Dr. Hauken in Egypt - October 2009

The task of making a photo gallery of the classical monuments of Egypt started this autumn. It was an idea that sprang from the wish to found this society, a homepage being foreseen as an obvious prerequisite for such an undertaking. Landing in Cairo - coming from Rome - in a blazing heat (37 degrees celsius) was the beginning of a few weeks intense explorations with the camera. The result of this trip is found in the great photo gallery under the link of the same name. The photos below are just samples of the result of this expedition.

First stop was our hotel at Giza, within a walking distance from the pyramid site. Here started the visit to all the pyramids that we found within reach: those at Giza itself, Abusir, Saqqara, El-Fayum, Dashur, Meydum. The many tombs at Giza and Saqqara were not always so easy to take photos of as the guards never could agree if photography was allowed or not. For a small consideration they usually became cooperative and the result passable if lucky. Tourists being very numerous on some of these locations made work difficult, but not impossible if you had time and patience. The hotel provided good taxi drivers and a reasonable price. We were always back before darkness set in.

From Hotel Windsor - our nest stop - the high points of Cairo were easily within reach: the museum, Old Cairo, the bookshops, a trip on the Nile, the bazaar, and so many more. Photography is strictly prohibited at the museum, but you can take as many shots as you like in the open air museum outside the entrance. The museum is in bed need of modernization. But since a new one is under construction at Giza, this is unlikely to happen. Cairo and Windsor were from the outset linked to each other. It lies in Alfi Bey Street, at the end of Talaat Harb, so to speak, so the walk from Tahrir Square passes by some good restaurants. Alexandria was a less agreeable story.

Even if our hotel was situated at the far end of the great avenue along the seaside and we walked this distance to the center every morning for a week, the city is no longer the cosmopolitan place it used to be. Actually, it has sunk down into what easily can be described as an Arabian night. Well - Alexandria was never Egyptian in any normal sense of the word, but now it is, however not like Cairo and its snug atmosphere. The sights are all easy to reach: the lighthouse (a castle today), the Serapeion, the museum, the catacombs, the older churches. But the soul of the place was somewhat absent and its international past so very distant. However, the weather was as good as can be, and the photographic result above expectations. The expedition lasted only a few weeks, but going over the photographic result at home it turned out to have been a rather large and successful distance that laid behind us.