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CAIRO
Oils and pyramids
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We were looking forward to meeting Cairo. A large city, a historical place of world significance. First unusual impressions are the presence of the tourist police. Wherever the tourist routes pass, people in dark uniforms with machine guns are seen. Probably so the tourists will be calmer. Incredibly large traffic jams were compensated by special routes for tourist buses. So we quickly reached the first destination of the journey: the Cairo National Museum. The museum is located on the famous Tahrir Square.
This is one of the best museums in the world.
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All visitors admire Tutankhamun's golden room,
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but he is only famous for the fact that his tomb was not plundered. We were much more interested in the personality of Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti. Their reign is a very unusual piece of Egyptian history. After seeing the museum and taking a walk in the park near the entrance, we went on an excursion along the Nile. We sailed along the Nile in a boat with great delight. After all, this is the longest river on earth. I'll tell you my little secret, I was very curious what the water of this great African river tasted like. I could not resist and tried. Its taste is different from the water from the rivers of Ukraine. In the Nile, the water is sweetish.
After walking along the Nile, we headed to Giza to the pyramids. In general, this is a separate city, but now it is already considered a suburb of Cairo. The bus driver asked us how to take us: a long way through the beautiful and wealthy quarters of Cairo or quickly, but through poor and unpresentable areas. We chose the latter because we wanted to see the life of ordinary Cairo people. The trip impressed us. Narrow streets, a lot of dirt in the streets and courtyards. We saw how a young Egyptian woman, leaving the house, jumped over heaps of rubbish to get to the street along which we were driving. The driver was embarrassed to say that we do not perceive all the Cairo people as such a dirty bum. He said that Egyptians who had come from distant villages in search of a better life lived here. Most of them are illiterate and do not even understand how to behave in the city. For example, the government is digging a canal to bring water to the district, and a year later this canal is already filled up with debris so that it almost does not let water through. Most of the houses we saw there were roofless. We were told that the house tax is levied when the roof of the house is ready. therefore
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poor Egyptians build a house, and from above they imitate the construction of the next floor, so as not to pay tax and save money.
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And now we are not far from the pyramids, but for some reason no one plans to take us there. We are brought to some shops, where they arrange big presentations of hibiscus tea, drawings on papyrus, silver items and oil. The oil was especially remembered because its presentation was very long, but memorable. We were anointed with Nefertiti oil for beauty, Ramses II oil for many years of life and dozens of other oils, which were then urged to be bought at very expensive prices. But we were not convinced and we escaped to the pyramids! And let everyone take such a photo! We made it too :-)
While walking towards the pyramids, the sellers of souvenir trinkets are very aggressively trying to sell you something. Every 10 meters there are guys who strive to stick some souvenir into your hand and, if you take it, they will start demanding 15-20 dollars for a one-dollar trinket. But near the pyramids themselves there are very few impudent traders. And then you can safely walk, watch, take pictures.
Near the main pyramid of Cheops there are several small ones, as we were told - for the wives and mother of Cheops. At the entrance to one of them sits a stern guard with a submachine gun who does not let anyone there, but for a couple of pounds, he pretends not to notice how you climb into this little pyramid. And next to it there is a queue, perhaps more than in the pyramid of Cheops itself :-) Because not so many people want to climb into the big pyramid, and they do not mind looking into the small one. In the next photo you can see how the Cheops pyramid looks up close.
After walking around the pyramids, tired but satisfied, we headed to the bus. Some guy offered us to buy a 30 cm sculpture of a cat for $ 20, we smiled and continued on our way to the bus. Then the price dropped to $ 15, then to $ 10, then to $ 5. When the bus was ready to go, this guy appeared out of nowhere, and resentfully said that he would give us 2 cats for $ 5, but we agreed to buy only one for 2.5. Apparently, he was happy with this result :-)
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Vitaly & Nataly
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