Sharm El-Shaik, an Egyptian Seaside Resort (Part I of III)

The Beach Boardwalk, Naama Bay

I'm sorry for a week long lack of blogging, but I was finishing up some work (3D modelling, damn vector calculus), and then I was jetting off to Sharm El-Shaik, a renowned holiday spot. I was there from early on Saturday to late yesterday (Tuesday) and I must say that I had a very good time, lots of thanks to Ismail for sending me. My activities however can be summarised quite succinctly: beach, lying in the sun, drinking and watching BBC in varying degrees of anxiety(it was covering the Polokwane conference).

Palm trees next to crystal clear sea

More specifically I was staying in Naama Bay, a sort of tourism orientated enclave, to the North of Sharm El-Shaik. Sharm El-Shaik itself is on the Sinai Peninsula, the little bit of land that separates Africa from Asia. As I mentioned above, it is a popular tourist destination (Europeans and Russians mainly) and is a world famous diving spot. The mountainous interior of the Sinai peninsula is home to the Bedouin people (nomadic desert dwellers, well they used to be) and Sharm serves as a gateway to the peninsula. A point of interest is that the Bedouin were the inspiration for Frank Herbert's Fremen people in the Dune Science Fiction series. I did meet a few of them (a lot work around the resorts and beaches), but I couldn't tell them apart from the other Egyptians straight away(this could be a failing on my part), usually it came up when I asked them where they were from.

More of the beach front, one of the many seaside bars (a potentially dangerous combination)

I arrived early on Saturday morning (I took the 5 o'clock from Cairo, arrived in Sharm International at 6 o'clock). The sunrise was quite spectacular, rising over desert mountains. I appreciate all sunrises I see, considering that 6 o'clock approximates to my personal midnight. I got to my hotel, Hotel Karamare, a very nice resort with some unfortunate decoration, and had a power nap after watching some BBC(my hotel in Cairo only gets CNN). Upon waking I hit the hotel breakfast, which unfortunately for the hotel's profit margins, was a buffet. Once full of every conceivable type of breakfast, I went for a stroll around town, town being the seafront part of Naama Bay.

Something of a cross between a pigeon and a starling, chilling in a beachside cafe

Naama Bay is both unique and generic: it is full of souvenir shops (all called 'book stores' for some reasons, the only writing in sight is on the postcards), and really, I must admit that most of the souvenirs are awful (as in crimes against taste awful); the scenery however is amazing: palm trees, desert mountains, crystal sea and try as it might, the people trying to sell crap just can't do anything about that. The atmosphere of the town is also nice, extremely relaxed, lots of cafes and people sitting around doing nothing. In particular the beachside bars and restaurants managed to hit the right note, and definitely were a positive.

The shore of Sharm, as seen from the other side

After my wanderings around town, I lay on the hotel beach and swam in the warm sea. Being the Red Sea (now I only need to swim in the Arctic and Antarctic seas), it is quite warm although it seem a bit saltier than what I was used to(I was probably imaging this). That night, after another exercise in profit margin shrinking at the buffet, I decided to take the nightlife by storm. But that is another story.

Coming Soon: Egyptian Nightlife (Part II of III), Cairo cafes, Sharm El-Shaik clubs, Seesa, funky house music and Russians, all the gory details.
Rus Mohammed (Part III of III), I snorkel around one of Egypt's only Nature Reserves, home to colourful reefs and mangroves, plants that live off salt water.

The Pyramids of Giza

Using another free day, Wednesday, I decided to do one of the big ones, the Sphinx and the Pyramids. The Sphinx and the Pyramids have been around for a long time (4500 odd years), and will be around for quite a while more. By popular consensus, they are the iconic symbols of Egypt and are a potent reminder of the ancient civilisation that built them. They are on what is known as the Giza Plateau, a piece of desert thrusting towards the Nile, several square kms in size. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the Giza Plateau from my hotel, although I would have preferred it took me an hour (the taxi driver was clearly enjoying the lack of traffic on the highway). I was distracted however, as we drew closer, for the Pyramids dominate the skyline, towering over the apartment blocks and farmlands of the Giza suburb.

Giza flats, on the way to the Pyramids

It was foolhardy of me to go to the Pyramids alone, since this is a world renowned site (aka tourist magnet) in a third world country. Needless to say the scamming started as soon as I stepped out the taxi. There are "government employees" (touts for camel and horse tours of the Plateau) and vendors of every description. I suppose I can attribute this to racism, in that as white male it was assumed that I had lots of money (Pounds, Dollars and Euros!) to throw away on tasteless trinkets and frivolities. On the other hand, I should face the reality that all white people who come to this (and most other countries) do in fact have plenty of money to spare, and what is so wrong with sharing (historically) ill-gotten gains? Needless to say as a student from South Africa (the Rand is weaker than Egyptian Pound, about LE0.8:R1), I don't have to worry with being scammed out of lots of money, since I don't have much to start with. My saving grace at the Pyramids was exactly this - I didn't take a lot of money, and a lot of single pound notes. I used the single pound notes to pay off the assorted self-appointed guides, and I must admit that the more determined ones earned some harsh words (yes John, I was a colonialist prick, but I was justified,OK?).

One of the Queen's Pyramids of the Great Pyramid

Once I dispensed with the local entrepreneurs/parasites, I was quite free to wander around some of the most impressive man-made objects I have ever seen. There are nine pyramids on the plateau, numerous funerary temples and of course, the Sphinx. There are the three main pyramids, from the 4th dynasty of the Old Kingdom. The six other pyramids are two sets of three "Queen's" pyramids, smaller pyramids built for queens and important relatives of the Pharaohs.

The Base of the Great Pyramid (of Khufu)

The first Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops in Greek), is called the Great Pyramid, as it is actually the biggest of the three pyramids (due to an optical illusion and its missing cover, it appears smaller than the second pyramid). It is immense and until the Lincoln Cathedral was built, it was the tallest building in the World (it held the title for 3000 years). All of the pyramids were originally smooth sided, like the "cap" of the second pyramid, but the smooth limestone was quarried away over the years for the monuments of the civilisations that followed the Ancient Egyptians. On the top of all the pyramids there was also gold caps, which caught the morning and evening sun's rays, but these were probably the first to go. If I was cruel, I would insulate a similarity between the current commercialisation of the complex, and the stripping of the pyramids' covering. Oops.

The Pyramid of Khafre, (look at the horse on the right for scale)

The second pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, is probably the most intact of all the pyramids, since it still has some of its limestone cap. It also does not have any queen pyramids, although the reason for this unknown. In modern times, a rather contrasting building has been built in front of the Pyramid, to house a boat found buried in front of the Great Pyramid. It is called the Solar Boat Museum, as the boat that it houses is thought to resemble the boat which the Ancient Egyptians thought carried the sun across the sky each day. Personally I found the building rather boxy and angular, like a 80s's conception of a futuristic building.

The Pyramid of Menkaure, with that of Khafre in the background

The final Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Menkaure, and is the smallest of the three. This could be caused by several things: after several generations of massive pyramid building, the government was over extended; the government had actually declined in power; or since his funerary temples are the most extensive, that the Egyptian religion had started moving towards smaller tombs, easier to hide and maintain for eternity. It also has a great big gash in its side, with quite a few of its "core" stones removed during the Middle Agents.

The Sphinx with the Great Pyramid in the background, look for the birds on its head!

The Sphinx is one of the oldest recognisably man-made monuments in Egypt, pre-dating everything else on the Plateau. It was probably carved out of a naturally occurring chunk of sandstone while the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation was expanding out of Memphis (its first capital). I found it quite sinister and it didn't surprise me to learn that is is called Abu al-Hol (Father of Terror in Arabic). Its nose wasn't lost because of Obelix, as I was disappointed to learn, my guidebook claims it probably fell off in the 15th century. Recently its base has been reconstructed, having suffered the worst from some sort of water damage in the past. Apparently most of the work was done using similar techniques as those of the ancients, and so took quite a while.

I did promise a video

I have neglected to mention that the tourists were out in force (I suppose I was one of them). However they tended to travel in groups, and by taking a rather unconvential path (I sort of wove through the Pyramids and looped back to the Sphinx), I was able to beat the crowds. The complex is definitely more orientated towards bus-loads of tourists, and so I think by being a lone traveller, I was at least spared somewhat the brunt of the commercial assault.

I was rather sad when I saw this one on the side of the Great Pyramid

I spent the whole of my afternoon walking around the plateau, and my shoes were covered in its grey sand (well, I was warned about the sand in Egypt). I left as the sun was setting on the pyramids, and it is a pity my camera-phone couldn't handle the light. The pollution-aided sunset was amazing.
Right, I'm off to bed, but...

Being a bit of an idiot, this photo was part of rather cunning ploy by a particularly persistent vendor,
who was rather keen on my prescription sunglasses...

Coming Soon: Coptic Cairo - I visit one of the oldest Christian Denominations and the oldest part of Cairo (the Roman Fort of Babylon-in-Egypt). I actually did this today, so it is just a matter of me writing up the post. The Rambling continues!