Dawn Princess World Cruise Port of Call: Port Said, Gateway to Cairo

After an interesting day traversing the Suez Canal, the Dawn Princess World Cruise arrived in Port Said (map) in the early evening. On arrival,  the wharf was empty but in the time it took for the ship to be securely anchored to the dock and the gangways dropped, the wharf had filled with vendors looking to sell everything from sunglasses to model pharaohs to passengers adventurous enough to step ashore.

And after seven days at sea, it seemed that most passengers, keen on getting their feet back on solid ground, were willing to put themselves at the mercy of the vendors.

The Road to Cairo

Bright and early the next morning, the Dawn Princess was a hive of activity as passengers and crew got ready for a full day in Cairo (map) wandering the pyramids, cruising the Nile, and visiting museums.. By 7.30 am, with all the buses loaded, we headed off to Cairo under police escort.

It was a long three hour bus trip to Cairo, but along the way passengers were introduced to some of the idiosyncrasies of Egyptian life, ranging from partially finished houses (unfinished deliberately to avoid taxes) to pigeon cones (everyone raises pigeons to race and later to eat), types of crops (predominantly mango and date trees), overabundance of military bases, and common forms of transportation (cars, motorcycles, camels, and donkeys).

Four Wheeling Around the Pyramids

Arriving in the outskirts of Cairo, the bus convoy broke up, with some buses heading for the Giza Pyramids (map), some towards the Nile, and some towards the Museum.

But one bus was heading somewhere different.  Filled with 26 intrepid adventurers (me included), it headed off the beaten track toward Sakkara (map) and Egypt‘s oldest pyramid. And once there, a convoy of 4WD’s would take us to even more remote pyramids.

But before we got dusty four wheeling around the desert, we had a good look around the Step Pyramid, designed by Imhotep in  2650 B.C. for the Pharaoh Djoser. The  Step Pyramid  and it’s surrounding enclosures, was the prototype for all other pyramids.  It is still undergoing extensive conservation work, but visitors can easily wander around the complex, viewing the colonnaded corridor, ancient limestone wall, and even 12th century tourist graffiti.

Then it was off again in convoy, but this time in  4WD’s and without a police escort. Bouncing around in the dusty desert, we headed out in search of  first the Bent Pyramid and then the Red Pyramid of Dahshur (map).  At each pyramid, we exited the air-conditioned 4WD’s, surrounded not by hoards of visitors and vendors but only by the desert and the obligatory policemen and their camels standing guard over the pyramids.

Visiting the Sphinx

Of course, no visit to Egypt is complete without a visit to the Great Pyramid of Giza (map) and Sphinx (map).

But by the time we arrived mid-afternoon, the crowds were already there, along with what seemed like hundreds of persistent and insistent vendors trying to sell Egyptian kitsch and camel rides.

And  having been up close and personal with the Step, the Bent, and the Red Pyramid, we were happy to stand back and let others crowd around the Sphinx.

(Photo Credits: Liz Lewis)