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1995

EGYPT (Luxor) - Cairo to Capetown

Bec
2004-09-20 12:37:30

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El Minya
Back in Cairo, I picked up visas for Sudan and Eritrea and on the following day, went early to the huge bus terminal behind the Ramses train station where I found a bus going south as far as Nag Hammadi about 100 km from Luxor. The driver, Ali Ahmed Ali was very friendly and felt responsible for me as I was the only westerner aboard. This is the main street of El Minya about 200 km south of Cairo.

It was getting dark when we reached the Nag Hammadi bus terminal. Ali warned me about the Islamic Brothers' strategy of attacking tourists to embarrass the government and told me to be very careful. The Luxor bus had left so Ali introduced me to the driver of a bus going to Qena, 50 km further. By now, it was dark and the police had installed several barrages. At Qena the driver, whose name I forgot, dropped me off at the barrage at the entrance of town and entrusted my safety to the police on duty there.

The police told me they were on the alert because a local branch of the Brotherhood had killed a Dutchman some weeks ago in Hurgada on the Red Sea coast. I was quite safe with them but it was a bit exciting nonetheless. Four armed policemen jumped into a jeep and took me 5 km across town to the Luxor road barricade. There, they stopped a taxi that was going to Luxor with a norwegian couple and I got in with them.

Luxor
It was late when I got to Luxor but there were still a lot of people in the main streets and I had no trouble finding a budget hotel. I had no trouble falling asleep either for it had been a long day.

The next day I rented a bicycle and went sightseeing starting with the Luxor Temple shown here, right in town. There is a lot to see around Luxor for it is the site of the "City of Amon", capital and burial place of the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom (1570 to 1070 BC), later called Thebes by the Greek.

Built by the New Kingdom Pharaoh Amenophis III, the ...