DESTINATIONS — NORTH AFRICA & THE RED SEA
Ramses II, Memphis
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Greg Garner, Orbital Travel Cairo is a real bucket list destination. Before you know it, the crowds will be back, but at the moment visitors can feel like they have the sites to themselves. The flight
prices from the UK with EgyptAir are currently very competitive, as are the hotel prices in Cairo. You can stay in a genuine five-star property such as Mercure Cairo Le Sphinx for as little as £20 per person per night – however these prices are unlikely to be maintained as demand returns, so urge clients to book now.
their walls lined with icons, and the Saladin Citadel, where the Alabaster Mosque sits on a hill with views over the city sprawl, we browsed the famous Khan el-Khalili bazaar – even with the reduced numbers of tourists, stallholders’ patter was friendly and not overly intense.
l GO TO GIZA Cross the Nile, and while it feels like part of the same city, you’re technically in Giza rather than Cairo. Back in the time of the pharaohs, the cities of the living stood on the east bank, where the sun rose, and the tombs of the dead occupied the west side, where it set. So it’s here that you’ll find Egypt’s most iconic sight – and
the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that remains intact – the Great Pyramid. Completed around 2,560BC, it’s the oldest and largest of the six pyramids at the Giza necropolis. Towering 139m high, when you stand at the base it blocks out the sun. Nearby sits the Sphinx, whose missing nose was not, despite popular legend, shot off by Napoleon’s troops. After taking some photos,
mercifully free of other tourists, we opted not to go into the Great Pyramid as there’s nothing in there to see – the benefit of a guide’s advice.
This isn’t true at Saqqara, 12 miles away. This was the necropolis for Egypt’s first capital, Memphis, and is home to the Step
Akin Koc, Anatolian Sky Recently, we have seen a rise in demand for holidays to Cairo and beyond. I would urge agents to encourage customers to visit at a time when they’ll get the warmest
welcome, the historic sights are much less crowded and great prices are available.
Pyramid of Zoser, a 62m-high structure thought to be among the oldest stone-cut constructions on Earth – predating the Great Pyramid by 200 years. Alongside, and almost more impressive, is the funerary complex with a beautiful carved colonnade, reconstructed from original fragments. Recommend clients go inside the nearby Pyramid of Teti – from outside it looks like nothing more than a hill, but a short clamber down a low passageway rewards you with walls of carved hieroglyphs so crisp one can hardly
believe they were done more than 4,000 years ago. Nearby, in the Memphis Museum, again with just a handful of other tourists, I stood in front of a colossal statue of Ramses II. The inspiration for Shelley’s poem Ozymandias, this fallen giant once stood 11m high but now lies on his back, his feet missing. It’s a fitting enough reminder, should one be needed, that Egypt has had its fair share of ups and downs over the course of history. With a little luck, tourism here will soon be back on its feet again. TW
27 November 2014 —
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