Cairo

We are now in the capitol city, Cairo. Supposedly home to 10 million people and full of chaos, which I highly doubt is organised. We have been here for 4 days and have managed to see most of what the city has to offer. Its stinking hot in the city, so excursions out of the A/C of the hotel must be planned carefully. The highlights so far are the mummies of Rameses I and associates in the Egyptian Musuem along with all the loot that was found in Tutankamens' tomb in Luxor. For a teenage king who only ruled for 7 years he sure went into the next world fully loaded. His tomb was crammed with 3 gold beds, tables, shoes, rugs, jewelery, and everything else a 1500 BC teenager could want. The 'crowning' gem was his 11kg solid gold mask that adorned the mummy when he buried. We also made the trek out to see the Pyramids of Giza. They are quite stunning, and definitely live up to the hype. From a distance they don't look especially big, but up close the size of them is incredible. It is easy to see why archaeologists have been scratching their heads for centuries trying to figure out how they were made.
We also visited Islamic Cairo were many of the famous mosques of the Islamic world are found. It's a small area within the greater city of twisting alleys and souqs. Although the mosques are undoubtable special the area is a rubbish tip. The rest of Cairo isn't exactly clean, but the streets within this quarter were full of rubbish that had seemingly been there for weeks. After visiting religious districts in other cities in the region, Islamic Cairo was dissapointing.
Today is our last day in Cairo before we fly over the Sahara to land in Africa proper. We splurged mightly and paid to sit by the pool at the Nile Hilton. What a treat and an eye opener to see how the other people live. Servants and hangers-on galour, but we had a great time relaxing and having a swim and generally soaking up the hospitality of the nice people at Hilton Hotels.
The gorillas are calling, our next post will be from Uganda were we will shortly be re-united with Lauren.