Cairo Hotels – The Nile Cruises 4u Blog

December 20, 2014

Memphis, Saqqara and The Great Pyramid Full Day Excursion

A few years ago, on one of our visits to Cairo, when we were staying at the excellent Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel, virtually overlooking the Great Pyramid, we decide to take a full day excursion, visiting Memphis, Saqqara and The Great Pyramid.

We booked the trip via the hotel’s reception that evening and the next morning we were collected by our guide for the day in a small, air-conditioned and very comfortable mini-bus.

Our first stop, after an hour or so’s drive was the Memphis, Egypt’s first capital, and the Memphis Museum. We arrived quite early so there were very few other visitors around, as I imagine it must be like now. Amongst many other things we saw the colossal statue of Ramses the II, which apparently was the inspiration for Shelley’s poem, “Ozymandias“. The statue once stood 11metres high but now lies on his back with his feet missing. Even on his back you can still get an impression of just how awe inspiring the statue must have looked. And, as always in Egypt, you wonder how on earth they made and elevated these amazing structures. Continue reading “Memphis, Saqqara and The Great Pyramid Full Day Excursion”

January 10, 2013

Visiting Cairo – Our last day continued

Visiting Cairo – Our last day

Well, we’d come to the end of our visit and, as always, we’d had a wonderful time. We’d visited Luxor, Aswan and we’d finished up in Cairo.

We’d met some great people, all of them so happy that we’d come to Egypt when many others were still staying away due to some mistaken impression that there were continuous demonstrations and problems. During our whole week’s visit, no matter where we were, we’d met only friendliness and warmth from everyone we met. We’d not seen any disruption or any demonstrations and it’s clear that almost all Egyptians are simply living their lives as normal and are looking forward to getting the country back on it’s feet. One way we can help with that is to continue visiting this wonderful country. Continue reading “Visiting Cairo – Our last day continued”

January 7, 2013March 15, 2013

Our Last Day in Cairo

Firstly let me apologise for the break in my blogging.

Over Christmas Barbara and I took the family to…(where else?)…Egypt to ensure that we enjoyed some guaranteed warm sun shine without having to travel all the way to the Caribbean. We were not disappointed and enjoyed a fabulous week at the excellent Makadi Princess in Makadi Bay. But I’ll tell you more about our trip and the hotel over the coming week.

Today I’d like to describe our last day in Cairo following on to my previous posts.

As you will have read we visited the Conrad Hotel for lunch and to have a look around after which we returned to our base hotel, the Movenpick Pyramids. Continue reading “Our Last Day in Cairo”

December 19, 2012

The Conrad Hotel Cairo

After our visit to the Egyptian Museum we were ready to eat so it was really great that the management of the Conrad Hotel had invited us to have lunch at the hotel and then have a good look around.

We have booked clients into the Conrad Hotel before. Clients who are taking a Nile cruise and Cairo holiday either ask to stay out by the Pyramids at Giza or downtown Cairo. If we place them downtown we often suggest the Conrad however this was our first time at the hotel. It’s always so much better when we can recommend a property or a ship if we’ve stayed there ourselves or visited recently. Continue reading “The Conrad Hotel Cairo”

December 18, 2012

Our Visit To The Egyptian Museum

One of the main reasons that people are interested in visiting Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is due to the fact that all of the artifacts and treasure that was found in Tutankhamun’s burial chamber at the Valley of The Kings is located here at the museum.

So, as you can probably imagine, the curators of the museum leave the “best till last”. In other words you work your way around the museum until eventually you reach the section that is dedicated to the “Boy King”, Tutankhamun.

And…I have to be honest, it really is quite amazing. You will see the jewellery, precious stones and gold that was found in the tomb along with the outer casings of the mummy. By that I mean that the mummified body was placed into wooden “suits” decorated with gold and precious stones. The “suits” were essentially images of Tutankhamun’s body.

But there wasn’t’ just one, there seemed to be a number of them and they fitted into each other just like Russian dolls do.

There were also huge wooden boxes, (I just cant’ remember what they were called) that the mummy was placed into. Huge boxes, again covered in gold leaf and semi-precious stones, and again, the boxes fitted into the previous one, like Russian dolls.

They were pretty big and looked very heavy so goodness knows how they did it. Mind you that’s the same question you ask yourself throughout Egypt. In the enormous temples and sites, at the Pyramids and here at the Egyptian Museum. How on earth did they do it? Continue reading “Our Visit To The Egyptian Museum”