A North Africa and Middle East ramble

[VPS]

Just catching up. Very much enjoyed the trip through Ethiopia - very educational so thank you. Your Egypt trip sounds very similar to mine and brings back great memories. I still have an enduring memory or cruising down the Nile drinking a gin and tonic as the sun set. Keep it up - thanks

 

[JohnM]

Your Egypt trip sounds very similar to mine and brings back great memories.

The thing about Egypt is that there is really pretty much a single circuit that tourists have been doing for years and it is just so seamlessly set up to do so. Despite that, it is truly an extraordinary and memorable experience that should not be missed.

 

[JohnM]

Next day was visiting the Temples of Karnak. It’s a very large complex (>2 sq km). The main structure, the Temple of Amun is the largest religious building ever built. The earliest structures date back to about 1950 BC but the site was a work in progress for many centuries.





The Great Hypostyle Hall has 134 columns representing the papyrus flower and covers 5500 sq m. It symbolises a papyrus swamp and the source of life to ancient Egyptians. Originally it was roofed and brightly painted and traces remain.















Tourist Police officer with H&K MP-5 in a holster – like our plainclothes officer had under his suit jacket. The sacred lake where the priests bathed frequently for ritual purity. The Giant Scarab – a carving in stone of the ball-rolling dung beetle species Scarabaeus sacer which was a symbol of Khepri, the early morning manifestation of the sun god Ra, from an analogy between the beetle's behaviour of rolling a ball of dung across the ground and Khepri's task of rolling the sun across the sky.

 

[JohnM]

An early morning SW view from my hotel room across the Nile to the hills of the west bank that are the location of the Valley of the Kings – today’s destination. First stop on the way is the Colossi of Memnon. Each carved from a block of granite and weighing 1000 tonnes, they represent the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and were once part of a large colonnade in an enormous complex.



There’s been a lot of activity in those hills over millennia. The village at the foot of the hills has been emptied of people; they had a lucrative cottage industry tunnelling underneath their houses into ancient sites fossicking artefacts and selling them on the black market. Plenty of archaeological excavations and restorations are still going on.



The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut c. 1450 BC. Breathtaking.









Cameras are not permitted in the Valley of the Kings, so that’s a Google exercise for anyone interested. Suffice to say that there are numerous tombs (60-odd) in the valley. Tombs are opened on a rotation basis as the impact of hordes of visitors from exhaled air and body-generated moisture is taking a toll. We visited three, or it may have been four, including King Tut’s. The general entry fee covers entry to two or three and a surcharge is payable for the more famous (Tut’s is famous but not spectacular. He was only 19 when he died, so the usual lengthy full-reign tomb preparation was brought to a premature halt and he was entombed, with bunch of stuff haphazardly thrown in with him). The distinguishing feature of Tut’s tomb is that it had not been ransacked before discovery in modern times. Almost all tombs were ransacked years ago – often, it is thought, by insider knowledge of the workers that constructed them knowing where to look.




Next day it was a MS flight LXR-CAI. What would Egypt do without the Nile?



Foul smog. That night the optional sound and light show in front of the Sphinx and pyramids. My doubts were well-founded. It was cheesy, but it wasn’t expensive and I wouldn’t say don’t go – just have low expectations.

 

[JohnM]

Back in Cairo for the final day in Egypt and out to Memphis, 24 km S. Memphis was the capital of Egypt for much of the Pharaonic period, although it was moved to Thebes (Luxor) during the New Kingdom era. Most of Memphis has vanished - destroyed by floods, the Muslim invasion, the locals mining its stonework and farming in the fertile Nile delta.

The highlight (and really the only major sight) is the open-air museum built around the colossal fallen limestone statue of Ramses II.





Next stop Saqqara, the huge cemetery of ancient Memphis, was an active burial ground for 3500 years and it is Egypt’s largest archaeological site (it’s been long buried in dry sand which has preserved things well). The most obvious attraction at Saqqara is the Step Pyramid (2650 BC). It’s the world’s oldest stone monument. Essentially, it is a primitive form of a pyramid evolving from the mud brick mastaba into a stone construction, before the smoothed stone form was perfected – a pyramid in beta, if you like. It’s extremely significant architecturally but that tends to be overshadowed by the perfected structures at Giza.

Th hypostyle hall leads into the Great South Court, a huge open area in front of the pyramid.





Some incredibly-preserved detail in the many tombs.





And so ended a great journey in Egypt. An early WY flight next morning to MCT for a one day break before venturing into a tour of Oman up next.

 

[RooFlyer]

Cameras are not permitted in the Valley of the Kings

How utterly ridiculous. Do you have to 'check' your cameras and phones at the entrance to the Valley?

I hope you won't mind me filling in some gaps, from 1994, when yes, cameras were allowed

To enter the Valley, you had to run the gauntlet of tacky souvenir sellers:



Entrance to one of the tombs. At each tomb there were at least 2 'guides' who insisted on attaching themselves to us (me and a work colleague); we declined their services - had to be quite forcibly verbally in the end, in each case.




I think this was the entrance to Tutankhamen's tomb (it was closed):



Does the lay-out look similar today, or has it all been done-up?

 

[JohnM]

Looks much the same. Touts no longer a problem. We were told in advance to leave all gear, including cameras, in the bus. Had to pass through a scanner (as most everywhere). Upside is that it made for peaceful movement around the site, not dodging photographers, people who can't or won't turn off their flash, backpacks, selfy sticks and so on.

 

[JohnM]

It was my first visit to Oman. As I was arriving a day before the tour started on a 4h overnight flight with little sleep, I opted to take an extra night at the tour hotel and chill for the day. Muscat is a very spread-out city and the hotel was quite far from the old town – but it was, as I discovered with a bit of Googling, only about 1.6 km from The Chedi luxury hotel on the beachfront. I resolved to stroll over and check it out just on sunset. When I arrived and wandered down to the beachfront restaurant, I found that it was too late to book an outside table for that evening, so inside it had to be.

With some time to kill, I scoped the extensive grounds and then settled in for an excellent pre-dinner mojito at the main bar.



Your mojito sir… Outside and inside The Beach restaurant.



After a month of fairly basic food and wine in Ethiopia and Egypt, I thought I may as well go the whole hog here. Typical of the Gulf States, wine prices are steep – but there are times when one just has to suck it up.

First time for this Champagne and I enjoyed a glass while scoping the menu and with an amuse bouche. Things are looking and feeling good…



Excellent scallops, followed by a plump Omani lobster, simply grilled and with some garlicky sautéed vegetables, washed down with an excellent crisp Chablis. Bliss that I richly deserved…



I’m not usually a dessert eater but an excellent lemon sorbet and petit fours with some more Philipponnat was a light option that left me well-satisfied and ready to take on Oman for the next eight days.



Muscat to me doesn’t offer an awful lot beyond the mildly interesting – but at least it is not dystopian like I find Doha and Dubai. We started with a visit to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, built in the mid-1990s (Sultan Qaboos is the current Sultan – since 1970).

 

[JohnM]

A specimen of Boswellia sacra – its gum is frankincense.



Oman is peppered with c. 16th century Portuguese forts and lookouts.



The Sultan’s palace and looking along the corniche to Matrah, the old town. Everything is ringed by rugged hills.



The next day it was into three Landcruisers and the start of the loop through Oman via the very new fish market (opened the previous week or two) at Matrah, before heading S out of Muscat to the small fishing village of Quiryat for a brief stop.







On to Wadi Shab, via a stop at a coastal sinkhole, the name of which escapes me, connected underground to the ocean. We parked and walked up the wadi (valley). A stream provided an oasis effect.





Then it was on to Ras al Jinz for the night and a visit to the turtle sanctuary where we were fortunate to see a turtle laying eggs.

 

[JohnM]

Swinging inland the next day through some folded and tilted stratified mountains, with colourful mineralisation in parts, to the Wadi Bani Khalid oasis for lunch. Then out and up on the other side before heading into the Wahiba Sands desert camp for the night. On the way meeting a friendly local, followed by a sunset 4WD into the dunes before dinner. The guide/drivers had different headgear and dishdashas for various occasions.















Sunrise the next day. After breakfast heading north via Ibra, an old Omani town that was once a significant trade and cultural centre with links to Zanzibar. We were there for the Wednesday women’s souk but could not take photos and only the women in our group could walk into that souk. Traditional Omani daggers crafted in the silver souk and a camel butcher.

 

[JohnM]

Next stop was Bahla Fort. The town of Bahla was a comprehensively walled city and the 12th century fort is part of that. It’s a well-restored World Heritage site.







In Oman, a major date producer, the ‘boiling oil’ of medieval siege notoriety was date juice that had run out in the gutters of the date stores in the basement areas.



It was then overnight at nearby Nizwa and the following morning visiting the date souk with its great array of different textured and tasting dates, and the Nizwa Fort (17th century), famed for its large round tower. A beautiful domed mosque was adjacent the fort.



Groups of school kids on an educational excursion are the same the world over…

 

[JohnM]

Then it was into the mountains and some mind-blowing scenery for the next couple of days.

First, the old village of Misfat, built on the side of a steep hill and with a stream running through channels to create a beautiful oasis. The traditional mud and stone houses are about 400 years old and first impressions are that the village is a ruin, despite the power lines. However, many of the houses are still occupied by residents or some are given over to quaint tourist accommodation.





There are many similar, but less accessible, villages in the (ever-present) mountains. Then the real climb started and then it was onto dirt road. This is more like it!

The destination Jebel Shams and Wadi Ghul (Oman’s ‘Grand Canyon’). Jebel Shams (Mountain of the Sun) is 3075 m and the canyon is over 1000 m deep. Like all such massive natural formations, it is impossible to capture in a photo, especially with late afternoon shadows.





Overnight at nearby low-key but comfortable Jebel Shams Resort and a spectacular sunset.

 

[JohnM]

This was the day that I enjoyed the most by far in Oman. Driving through some spectacular and vertigo-inducing mountain roads on the way back to Muscat and the end of the tour. Some sealed road but a lot of dirt in the high parts.

I can’t resist throwing in a lot of pics. I’ve driven in one or two places around the world and this was one of the best. Just stunning. My only disappointment was that I was not driving… I’d go back to Oman just to go driving around the country.

 

[JohnM]

Up high and we come across this synthetic turf soccer pitch near the village of Balad Sayt. It turns out that Audi installed it as a gift for the village, as they had some very keen soccer-loving kids. Audi used it in some promotional material:

.



Looking down on the village and the soccer field away in the distance to the other side.













Village and oasis in the valley with water channel coming down the mountain. Small settlement of squat stone buildings in the middle of nowhere.





Then it was out of the mountains with a brief stop at Nakhl and its fort on a rocky outcrop before the run into Muscat. Our guide/driver (centre) and the other two drivers. Great guys. We had a lot of fun.

 

[tmdellit]

I'm actually going to Oman in just shy of 3 months and all these pics have made me so excited! We'll actually be staying at The Chedi, and have heard good things about The Beach restaurant so I'm glad you can concur!

Quick question, if you had to choose between going to only one of Wadi Shab and Wadi Bani Khalid, which would you go with?
Also, the sinkhole you refer to may be the Bimmah Sinkhole possibly?

Looks amazing!!!

 

[JohnM]

I'm actually going to Oman in just shy of 3 months and all these pics have made me so excited! We'll actually be staying at The Chedi, and have heard good things about The Beach restaurant so I'm glad you can concur!

Quick question, if you had to choose between going to only one of Wadi Shab and Wadi Bani Khalid, which would you go with?
Also, the sinkhole you refer to may be the Bimmah Sinkhole possibly?

Looks amazing!!!

I didn't get to do Wadi Shab in the detail described in Lonely Planet, if you've read that, so it's hard to compare it with Wadi Bani Khalid. However, the thing that impressed me more than the pools at the latter was the stunning mountain scenery driving there (although this was exceeded later in the trip). Wadi Shab is near the ocean and didn't offer quite the same scenery.

Correct on the Bamah (as spelt on the map I have) sinkhole.

Enjoy!

 

[JohnM]

A brief morning flight MCT-DXB lobbed me in DXB with plenty of time for a pleasant F lounge lunch of scallops and duck on a quiet Saturday before a mid-afternoon flight DXB-IKA.



The inside conditions are far better than outside…



IKA is a bout 35 km outside Teheran. After a short delay caused by some confusion about my pre-paid visa on arrival that they claimed to have no record of being paid, I coughed up USD170 and it was through immigration, upstairs to the crowded money exchange to get a load of Rials (c. 22,000,000 for USD500 IIRC) then a slightly manic taxi ride to the hotel. Tehran was buzzing on Saturday night.

Caught up with RooFlyer, who had arrived later than me, at breakfast after which we wandered down the street to scope the nearby infamous former US embassy from the outside before the tour started later in the morning. I found it interesting when a week or more later our guide, in general conversation, referred to the taking of the hostages as a ‘crime’. I suspect that it is an event that probably has done more than anything to permanently sour Iran/US relations because it was so visible to the public everywhere. Can’t undo history, though.



Then it was off to the Archaeological Museum. The audience scene relief of Darius I from Persepolis was the most striking exhibit amongst the usual array of pottery and carvings.



Street scenes near the museum to get some lunch before going to the Abguineh Glass and Ceramics Museum and the Carpet Museum.

 

[JohnM]

Next day and it was into the bus to head south to Kashan to visit an example of a 19th century grand merchant’s house and the historical garden of Fin before climbing into the mountains to overnight at the small village of Abyaneh. This village is at least 1500 years old and was originally settled by Zoroastrians fleeing the Arab invasion of Persia and is an Iranian Cultural Heritage Site where the people have preserved their ancient culture.

Signs are in English, which is also very widely spoken.





Mobile coffee in well-presented old Kombis near the historical merchant’s house.







The adjacent mausoleum provided first exposure to mirror glass work which we came to see often. Apparently, it originated as a new decorative form when mirrors imported from Venice (?) arrived broken.

The Fin Gardens hydraulics are all-natural gravity flow with a quite complex design.





Abyaneh village. The lattice woodwork and balconies are characteristic. A cluster of underground bath houses.

 

[JohnM]

Continuing SE through the characteristic desert towards Yazd, stopping en route at Na’in to visit the early Islamic period Masjed-el Jameh, a so-called ‘Friday’ mosque. As I understand it, the ‘Friday’ or ‘congregational’, mosques are those that formed part of a more general social and commercial hub – along the lines of a civic centre with the mosque as a centrepiece. This mosque was constructed in the 10-11th centuries and was one of the first mosques built in Iran.

The minbar is the ornate carved wooden platform from which the imam (leader of prayer) addresses the congregation, behind which is the semi-circular decorative mihrab, the niche that indicates the direction to Mecca, and there was an extensive underground prayer hall. Adjacent buildings included our first of many encounters with badgirs (windtowers or windcatchers), which come in a variety of configurations (uni-, bi- and multi-directional) to funnel the wind, including sometimes down across the water flowing in qanats (water channels) below buildings to create cooling ventilation.







The adjacent Pirnia House Ethnographic Museum was an ancient rich merchant’s house. The dome provided us with our first explanation of ‘squinches’ – essentially repeated, tiered curved triangular construction elements filling in the upper angles of a square room to form a base to receive a hemispherical dome.



Yazd is the centre for Iran’s small Zoroastrian community. Zoroastrianism was the main religion in the region before the Arab conquest brought Islam. Zoroastrianism was one of the first religions to postulate an omnipotent, invisible god. They pray to the god in the direction of light. As the only light the ancient people controlled was fire, so they created temples to keep a flame burning eternally.

Zoroastrians also believe in the purity of the elements, so bodies were not buried because they would pollute the earth, nor cremated because they would pollute the air. Instead, the dead were exposed in ‘towers of silence’ where the vultures had a picnic. The first place visited was the Dakhma Towers of Silence.

There are two ‘towers’ – the newer one directly in front with easy steps and an older and higher one to the left with a track to the top – including the intrepid RooFlyer striding out to conquer it. Two windcatchers over an ancient water cistern can also be seen. Views from the top of the older Tower, including our hotel in the mid-ground.







Yazd is a beautiful city. Some street scenes on the way to the Zoroastrian Fire Temple, with the Zoroastrian multiply-symbolic Fravahar winged symbol and its flame behind glass and reputedly burning since about 470AD.

 

[JohnM]

Yazd’s (very) old city is characterised by mud-and-straw plastered mud brick walls around houses and numerous stunning windcatch towers. IIRC, the protruding wooden poles are elements of framework to give flexibility in the event of earthquakes. The nearby lanes and alleys were pleasant for a stroll and escape from the heat.









And out we pop near the Masjed-e Jameh (Friday Mosque) dating from the early 1300s and which has the highest portal and minarets in Iran.





The Mirchachmagh Maidan (square) has an imposing, but facade-only, mosque at one end. The square and surrounding markets come alive at night.



Wind-catch towers near the market. The lady in the fabric shop is wearing her (coloured) head scarf loosely and quite far back on her head, typical of the young and less religiously observant. A shop specialising in head scarfs of all sorts of colours and designs.

On the point of religious observance, it was amusing and informative when our guide (in his early 30s – and who I thought was excellent) made a comment about “Oh, the last time I went to a mosque, about 20 years ago…”. Sounds much like many people in our society - me included. On that note, however, tomorrow afternoon I’ll be back in my old boarding school chapel 50-plus years on – but sadly for the funeral of a classmate.



Moving on to Bagh-e Dolat Abad, a palatial pavilion residence of a Persian noble built in about 1750 and set in UNESCO-listed gardens. It also has Iran’s tallest wind-catch tower (33m).