Packing Heat in Egypt

Here is just a quick update on yesterday's post. I mentioned that our personal guard was carrying a machine gun, we'll here's the pic. (Click on it to get a better view.) We were visiting the Niuserre Sun Temple at Abu Gurab, a rarely visited site, when it was taken. He was a great guy and even helped us bargain at the bizarre. Needless to say, I think we got some good bargains.

Egypt Cracks Down on Vendors Near Pyramids

One of the biggest complaints of travelers to famous world monuments is that they are tourist traps with hordes of (sometimes pushy) locals selling various (often gaudy) knickknacks. Well the USA Today is reporting that Egypt is looking to clean up the area near the Pyramids of Giza and that in two years peddlers won't be allowed in the site.

Along with the crackdown of trinket vendors, Egypt is also modernizing the facilities near the pyramids and increasing security. Once the project is complete, tourists will be treated to a new lighting system, a cafeteria, and a new visitors center and bookshop. On the security front, a 12-mile chain-link fence with cameras, alarms, and motion detectors has been built to surround the site. Visitors will also now enter the site through a new building featuring x-ray machines, metal detectors, and 199 cameras.

In countries were the biggest industry is tourism, I don't have a big problem wading through vendors if they aren't overly pushy or get into my photographs. While I think Egypt's decision to curb vendors is the right one (and the country is known to have some pushy ones), I also don't want to see people lose their livelihood.

The increased security precautions should also be applauded, and when I was there, security was already very tight. In Cairo and the surrounding areas, our small group was accompanied by a guard with a machine gun. While that my scare of some, it made me feel safer, and the guard was also a great guy, who everyone in the group connected with.

As always, for more on Egypt's pyramids check out the section on my website. Also leave your thoughts on this topic in the comment section and check out the above-linked USA Today article.

An Affinity for Abu Simbel

Last week, Kentucky newspaper the Lexington Herald ran a travel story on Egypt featuring the writer's adventure with Abercrombie Kent. While most travel writers identify the Great Pyramid as their favorite attraction , contributing travel writer Patti Nickell seemed to have more of an affinity for Abu Simbel.

When I was in Egypt, I have to say Abu Simbel was definitely one of my favorite sites as well. While most travelers take a quick flight to the site and just spend a few hours there, I would recommend taking the trip by road via caravan. My wife and I visited the temple shortly after we arrived and had the site virtually to ourselves. Also the light show at night is the best in Egypt, and a dip by the pool near Lake Nassar can be refreshing after a long, action-packed trip. For more on Abu Simbel, check out the page dedicated to this World Wonder on my website.

While I enjoyed the article from the Herald, I do have to point out one glaring factual error in it. Nickell writes, "thousands of slaves were sacrificed in the building of the [pyramids]." The evidence just does not support this, and modern archaeologists now believe conscripts did all the work. It also appears the pyramid builders were paid and treated relatively well, although the work was obviously backbreaking and many people did get injured and/or died in the process. For more info on the pyramids, check out the Egyptian Pyramids section on my website.

Another part of the article I thought was interesting was how the Abercrombie & Kent guide didn't accompany the tour group into the Great Pyramid. For the money A&K charges, I would have expected more. While A&K has a great reputation, I think you can find cheaper tours that deliver a similar of better experience.

In fact on the tour I went on, our small group got to spend three hours with full access to all the chambers in the Great Pyramid (including the pit and Queens Chamber which are normally closed off); we were allowed to go right up and touch the Great Sphinx (which the average tourist isn't allowed to do); and we went to a lot of amazing and important places that are much less frequented, such as the pyramids at Dashur and temple at Abydos. We were also leaving most spots just when the big tour buses were pulling up. This was all for less money than A&K mind you, and our guide went into the Great Pyramid with us, although she did sit out the tougher Red Pyramid at Dashur.