56 | Viking Explorer Society News
A Wealth
OF WONDER
From Cairo to Luxor, Qena, Esna, Edfu and Aswan, Viking's journey along Eg ypt's
Nile River brings a seemingly endless wealth of treasures to discover,
both on shore and on board.
I
t's a simple mud brick bungalow with
contents that appear to be caught in
1920s Aspic. There's a cluttered desk with
a well-used manual typewriter and
wind-up gramophone in one corner; two
bedrooms, plain and orderly. The kitchen has a
sturdy portable oven from Britain, two battered
hats perch on pegs - one was Howard Carter's,
the other belonged to Lord Carnarvon.
Not many people get to come to Howard
Carter's home near Luxor. A hundred years since
Carter peered through a doorway and said, "I
see wonderful things" and it feels like a
particular privilege to be here; there are no
other people here on our visit. We've just come
from Valley of the Kings where we descended
into Tutankhamun's tomb with his glorious wall
paintings and mummy. In Cairo, we saw the
extraordinary gold burial caskets.
As I'm looking around, seeing the fly whisk and
the calendar on the wall, I'm thinking of my
grandparents who were living in Cairo in the
late 1920s. Luckily, I've found a facsimile of the
1929 Baedeker Guide (published in 1985 by
David & Charles - it's well worth trying to find a
copy) and it gives some sense of what it was like.
Reading it, it's striking how little some things
have changed. Going to the pyramids was just
as popular then as now, but it's a lot easier
today. At the start of our 12-day Pharaohs &
Pyramids journey, we're able to visit Sakkara and
the world's oldest stone building, the step
pyramid - which is over 4,000 years old - and
Giza in one day.
Cairo is a deep dive into details of the ancient
world, the museums with their mummies; early
mosques Coptic churches, bazaars and layers of
history surrounded by a modern city that's still
dominated by the Nile. Ghada Doss, our guide,
is an expert Egyptologist who takes us through
the entire trip - with humour and thoroughness
- cartouches and hieroglyphics, the rich
symbolism; the artistry and the ingenuity of the
Ancient Egyptians.
W O R D S S A R A H T U R N E R
The Pyramids of
Giza and the Great
Sphinx, Egypt.
At home in Cairo with Rasha Madi and Ahmed Bekheet
