I went on the most epic trip ever to Egypt. I went for about 14 days with my mom, from May 14th to May 25th 2022.

We arrived in Egypt after a long-delayed flight at around 1 in the morning. My mom and I met in Heathrow which made the trip much better despite that the flight was 2 hours late.

We stayed at the four seasons, this was our first time here and we weren’t ready for the fanciness. We stayed there for two nights. The room was so huge. The bathroom had two sinks and there was a separate room for the toilet with a bidet. There was also a separate shower and bath. Luxurious! We had a very nice man named Ehab who picked us up at the airport and told us our tour guide from bus 1, which we were told we were on, was going to be very good.

Day 1: The Mosque of Muhammad Ali and The Egyptian Museum (May 15th, 2022)

In the morning we met everyone at 7:50. It was hard because we didn’t go to bed until 230. We went into a big conference room and learned that only 30 of the 80 usually people were going to be on the boat, but that there would be 60 attendants on the boat.

They then told us that we had some other trips for purchase and my mom was sad because she thought they were included. She wanted to go to Abu Simbel and we did that. However, I had asked about the other trips and if we needed to purchase them now. This is when I met my guide Hazem. It turned out he would be my guide.

Hazem took us to Muhammad Ali’s mosque. At this point, I was super tired and I wasn’t paying attention to the lecture very well. I was on very few hours of sleep. So we went to the mosque, which was inactive, and it turns out no head scarf was required. Thank the goddess as I really don’t agree with that idea. I’m still livid about the time when a police officer in the Milan Duomo threatened to throw me in jail for refusing to wear an extra cover in 40 C/105 F degree weather!

After that, we went to the Egyptian museum. This is where the fact that we were on a guided tour really helped. Hazem guided us through the museum which had so much to see but showed us the best stuff and also gave us some time on our own.

We learned about the stuff that was buried with the mummies and what kind of materials were used to cut and create the statues. For example, there was a very particular rock that was used to cut granite and there was only one statue in Egypt that was actually made from that same stone that was used to cut granite. I understand this may not be interesting to you, but having been able to see granite quarries and learning about how building materials were moved throughout the country, it feels more relevant to me.

Statue made out of the rare rock that was used as a tool for cutting other rocks ;D

We also saw the scribe of Egypt whose on the 200 Egyptian pound note. This is an important role since they recorded the religious history. I later asked Hazem if these scribes ever wrote actual history, things that were happening, but he said that they mostly wrote stuff about religion and were doing so for the priests. I had also asked him about why the pharaohs were men and he said that the priests convinced the people that the pharaoh must be male since the great unifying king, who united north and south, was a man. It seems like the priests were really the ones with the power in the end.

The second to last thing we saw was the treasures of Tutankhamen. We weren’t allowed to take photos. The jewels and gold were spellbinding. I have never seen that much gold before. The mask was just mind-blowing. The jewels and the stones were gorgeous too. Lots of scarab designs which I now know represent eternal life since they asexually reproduce.

Following that, Hazem showed us Tuteknkamen’s thrown which featured he and his wife Ankhesenamun, same name as the mummy movie but otherwise no relation. Interesting story about her. Apparently, she wrote the king of the Hittites after Tutnkamen’s death to ask him to marry her so she could stay on the thrown, but he didn’t believe her. Then she wrote him again and the letter was intercepted and she was believed to be an enemy of Egypt. They don’t know what happened to her and haven’t found her body.

King tut walking with one foot in front of the other

Following that, we saw a statue of Tutenkamen and learned that Egyptian statues always lead with the left foot forward because of the heart being first, that’s the only part of the body that stays in the chest after mummification to get ready for the final judgment (which takes 30 days). The heart must be lighter than a feather. Hazem showed us the alabaster jars they put the liver, lungs, and intestines in. It seems like they don’t keep the brain. I wish we had asked him why that is.

After Hazem’s presentation, we had about 30 minutes to wonder the museum on our own. We found an unfinished statue of Nefertiti and big statues of Akenaten the monotheistic pharaoh whose kingdom and reign were defamed after he died.

After this, we went back to the hotel. We had to pay for our own food that day and by god was it expensive! We ate by the pool and I had seafood. My mom and I overordered a little bit. She went swimming.

Later that evening we went to the pyramid light show. It was the only opportunity to see the pyramids at night. Omg, it was SOOO bad. I couldn’t really understand what it was about. I told Hazem that I didn’t like it and asked later if the Karnak one was just as bad. He said it wasn’t, but he was wrong! That was the only time I was annoyed with him.

Day 2: Flight to Luxor, Karnak and Our First Time on the S. Sphinx (Monday, May 16, 2022)

We woke up really early. Our bags had to be outside by 5. Another night of little sleep. We caught our flight and I got a middle seat away from my mom. I spoke with a guy from Philadelphia on our trip and was able to make it through. Luckily it was only an hour.

Our guide told us to always take photos of our tickets so that we wouldn’t get the temples mixed up.

We got to Luxor and had to sort out our bags and they were taken away. We were taken to a bus and driven to Karnak temple.

I’m sorry to say, maybe because it was the first, but Karnak temple is the one I remember the least. It’s really famous and I noticed it come up a lot in the documentaries I watched, and I know that it was the priest’s seat of power and the country was even run from there at one point…but it was really crowded and hot so I didn’t focus as much that day. The one thing I remember is something about Akenatan trying to cover up one of Hatshepsut’s Kartushes. I wondered why.

The one thing I remember was that Hazem had us act out the Egyptian creation story. I was hoping he wouldn’t put me in it because I felt he was giving me more attention and was worried other group members would not like that. However, I got cast as Isis. When Set cut up Osiris, Isis had to go around searching for his body parts, but the fish ate his “Oblisek”.

Even here Osiris is missing his “Obelisk”, but you can still get an idea of where it was.

Then she flapped her wings and reproduced with him. At one point in the tour, I asked Hazem what he really wished he could know about the past and he told me he really wanted to know about the origin of the creation myths. As you can see, the way Isis bore Horus is quite similar to the immaculate conception. He also said there were strong similarities to the Cane and Able story with regards to Set and Osiris.

In the temple, we probably learned a lot about the different gods and what they represented this day. We also learned that the Egyptians are always looking to the side because they’re looking at the gods. When we were leaving the temple, my mom got hounded by people trying to buy stuff. I got really aggressive trying to stop this from happening, but she wanted to buy something in the end which I didn’t realize. She bought a scarf made in China. Hazem jumped in to help and said that it was ok and in the grand scheme, it was only $7. As we were walking back through the market, he got me an isis statue. I was so surprised by this.

After the temple, we got on the air-conditioned bus and headed to the boat. We got our rooms, which I found quite small but I was ok with that.

We had a super fantastic lunch. It was a buffet but there was a ton of vegetarian stuff and they gave us wine, they never let our cups run dry. This was both good and bad.

After that, we went up to check out the pool.

Unfortunately, my mom got an eye for the jewelry in the store and spent hours bargaining and then getting her credit card to work while I was alone upstairs wanting to swim but being the youngest person there.