Rawabi Holding Magazine Issue 31

Team ‏ Contributions
Team ‏ Contributions
Sojourn in Egypt:
The Land of Pharaohs
By: Rex N. Noblejas
Secretary,
Group HR Department
Amazing! The exact word to describe our
feelings seeing the country with wonders
of the world built during ancient times.
Egypt is the travel writer’s heaven. The
material for a destination, human interest
and information article swarm in at you
from every direction.
Honestly, this trip for me was a dream
that became a reality! Who hasn’t dreamt
about seeing the Great Pyramids of Giza,
not to mention the famous Sphinx, I know
I have! And I blame it all on the movie;
The Mummy. Ever since the fearless
Brandon Frasier; I mean O’Connell, raised
the infamous Imhotep from his grave.
I knew that one day I would visit this
magical land filled with adventure, peril
and romance. Of course, a couple years
later I unfortunately realized that The
Mummy was a phony. For starters it wasn’t
even filmed in Egypt; not one scene! Not
to mention the story itself, although it was
believable and very entertaining, came
nowhere near the actual Egyptian legends.
Dreaming didn’t stop me from wanting
to visit this country to experience true
Egyptian culture and to visit one of the 7
wonders of the ancient world. ‎
My trip began with winning the raffle
draw at the Rawabi Excellence Awards
last April 26, 2012. The prize was a trip
for two to Cairo inclusive of a 5-star hotel
accommodation. Having the air ticket
and accommodation would not complete
our visit in Egypt. Fortunately, a vacation
during Eid Al-Adha worked for our planned
trip so I booked a four-day tour for me and
my friend through Memphis Tours. At first
I was afraid of becoming a victim of online
reservation scams, there is no safe place
anymore as many reviews will warn you.
Prior to completing an online reservation
for the tour, others suggested that we just
“wing it” and visit Egypt and look for our
own tour guide. When I visit a country, I
like to learn about the people and their
culture, and what better way than to have
an actual citizen be your guide. It was
“iffy”, but despite all the scam warnings,
we were accommodated as Kings of the
Memphis Tours, a company you can trust. ‎
Day 1 - Upon arrival in the Cairo
International Airport, we were fetched
by our hotel hired chauffeur. In just an
hour of rest and setting up our room, we
headed to our first activity, the dinner
cruise in the Nile, one of the best tours
we found in Egypt. We floated for 2
hours and along with people of different
nationalities enjoyed a tasty meal,
excellent entertainment featuring Tanoora
dancers and a belly dancer and an
unforgettable evening of stargazing along
the Nile banks. ‎
The Great Sphinx stands on the Giza Plateau
Day 2 - Our second day of touring in Cairo
began with a drive south to the recently
rediscovered city of Memphis. Not the one
with Elvis but the one with Ramses II. It
was rediscovered recently when a resident
of the town dug a foundation to build a
coffee shop and discovered a huge statue.
He called the authorities who excavated
the site. That statue of Ramses II is now on
display in a building that was built around
it at the place where it was found. Around
the site are some of the other artifacts
also found at this site. Most of the objects
are in remarkably good condition. The
sphinx in the middle of the site is known
as the Alabaster Sphinx since it’s made
from alabaster. There are also two large
matching statues of Ramses II.
Our trip included a visit to a trade
school where girls as young as twelve,
with flashing fingers, wove carpets and
tapestries of pure silk.
Mr. Sherif, our tour guide, stunned us
with his eagerly shared knowledge of every
facet of ancient and modern Egyptian life
while we were visiting every spot. Our last
stop was to visit the three main pyramids
Mr. Sherif, our tour guide, with the Great
Pyramids of Giza standing majestically behind
us
of Giza, the pyramid of Khufu (the great
pyramid), Khafre, and Menkaure. The
Great Pyramid is awesome and even
taller and bigger in real life. Our next
stop was the Sphinx. My friend and I had
our picture taken and we got a little bit
of information from our tour guide. We
made a quick stop at an Egyptian papyrus
store. It was very educational. They
walked us through the process in which
the plant becomes the paper. We and I
were convinced to buy some of the master
pieces that has a touch of Egyptian art
(they were pretty expensive, but I can see
why! They’re handmade and beautiful! We
then visited a cotton factory where shirts
made of 100% Egyptian cotton were on
sale, and we bought a few pieces.
Day 3 - The next day was a more relaxed,
non rushed day, a day of a long drive to
see the beauty of Alexandria, the secondlargest
city of Egypt, with a population
of 4.1 million, extending about 32 km
along the coast of the Mediterranean
Sea in the north central part of the
country. Our first visit was in Catacombs
(meaning underground tunnels) which
lie in the district of Karmouz to the east
of Alexandria. The area was called Kom
El-Shouqafa or a pile of shards. The
cemetery dates back to the 1 st century
A.D. and was used until the 4 th century
A.D. It was discovered in 1900 when
by pure chance, a donkey drawn cart
fell into a pit. The façade of the main
burial chamber is decorated with some
Greek elements, such as the shield of
the Goddess Athena, on top of which is
the head of Medusa, and as we know,
according to the ancient Greek myths,
Medusa was able to petrify anyone who
looked into her eyes. The representation
of Medusa here was to protect the tomb.
Under Medusa is a huge serpent with a
double crown. Once we enter the burial
chamber, which was completely cut into
the rock, we see 3 large recesses, each
one containing a sarcophagus. The burial
chamber has a vaulted roof supported by
4 square pillars whose capitals take the
shape of Papyrus. ‎
Our next stop was Pompey’s Pillar; it is
the biggest memorial column in Egypt. It
is made of red granite, its total height is
about 27 meters, diameter at the base of
2.7meter and 2.3 on top. The memorial
column was erected in honor of the Roman
Emperor, as a sign of gratitude. Of course,
we didn’t passup on the opportunity to
take pictures of every historic subject we
saw in that area.
Then we headed to the city proper to
visit Citadel of Qaitbay. The Citadel is
situated at the entrance of the eastern
harbor on the eastern point of the Pharos
Island. It was erected on the exact site
of the famous Lighthouse of Alexandria.
The lighthouse continued to function
until the time of the Arab conquest,
then several disasters occurred and the
shape of lighthouse was changed to some
extent, but it still continued to function.
During the 11 th century an earthquake
destroyed the top of the lighthouse and
the bottom was used as a watchtower. A
small Mosque was built on top and said
to be the old Mosque in Alexandria. About
1480 A.D. the place was fortified as part
of the coastal defensive edifices. At a later
date, a castle looking citadel was built
as a prison for princes and state-man.
Currently, the citadel is now a Maritime
Museum. ‎
After yet another sumptuous lunch (which
we waited an hour for), we headed to our
last stop, the Library of Alexandria, known
as Bibliotheca Alexandrina. No. It is not
the original Royal Library of Alexandria,
Citadel of Qaitbay
but a revival of it. According to our tour
guide, the Library contains more than
8 million books and a reading area with
2000 seats. ‎
Day 4 - The Last day of our journey started
as early as 9:00am to visit the Egyptian
Museum. This museum is just packed
full of every Egyptian treasure you can
imagine. Mr. Sherif gave us a quick basic
tour of the first floor, then we were left
on our own to visit exhibits such as King
Tutankhamun’s golden mask and tomb
treasures and the mummy room (I bravely
saw 11 royal mummies preserved ). The
whole second floor (or almost all of it) is
dedicated to the treasures found in King
The giant statue
of Ramesses II in
Memphis weighs
83 tons
Tutankhamun’s tomb. Its amazing to see
how much possessions he had and he
was only Pharaoh for approximately 10
years, imagine if they found a closed tomb
for a Pharaoh that lived his whole term;
40-50 years somehow, they will need
15 Egyptian museums just to display all
his possessions. The Egyptian Museum
is something that is well worth the
entrance fee and is a must see for every
tourist, like us! A quick visit to old Cairo
was made possible like Mohamed Ali
Alabaster Mosque which was designed by
the architect Yousif Boushnaq, a Turkish
man who came especially from Istanbul to
build the great mosque for Mohamed Ali,
the ruler of Egypt (1805-1849) who ruled
over 45 years. ‎
Like most of the tourists do in visiting
the country, shopping should not be
deleted from the itinerary. We visited the
1000-year-old bazaar Khan El Khalili of
Cairo and its staggering array of shops.
Everything from lamb, herbs, spices and
shirts to artistically crafted 18k Egyptian
gold. Egyptians are very friendly, and at no
time did we feel threatened, in spite of the
country’s situation. Go, and be enthralled.
Our amazing and enjoyable sojourn in
Egypt ended as we boarded the plane at
5:30 in the afternoon of 28th October
2012 back to Dammam, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia.
Our tour in the “Land of the Pharaohs”
was a remarkable one, one should not
miss. It was more than reading the history
as written in the books. Being there is
such a wonder.
22 Rawabi News Issue 31 Oct-Dec 2012
Rawabi News Issue 31 Oct-Dec 2012
23