Cairo
Two Vital Waterways
Egypt has always held an irresistible fascination and it's easy to understand why. The man-made wonders of the pyramids, the Sphinx, the temples and obelisks, and the natural splendours of the desert and the Nile-all are enough to make any traveller dream of at least one trip to Egypt in a lifetime.
There is indeed something miraculous about this land of limitless sands that gave birth 5,000 years ago to one of the world's most awe-inspiring civilizations. It's all thanks to the Nile. Gathering waters from deep in Africa, the mighty river courses more than 600 miles through the desert, from Abu Simbel to the delta on the Mediterranean sea. Narrow fields of irrigated crops line the banks. The cloudless sky adds its blessing, the hot sun nurturing three harvests a year. And along the Nile lie the country's great monuments and its cities.
Alexander the Great first spotted the potential of Alexandria's site for a port. At various moments in its history, the city has been in the limelight for its culture and science. Today, it has all the bustling charm of a cheerful Mediterranean seaside resort, with few reminders of its past. By comparison, Cairo, founded around AD 969, is a relatively new city. In the shadow of Giza's pyramids, Cairenes have made their city the cultural capital of the Arabic civilization. Throughout the world, Muslims still look to Cairo as a treasure-house of Islamic art, architecture and learning. It is, though, at the pyramids on the city's outskirts that visitors receive the real jolt to their senses, when the contemplation of these ancient tombs puts the past into monumental perspective.
Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal is the kingpin in Egypt's international trade. It constitutes a startling transition between the timeless temples and pyramids of the ancient world and the modern resorts mushrooming along the Red Sea coast.
