Sunday
26 February 1950
Egypt
Arrival Times
The approximate times of arrival of the RMS Caronia are as under:
- PORT SUDAN : Monday, 27 February, at 7.00am
- SUEZ : Wednesday, 01 March, at 7.00am
- ALEXANDRIA : Friday, 03 March, at 9.00am
Earliest Known Civilisation
EGYPT stands alone as the only country in the World today where you can find magnificent evidence of the earliest known civilisation of the human race side by side with every accomplishment of the modern world.
In Egypt you will find inspiring examples of the advanced works of art, architecture, sculpture, and massive engineering wrought by the ancient Egyptians 5,000 years ago.
The civilisations of the Tigris - Euphrates and of earliest China reach far beyond written history. But nowhere else can you find works of the ancients comparable in perfection and grandeur with those of Egypt.
Drive twenty minutes from the paved streets of Cairo, a metropolitan city of two millions, and you behold the Great Pyramids of Giza. They will still be among the wonders of the World 2,000 years from now.
Giza
In the modern galleries of art and sculpture you will rarely find an equal, we venture, to the sculptured figure of the Pharaoh Chrephren, builder of the Second Pyramid, which was found in the Temple of the Sphinx and now is shown in the great Cairo Museum, most wonderful archaeological museum in the World.
We have nothing today to take a place with the immortal Sphinx. Indeed, the name Sphinx stands alone, recumbent giant figure with the body of a lion, the head of a man, speechless, gazing out through the countless centuries. Yet you drive to see the Sphinx over a modern four-lane boulevard.
Karnak Temples
As the centuries pass onward from the distant era of the Old Kingdom, we find the glories of the mighty Temples at Karnak, the majestic Hypostyle Hall, the great Temple of Luxor, and across the River Nile, the beautiful Temple of Queen Hapshepsut, the first militant example of “Woman's Rights”, who ruled Egypt as a bearded man.
Photo: © 1965 Peter Stevens
Not far distant we discover the Tombs of the Queens with their exquisite frescoes of dancing girls, and, over the hill, the Valley of the Kings, where Tutankhamun's tomb was opened by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon little more than a quarter of a century ago.
Good roads lead to these wonders, with good hotels nearby, and the dry air of Egypt is a tonic.
We pass down the long corridor of the ages and come to the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt. First the Greeks, following Alexander the Great, and then the Romans. They have given us such magnificent blendings as the Colonnade Hall of the Temple of Esneh. The Christian era of Rome in Egypt has left us the earliest Christian monasteries in the World, still active.
How old is ancient?
In the middle of the 7th Century A.D. and in succeeding generations the Legions of Mohammed spread through the Near East, Egypt, Southern Europe, Northern Africa, Spain, establishing their culture and architecture when Europe was still in the Dark Ages.
Today we find in Cairo's 400 mosques many of the finest examples of Islamic art in the World. Arabic architectural motifs, religious and secular, have spread everywhere.
Look from your train windows on the way to Luxor. The picturesque pastoral scenes turn your thoughts to Biblical days. The ancient wood ploughs drawn by donkeys, buffaloes, camels (sometimes).
The Fellaheen in their long robes suggest another day and age. But the Fellaheen are fast learning the modern ways; ancient Egypt is passing under the spell of modern progress.
A New World
In the last quarter of a century 9,000 school houses have been built and 1.5m children placed in elementary schools. Two great co-educational universities teach 20,000 students. New homes and ways of life are coming to the people.
A vast health regime is succeeding. Egypt will co-operate with British Uganda to store water in distant Lake Victoria. A new world is opening to the ancient loved land of Egypt.
As our train speeds onward, we are reminded that Egypt was the first country after England and France to install railway trains. The great inventor of the steam engine Stephenson himself installed the first railway in Egypt, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.
Modern Cairo
THE visitor to Cairo, the capital of Egypt, finds himself in a city of anachronisms. Wide well-lit streets, modern stores and shops, lovely public parks and tall buildings with every modern convenience meet the eye at every turn.
It is Paris under the Egyptian sky with its brightly lit cafés, palatial theatres and large department stores. However, within a stone's throw of the wide streets are covered bazaars, ancient mosques, winding lanes and old houses of which the forbidding exteriors hide a wealth of medieval charm.
There is a world of interest in Cairo. The tourists can never see all of Cairo. There are many fine museums the most noteworthy of which is the great Cairo Museum, known the wide world over. This huge stone building contains the finest archaeological collection in the World. it was made possible through the assistance of Mr. John D. Rockfeller, Jr.
Here the visitor may see the wonderful statue of the ancient Pharaoh Khephren, builder of the Second Pyramid, pronounced by experts to be the finest piece of ancient sculpture in the World.
Here, too, are the lovely relics of Tutankhamun, although you will find the tomb itself in the Valleys of the Kings, when you go to Luxor in Upper Egypt.
The Arabic Museum with huge, gorgeous copies of the Koran hand painted by ancient monks on vellum is a wonderful adventure. The Coptic Museum shows exhibits dating from the Christian era in Roman times.
The Institut Francaise is another fashionable attraction. It was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte, and accounts, in some measure, for the French social influence which is so marked in the cultured circles of Cairo.
The Royal Opera House in Opera Square was built in 1869 when the Empress Eugenie came to attend the opening of the Suez Canal. At the same time the seven mile long boulevard to the Great Pyramids was built so that the Empress Eugenie would be able to drive to the Pyramids, instead of riding in a boat across the inundated Valley of the Nile.
Old Cairo
The Old Section of Cairo is a veritable Arabian Nights city. In fact, a part of the Arabian Nights tales transpired in Old Cairo, and it was translated from the original Arabic in Cairo in 1838-1840 by E. W. lane, one of the original and perhaps the foremost transcriber of the Arabian Nights.
It was in these narrow streets with their overhanging balconies and tiny shops that occurred many of the breathless adventures that Scheherazade nightly related to the Sultan, tales of such interest that he spared her life.
In this part of Old Cairo you will find special districts devoted to skilled artisans, silversmiths, goldsmiths, carvers of ivory (including the ivory of both elephant and rhinoceros, and hippo teeth). For centuries these skilled men have practised their strange Oriental carving arts here.
Men come along calling their wares, others sell you a drink of water, iced tea, or lemonade. A veiled woman, supple and, you guess, pretty for all her concealment, slips by. Then a tall camel loaded with clover. And now the narrow street is occupied by a procession of long-tailed sheep.
Here we see the menseg of walnut wood, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell. We stop at Hatoun's famous shop in El Mosky (market) where more than a hundred men are at work producing artistic objects, among them are authentic copies of art furniture found in King Tutankhamun's tomb.
They are sold as copies only. They are never passed off as originals. Yet some of the pieces bring up to $1,250.00 in American dollars. Silks, carpets, Oriental rugs, brass work, etc., are sold in El Mosky.
We are indebted to the periodical “Travel Agent” for the articles on Egypt and Cairo.