2006 Egypt

Solar Barque facts

Constructed 2560BC.
Found in a pit in front of the Great Pyramid in 1954.
A boat dismantled into 1224 separate parts.
Made of Lebanese cedar.
41 huge limestone blocks covered the pit – each weighing 20 tonnes.
Took 20 years to reconstruct the boat.
Length = 43m.
Bow and stern lotus-shaped.
The planks making up the keel weigh over 4 tonnes.

We left the Giza plateau agreeing to return before we flew home and ate nearby – local cuisine again, sharing our table with locals.

At the taxi stop on the main street we encountered George from Peru who had come straight to Giza from the airport complete with enormous backpack on his back. It was a little harder finding the right taxi back to the Metro, but we accomplished this soon enough. In many of the minibus taxis the sliding door has been removed as well as the back of the first seat as you enter – to facilitate fast entry / exit.

We had planned to visit the Egyptian Museum, but getting there left me too tired. So, despite having bought our tickets and started the process of viewing their 120,000-odd artefacts, I left Charl to get a quick overview while I went and sat in the garden – there to watch Japanese tourists having the obligatory group photo taken in front of the pink, purpose-built building. Charl dashed around getting a feel and encountered a resident doctor who willingly looked at his finger and declared it sprained not broken.

Two stops on the Metro took us home (from Sadat to Ataba). Where we strolled along Adly street, identified a restaurant for supper, drew money from an ATM (no problem), tried to have a beer in a pretty garden setting, but found they had a minimum charge which made what we wanted outrageously expensive and popped home to Pension Roma.

Pension Roma is situated just off Mohammed Farid. Along this road and those nearby are department stores and shops for the middle classes – some selling super-sexy underwear just this side of vulgar. All prominently displayed in the windows in this “conservative” country (Egypt is actually liberal compared to other Muslim countries). Strange to see the “raven” ladies coming out of such a place – hidden under their birqas, some with even their eyes covered with black netting.

We had beer and lemon juice in our place from last night, bought baklava from our local, and then ate a really delicious three-in-one fish meal (line fish in a tomato sauce, deep fried prawns, grilled calamari, hummus, rice and salad and aish) in a tiny local obviously popular place where the owner told us that on his visit to Siwa Oasis he watched the sun set while a rainbow coloured the sky.