Egypt beyond the pyramids

Micro-moments of Egyptian sights, culture, agriculture

I am trying to be a laid-back type of traveler, who lives the moment and plans things spontaneously. That’s because I discovered that, when I plan everything to the smallest detail, the fear of missing out steps in and ruins the most precious moments. Well, I don’t always succeed in being a relaxed traveler, but when I do…those trips turn out to be the best ones — just like our trip to Egypt.

I didn’t want to turn our vacation into a marathon of running between touristic objectives. Thus, my agenda wasn’t planned from home, booking every second of our eight days in Egypt. My only wish was to discover the Egyptian culture beyond the pyramids and everything we already know about this destination. You know, to have those small talks with locals, to catch raw moments on their streets, to see their everyday lifestyle that no tourist takes time to talk about…

Unfortunately, Egypt is not a destination where tourists can freely wander on its streets, exploring the markets and the local vibes. Maybe this is the main reason why everybody is sharing the same Egyptian story and has mainly the same experience. However, I was hunting my micro-moments even though the circumstances were not exactly the ones I was used to.

So, if you are interested to see more of what Egypt is and experience some raw Egyptian moments, I strongly advise you to take the trip to Luxor. I found the whole way there and back very revelating and loaded with information about landscapes, infrastructure, possibilities, agriculture, cities, lifestyle, history, and culture — even by only looking outside the window of the bus.

Landscape and agriculture

I never thought the desert could be so fascinating until I got to see it. It is astonishing how much life can water provide, or how barren a landscape can become in its absence. Hours of driving around mountains of stones, dust, and sand — nothing more. The view is so fascinating, that I couldn’t take my eyes off the window. Gigant rocks coming out of nothing, surrounded by nothing, no animals that you could see, no trace of green whatsoever.

Suddenly, after around one and a half hours of nothing but desert, you can spot here and there an explosion of green that surrounds one or two houses/settlements. Here is the sign of what a trickle of water can do to a completely barren environment. The sign of artificially irrigated propriety.

As you come closer and closer to the Nile River, you can see along its way how agriculture comes to life. Only 3% of the Egyptian fields are fertile. They are growing cotton, corn, rice, wheat, sorghum, and fava (broad) beans. Agriculture is not very developed and people are working mainly with their bare hands and using donkeys. Their main transportation options are motorcycles, donkeys, and small cars.

The most common fruits you can find there are: strawberries, bananas, guava, watermelon, fresh dates, mango. We even visited an island called Banana Island. It was a very interesting experience, as we took a boat on the Nile River to reach that island where people were growing banana trees.

Food and religious practices

I know since I was living in Sweden, where I’ve met my good friend from Egypt, Mostafa, that people there are eating quite clean and healthy. Their food is mainly based on vegetables and they make a wide variety of dishes out of vegetables that are actually very common in Europe too. I’ve noticed that they use quite a lot of aubergine (eggplant). This vegetable is cooked in many delicious ways in Egypt.

Even though they like spices quite a lot, the food is not over-spiced and it keeps quite faithfully the original aromas of the vegetables and meat. They are not very good at sausages and these kinds of meat products and dairy. However, who needs all that when the table is full of other interestingly cooked vegetables?

As you probably know, the state religion in Egypt is Islam, which makes 85–95% of the population Sunni Muslims. Thus, when it comes to meat, pork is absolutely nonexistent. The most common are chicken, beef, lamb, fish, and seafood (near the sea of course).

As the population is mostly Muslim, they had their Ramadan which started on the 13th of April and lasts for 30 days until sundown on Saturday 13rd of May. That means that Egyptians were not eating or drinking from sunrise, at 5:15 AM, till sunset at 18:30 PM. Despite the hot and dry weather, people are keeping this fasting practice rigorously. They also have a very strict praying schedule:

When the praying time comes, the whole city is immersed in silence, and you can hear from places to places their prayers.

I found it very beautiful that, right after sunset, locals were sharing on the main road juices, water, and food with every driver. They were just giving sandwiches and glasses of water through the driver’s window, as they knew that most of them have a long way until they reach their homes and are able to eat and drink. This gesture touched me profoundly, as people are far from being wealthy, but they are much more eager to share whatever they have with strangers.

Luxor

Luxor was the capital of Egypt and I highly recommend it both to those interested in Ancient Egypt and history, and to those who are not that passionate about that but want to discover beautiful cities and have a great time near the Nile River. The city itself is very beautiful, with restaurants situated near the Nile River with breathtaking views.

I will not write a lot about the Karnak Temple, the world’s second greatest open-air museum, as the Internet and social media are full of information about it. However, I need to say that it is definitely worth a visit and I will share a few photos from this place. For more pictures, visit my Instagram.

I believe that the freedom of meeting a different culture is essential for our personal development. In order to be able to accept a new culture more easily, we need to understand it first, to learn more about it. People need to open their minds and their hearts to each other. We need to stay curious and explore the World because it has some hidden gems ready to be discovered.