In Cairo, the pull between culture and commerce is long established. Five thousand years ago, on the fertile banks of the Nile, wealthy Ancient Egyptians commissioned artisans to adorn their tombs for the voyage into the afterlife, crafting funerary pottery, woodwork, amulets and exquisite paintings. Today, souvenir stalls outside many of those same tombs — and in the souks of the capital — still offer designs that take inspiration from those ancient crafts, passed down over the centuries and adapted to sell to visitors.
Shopping can be a rich and revealing complement to exploring the art and archaeology of Ancient Egypt. In the camel-coloured desert at Saqqara, 14 miles south of the city, I circled Egypt’s first pyramid and watched workmen dressed in flowing jellabiyas cart earth from a recently discovered tomb. I saw wall carvings and paintings of crocodiles and Nile fishermen paddling reed boats, like five-millennia-old film footage. I stood in the subterranean tomb of pharaoh Unas, its stone a blur of hieroglyphic incantations for eternal life, its roof fretted with stars.
And now I find myself in the workshop of Saqqara’s Oriental Carpet School. It wasn’t my idea — is any phrase in Egypt more dispiriting than ‘Now we’ll visit a carpet factory’? But we were passing and my guide, Maher Abu Elkhair, promised it would be interesting.
As workers knot wool and silk threads on looms in one dextrous action, a salesman rattles through the patter: how Saqqara has a tradition of handmade carpets, a craft which flourished in Egypt from the 1400s; how children learn the vocation alongside fathers; how a metre-square is the work of a month. I nod. But I’m not listening: I’ve just seen what’s on one loom.
Master carpet-maker Adem is weaving five-point stars into a kilim. They look naggingly familiar. A beat later I realise why — they’re exactly the same as those at Unas’s tomb. Was this deliberate, I ask. Adem shrugs: “They asked me to make a carpet with stars. I design with stars.” For one beautiful revelatory moment, the threads of ancient and modern Egypt combine, twisting into a perfect cultural knot. Then the salesman says: “We have more upstairs if you want to buy. Something for the memory…”
Later this year, the much-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum is set to open in Giza, on Cairo’s western outskirts. It will house the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities ever assembled: around 140,000 objects. Ancient Egypt’s rock star pharaoh Tutankhamun gets two galleries to himself, uniting all 5,400 artefacts of his tomb for the first time since archaeologist Howard Carter gasped in wonder as he unsealed the door a century ago.
What King Tut’s beaded sandals and gold amulets ultimately showcase is Egyptian
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Following two flat months, Hillsborough County’s hospitality industry saw a large surge in growth in July according to the latest reports from STR, Inc. July’s hotel revenues were up 13.8% while occupancy increased by 3.4% to 70.4%, average daily rate (ADR) up 11.5% to $143.55 and RevPAR up 15.3% to $101.08. July tourist development tax collections for Hillsborough County, which reflect June collections, came in at $4,347,279, bringing the total collection for the fiscal year to $56,732,408. Total taxable hotel revenue through June has reached more than $900 million for the fiscal year-to-date indicating that Hillsborough County will surpass $1 billion for the second continuous fiscal year.
Egypt has an extensive and somewhat efficient overland transport system. For travel plans focused on the Nile, the palm-studded scenery of Nile Valley journeys is as much of a highlight as the destinations along the way.
Sunrise happens slightly before 7am during Cairo’s winter peak season. Visitor access to the Pyramids of Giza site — a nine-mile trip west from downtown Cairo — starts at 8am throughout the year. The potential pre-dawn start gives you more time and room to fully experience the awe of these 4,500-year-old monuments, and their watchful companion, the Great Sphinx. An estimated 2.3 million stone blocks make up the Great Pyramid itself, the only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Every traveler worth their salt knows that Egypt is not the only country in the world to have pyramids, there are plenty of them in Sudan, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico, among other locations. In fact, the largest pyramid in the world, The Great Pyramid of Cholula, also known as Tlachihualtépetl, is in Mexico, just 80 miles southeast of Mexico City. And it’s not even the closest pyramid to the capital: The Archeological Site of Teotihuacán, just 27 miles northeast of the city is home to three of them. Actually, Mexico City itself has a few.
Like it or not—social media has started playing one of the most significant roles in how Millennials and Gen Z think about and plan for travel. A particularly stunning backdrop or hotspot can occasionally have a bigger influence on tourism than a monument or museum.
Redditors have begun flooding a post with the travel experiences they had before they were considered unethical — and some are feeling guilty about them now.
The Nile River has long been one of the most mysterious, glamorous, and legendary destinations in the world. It has attracted well-heeled travelers and adventurers for centuries, well after the Pharaohs roamed. In 1933, writer Agatha Christie immediately put the Nile River on everyone’s bucket list when she sailed from Cairo to Aswan. Her experiences were documented in one of her most well-known novels Death on the Nile.
The first consultancy agreement seeks to implement impactful solutions to improve passenger experience at Cairo International Airport. The second consultancy agreement is for a feasibility study for the development of Cairo Cargo City, a new area at Cairo International Airport earmarked for cargo and logistics development.
Sabre’s technology will help enable Nile Air to optimize its distribution strategy, offering passengers more choice and convenience when booking flights. This agreement will further streamline Nile Air’s operations, helping to ensure a smooth and efficient workflow.