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On my last day in Cairo I spent 4 hours out at Giza and got some great additional photos, even venturing into the Great Pyramid of Khafre (the middle one with the smooth cap). The inside of the pyrimid was incredibly hot and humid and the air stale, but the vast magnitude of the structure above made it a worthy venture, all 20 stories of crouched steps down and back up into the center.

For more on Giza, see The Pyramids of Giza

I made it to the ancient city of Alexandria, founded by Alexandar the Great in 334 BC. Although the first day there was pretty rainy, the second was very sunny and warm and I was able to see the Citadel, which was built with and upon the rubble of the fallen Alexandria Lighthouse (one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World), plus a series of 1st and 2nd Centurey AD Catacombs, filled with over 300 tombs and decorated interestingly with the carvings of Roman, Greek and Egyptian motifs (in the style of the Ptolemaic dynasty that began after Alexandar conquered Egypt). After a short 1 1/2 day trip to Alex I headed back to Cairo by train (3 hours) and arrived late at night for 1 more full day.

For more information on Alexandria, these Wikipidia links:

Alexandria
Alexandar The Great
The Alexandria Lighthouse
The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World

The border at Rafah has been closed to non-Palestinians since the Israelis withdrew from the Gaza Strip and there is no official Palestinian authority in existance to monitor it. As a result, all trips from Tel Aviv, Israel to Cairo go from the Mediterranean side, all the way to the Red Sea side at Taba, then all the way back across Sinai, turning an 8 hour trip into a more gruelling 13.5 hour trip and waste of a travel day.

After arriving in Cairo very late Sunday night (1AM) and with little more than 24 hours left before my flight I decided to extend my trip 3 days (to Jan 20) in order to give me a chance to get to Alexandria and to have a few more hours in Cairo.

I am heading to Tel Aviv to hopefully rest up in a more comfortable hotel, to sample the night life and to either fly or take the bus back to Cairo before heading home on the 17th.

It is not quite so cold here as in Jerusalem, but still far from the warmth of the Mediterranean I had imagined. I was hoping to spend 1 day here and head back to Cairo, but everything shuts down on Friday and Saturday, so I was not able to get an Egyptian visa and flights are not until Sunday. It is pretty chill here and things are more modern than Jerusalem, but still not the ultra-modern perfect western standards I had imagined (i.e. the toilets cannot handle TP, so like many 3rd world countries there is a can by the can).

Making it across the border from Amman to Jerusalem is a bit of a pain, because despite being only 80 miles apart or so, you have to change buses 3 times and go through multiple security and passport checks. I finally made it around 1PM, after arriving at the Amman bus station at 6AM.

Jerusalem is even colder than Amman, with current highs around 50 and lows around 38. Plus I just found out that my $30 room in the Ancient Walled City (Old Jerusalem) has no heat and is basically a sieve of cold currents. Doah!

Wadi Rum (Summary from Wikipedia):

“Wadi Rum is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in south west Jordan. It is the largest wadi in Jordan. It has been inhabited by many human cultures since prehistoric times with many cultures?including the Nabateans?leaving their mark in the form of rock paintings, graffiti and temples. Currently several Bedouin tribes inhabit the area.

Wadi Rum is probably best known to Europeans because of its connection with the British officer T.E. Lawrence, who was based here during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18.”

Petra is absolutely spectacular - as good if not better than most of the Ancient Egyptian sites. More info of my experinece coming soon…

The following background is borrowed from Petra History.

The descriptions of Strabo, Pliny the Elder, and other writers identify Petra as the capital of the Nabataeans and the centre of their caravan trade. Walled in by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream, Petra not only possessed the advantages of a fortress but controlled the main commercial routes which passed through it to Gaza in the west, to Bosra and Damascus in the north, to Aqaba and Leuce Come on the Red Sea, and across the desert to the Persian Gulf.

Today I passed from Sinai through the edge of Israel (at Eliat) and am now in Aqaba, Jordan (at the Northern tip of the Red Sea). The security hassles going into Isreal were simply unbelievable. I had thought with a US passport if anything I would be less scrutinized and in fact it seemed to be a fair amount more than the Swedes I was with. Finally, 25 minutes, 3 bomb residue scans and 3 x-ray scans (filled bag, empty bag and unloaded bag contents) later I made it through and then found that was only the first of 3 checks (after there was a 5 min passport discussion and another delay and paperwork check at the actual gate). For the sake of tourist travel world-wide I truly hope that is not the way US airport security is going…