TRAVEL: Fit for the Gods.. ; ANCIENT AND MODERN EGYPT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE
By AINE HEGARTY
LEGENDARY land of the Pharaohs and home of the goddess Isis and her husband Osiris, god of fertility and ruler of the afterlife – Egypt is a magical place for a holiday.
This fabled north-east African country – with its face to the Mediterranean, its back to the desert and flanked by the Red Sea – exudes a serious sense of the exotic.
Tutankhamen, the great Pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza, the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, Abu Simbel – these are all names which cause a frisson of excitement.
And to such wonders of the ancient world, Egypt has added the modern Aswan Dam.
It is also home to some fabulous resorts on the Red Sea where superb beaches, coral reefs and wonderful underwater pursuits are the order of the day.
So a visit to Egypt is a life-enriching, never-to-be-forgotten experience.
Located on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula between the Red Sea and Mount Sinai, Sharm el Sheikh is a cosmopolitan resort with excellent facilities.
Spectacular marine life and underwater pursuits, endless beaches and year-round sunshine combine with millennia of history to provide fantastic attractions for tourists of all ages and tastes.
Luxor, once the ancient city of Thebes, is the ideal stepping stone from which to explore the Nile and the historical treasures along its banks.
It has plenty of archaeological remains but it is also a bustling city with a marvellous marketplace where life proceeds in a blaze of colour and a riot of exotic sounds and aromas.
No wonder a growing number of Irish travellers are heading to Egypt to sample its exotic offerings.
It is the perfect destination for people who want to combine the relaxing elements of a sun holiday with some historical sightseeing.
The Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh with its fabulous beaches is more suited to those who want more of a sun holiday.
To anyone standing on its shore and gazing out across its heavenly waters, the Red Sea may seem to be a misnomer.
Its blueness is eternal and anything less red cannot be imagined.
This is where the desert meets the ocean to create one of the planet’s most fascinating seascape environments.
It is a great place for scuba diving, holding beneath its crystal blue surface a wonderland of living creatures, reefs, and coral formation.
And for utter luxury, the Marriott Sharm el Sheikh Beach Resort is a haven of timeless sophistication and understated elegance in opulent surroundings.
The property enjoys a fabulous position in popular Nama Bay where the stunning beaches and underwater paradise of the Sinai Peninsula attract visitors seeking adventure or pure relaxation.
The five-star hotel features in Budget Travel’s Something Special holiday brochure.
Of course, Luxor, being situated well up the Nile, yet close to the Red Sea, offers the best of both worlds, allowing holidaymakers to mix sunbathing and sightseeing.
The city is a living museum with vast numbers of ancient Egyptian monuments.
Most of the hotels in Luxor offer sightseeing trips and it is best to take them up on it.
The essential trips are: West Bank, Karnak (both during the day and at night), Cairo and the Banquet night.
Things like the Luxor Museum and Luxor Temple you can comfortably do on your own.
The West Bank trip is fantastic.
It’s an all-day event encompassing the Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatshepsut’s temple, a stop to buy souvenirs – pressure selling as you’ve never seen it! – and various other stops along the way.
You do have to pay extra to get into Tutankhamen’s tomb. We did not but some who did claimed there was very little decoration and generally nothing left down there to see – it’s all in the Cairo Museum.
Get to bed early the night before, take plenty of film for your camera, water and a hat.
But don’t forget that flash photography is not allowed in the tombs as the decoration would suffer with a million flashes going off every holiday season.
Karnak temple is mind-blowing. Take a guided tour around the temple during the day to learn about its fascinating history. The light show which they put on at night is also a must.
You are guided through a dramatically lit temple, sit and listen to a dramatised version of its history with the temple being lit up accordingly.
From Luxor, you can organise an essential trip to Cairo and see the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
Cairo is not a gentle city. Home to more than 16 million Egyptians, Arabs, Africans and others, the “Mother of the World” is an all-out assault on the senses.
Chaotic, noisy, polluted, totally unpredictable and teeming with people, the sheer intensity of the city will either seduce or appall you.
The sole survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Pyramids of Giza live up to more than 4,500 years of hype.
Their extraordinary geometry and age make them seem like alien constructions rising out of the desert.
The Sphinx sits nearby, a 50m-long feline character carved from a single block of stone.
There are swarms of visitors to the site, attended by hordes of camel and horse touts, but they fail to destroy the sense of wonder.
If you want a peaceful view, it is best to take a horse ride in the area at around 5pm – you won’t see them close-up, but it can be a lot more atmospheric than battling around close to the monuments.
The Pyramids at Giza are the planet’s oldest tourist attraction, built by successive generations of pharaohs.
To put it in perspective, they were already more than 2,500 years old at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ.
The wonder of the Pyramids lies not only in their age but in the twin mysteries of how they were built and what they were used for.
Their timeless grandeur will continue to make them the highlight of any trip to Egypt.
BUDGET Travel offers luxurious packages to both Luxor and Sharm el Sheikh at very reasonable prices.
(c) 2007 Daily Mirror. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.