Egypt part 1 - A visit to Egypt in 1997

	Photo-Album \| Home \| Next art-mouse.com
A WONDERFUL PIECE OF OUR ART HISTORY
The next three pages, are pictures from an all to short visit to Egypt in early November 1997. Photos from different areas are on display on the following pages. It wasn't easy to make a choice. There are so many views to show from this wonderful country. At first I like to show a few very familiar sites from a part of our history on Earth. Then I also like to show a side of Egypt which is also very beautiful; the countryside. I hope the pictures will give it credit since most of the later had to be photographed thru the sightseeing bus'-window. Yes, there is much more beauty to this country than its archeological treasures, which for so many years, has been covered with sand from a desert that is coming closer and closer to Egypt's civilization. An erosion of mountains which has been going on for before man-kind. The Archeologists have done a great job for us. Around the Nile, the agricultural region, is an extremely beautiful part of Egypt with its palm trees full of red dates and fields where sugar canes, corn, cotton and wheat grow. Growing just as it has done for thousands of years, getting water from canals with the help of buffalos turning the wheels or perhaps an Archimedes Screw pumping up water. You can also see cattle resting in the shade along these canals. Further more I like to add, that Egypt is one of the countries, in the whole wide world, that is closest to my heart. I learned to love Egypt and its people very much during the two years I spent there as a child. My family lived in Heliopolis, a suburban city to Cairo. Those two years were the happiest in my childhood. In 1997 when I returned for the first time, as a tourist in a tour-group, there was no time to go and visit my old playgrounds. But I hope to have the opportunity to go back to Egypt sometime soon, and spend much more time instead of a few days in this so inspiring country. Come along and let your imagination run with you, like it does for me. /Margareta
The Pyramids at Giza

The sphinx in front of the great pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops, fourth dynasty 3000 BC. The very top of the pyramid has been lost. Perhaps from target practice during World-War II?

The Sphinx and the pyramid of Cheferen are both from the fourth dynasty. The top of the pyramid is still covered with the lime-stones that once covered most pyramids and made the surface smooth. A theory is that the face of the Sphinx is actually a portrait of Pharaoh Cheferen, the son of Pharaoh Cheops, but was there before it was given the look of him we can still see today.

Above is the third of the great pyramids on the Giza Plateau, is believed to have been built by Pharaoh Menkaure, of the fourth dynasty. This quite large pyramid was build for his Queen Khamerernebty II. It is hard to imagine that the horizon here used to be green. Today we can, on a clear day, view the Nile and parts of Cairo.

	This wooden ship is called a "solar boat". It was found by an Egyptian archeologist in 1954 and now, after many years of preparing work to conserve the ship to survive today's poluted and acid air, we are able to se this beautiful ship. Not in all its former glory, but in an amazing good shape. It is 46 meters long. You are able to view the ship in the new museum at the foot of the pyramid of Pharaoh Cheops. Does it not look a little bit like the ships the Vikings used to cross the waters in?
A small advice: If you are visiting these sites, have your "pocket" full of one dollar bills. It will be greatly appreciated by the children and people posing for your camera. I became very unhappy because the lack of it, but I hope everyone understood that a woman might not have her pockets full of money. I had been glad to share some in return for their favors, if I had known.
Photo-Album \| Home \| Next