Fair old sights in city of the Pharoahs

Jan 13 2005

From camels to the Coptic Hanging Church, museums to mummies, pyramids to packed street markets, Charlotte Gapper saw it all when she got a taste of Egypt on a recent trip to Cairo.

The pyramids must be some of the most photographed monuments in the world, but waking up and drawing our curtains to find them outside was still spellbinding.

Having arrived in Cairo in the middle of the night, we had no idea our hotel was quite so near the three Pyramids of Giza.

They were even more impressive than I had expected, and I couldn't wait to take a closer look.

Just a couple of hours later, we were walking around the base of the Pyramid of Cheops, constructed around 2600 BC, and marvelling at the two-and-a-half-million blocks of sandstone used. Each block weighs around three tonnes, and Napoleon calculated there were enough of them to build a three metre-high wall around France.

If you manage to successfully avoid the persistent camel owners offering rides and make it to the rear of the pyramid, there is a museum housing one of the ancient and amazingly well-preserved wooden Solar Boats that were buried around the pyramid to transport the pharaoh to the afterlife.

A coach took us to the nearby pyramid of Cheops' son, Chephren. It still has some of the limestone casing at its peak that would originally have fully covered the pyramids and allowed the sunlight to reflect off their mirror-like surfaces.

We had a chance to do some exploring at the Pyramid of Mycerinus, which was the smallest of the three. Entry to its chamber and a small group of rooms costs around £2 and involves walking, bent double, down a narrow, steep slope.

It is fun, but if you are at all claustrophobic, don't bother - it gets extremely hot and sweaty and there isn't much air at the bottom.

There is a viewpoint from which you can take photographs of all three pyramids - but you have to be careful to keep the nearby sports stadium out of the shot!

The next stop on our day-long tour was the Sphinx that was smaller but more stunning than I had expected.

Our first shopping opportunity was at a souvenir shop, which sold some lovely inlaid boxes and silver and gold cartouches that you can have customised with the hieroglyphs of your choice and delivered to your hotel. The currency is the Egyptian pound, and it is easy to change money at one of the banks or your hotel.

Lunch was at a restaurant serving delicious spit-roasted chicken with various side dishes and freshly baked bread. The local beer was also refreshing, and very welcome after a morning in the sun.

To learn more about how the pyramids developed, we then went south of Cairo to the first Step Pyramid at Saqqara that was built in the 27th century BC. At nearby Memphis, which was once the grand capital of Egypt's Old Kingdom, the museum houses a huge but elegant statue of Ramses II, who reigned for 67 years in the 13th century BC, and apparently fathered up to 170 children.

After a busy day, we decided to try and find a restaurant near our hotel, Le Meridien Pyramids. Just down the road we discovered the Felfela Cafe. The food was tasty and cheap, but be warned - the owner may try and take you to his nearby perfume shop, which isn't quite as inexpensive!

To learn more about Cairo and its history, we took a full-day city tour. This started at the Egyptian Museum, which is crammed with more than 100,000 artefacts. Many of them don't have labels, so it was very handy to have a guide with us. It was sometimes hard to hear her, however, as all the guides clustered round the same exhibits at the same time.

The first floor is nearly all devoted to the treasure found in Tutankhamun's tomb, and the richness and range of the items is amazing. There is a separate room for gold jewellery and the famous mask, and further rooms for the shrines that held the sarcophagus of this relatively unimportant pharaoh; his bed, his throne and models of all the staff he would need in the afterlife.

Also worth seeing is the slightly scary mummy room that houses the bodies of several kings and queens including Ramses II.

Lunch was a buffet on a boat moored on the Nile, which gave us a good opportunity to see a bit more of the bustling river traffic. Many of the people we talked to were combining a visit to Cairo with a Nile cruise, but we spent a long weekend in the city.

Other sights on the itinerary included the Coptic Hanging Church and the Mohammed Ali mosque, which is inside the citadel overlooking the city.

Travelling around Cairo gives you a glimpse of its sprawling scale - there are around 18 million inhabitants, and a million more commuters travel to the city to work. It is a lively, chaotic place, with a mix of Arab, European and African influences.

If you want to try your haggling skills, the Khan al-Khalili bazaar is lined with shops and stalls selling souvenirs such as brass ornaments or perfume bottles. The friendly traders tried out their best English catchphrases, but we weren't swayed.

In the evening, it is worth getting a taxi into the centre of town from the pyramids. The traffic is hectic, and the streets are busy until the early hours of the morning.

That night we ate at Le Pacha 1901, a converted boat also moored on the Nile that has a number of smart restaurants inside. We went for the one on the top deck, so we could eat watching the stars and the lights of the city.

We also dined at The Nubian Village restaurant in our hotel. Chefs cooked outside on a charcoal grill, and it is extremely popular so it is worth booking in advance.

Our third full day was spent relaxing at our hotel. After all the sightseeing, it was great to sit by the pool and admire the pyramids from afar.

Travel Facts

* Charlotte Gapper was a guest of Kuoni Travel in Dorking (01306 747008 or www.kuoni.co.uk), which offers three nights' B&B in Le Meridien Pyramids Cairo, including BA flights from Heathrow and transfers, from £422 (two sharing) in 2005. In a pyramid view room, prices start at £441 (two sharing).

* A full-day pyramid tour, via the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Memphis and Saqqara (with lunch), costs £40. Half price for children aged between two and 12.

* A full-day city tour, including the Egyptian Museum, citadel, mosque of Mohammed Ali, old part of Cairo and Khan al-Khalili bazaar (with lunch), also costs £40. Again, half price for children aged between two and 12.