabzon at 8.30 for a drive along the attractive Black Sea coast to Samsun. There are many attractive little settlements along the coast with the coastal hills coming right down to the water’s edge. Many of these villages have the remains of old forts, in strategic positions, overlooking the bays. At one point along the coast, the road turns inland and climbs over an attractive range of hills. The view from the hills, over well-cultivated fields with acres and acres of hazel-nut trees, is magnificent. The final leg of the journey into the port city of Samsun was along the Black Sea coastline. We are staying tonight at the Hotel Atlantic. Had a fish dinner tonight of small, fried sardine-like fish, tossed like a pancake.

Mon 5 April                      SAMSUN - ANKARA                                                                                                                                                                         406kms

Left Samsun after a breakfast at about 8.30am. The drive was mainly through green, fertile farmland as we made our way up onto the Anatolian plateau. Lunch stop was in the town of  Çorum where there was a problem cashing American Express travellers cheques. We arrived at about 5.30 in Ankara and after some initial problems, found the Hotel Satay.

The old city of Ankara

text & photographs ©Neil Rawlins 

Instagram accounts  @dustonmyfeet     and    @antipodeanneil

My paperbacks and ebooks on my Overland travels in Asia, Europe & Africa in the early 1970s and the experiences of a tour guide on the Asian Overland routes & leading Camel Safaris in Rajasthan in the 1980s are available from Amazon.