Egypt: A Visual Voyage

A portfolio of Steve Zarate's photographs from Egypt

By Audley Travel

January 31^st, 2018

A Journey down the nile

Egypt has long been a bucket list destination and we finally got there in 2017.

It is one of those places we learned and read about in grade school, the subject of Hollywood movies, a place of the only extant original seven ancient wonders of the world. Just hearing the word Egypt stirs our imagination to think of pyramids, Cleopatra, mummies and the riddle of the Sphinx.

Although Egypt has been a tourist destination for thousands of years, we hesitated to visit due to political instability in recent years and State Department warnings for U.S. citizens "to consider the risks of travel due to threats from terrorist and violent political opposition groups.”

So we put it off but kept hearing from fellow travelers that tourism was down and that made it a great time to visit Egypt (that was indeed the case).

Step Pyramid of Djoser (c. 2667 BC) at Saqqara Necropolis

Smoking Nargileh aka Hookah or Turkish Water Pipe

Mosque of Ahmed Ibn Tulun (c. 263 AH/876 AD), Cairo

We made contact with Audley Travel, who we consider a trusted partner in planning our travels (we have now traveled with Audley to 13 different countries).

"Private travel is the best way to fulfill our interests, curiosity, and sense of discovery and adventure."

We are interested in both nature and culture and find that private travel is the best way to fulfill our interests, curiosity, and sense of discovery and adventure. So we went and were not disappointed. We never felt unsafe and it was reassuring to see all the measures that the Egyptian travel industry was taking to ensure tourist safety.

Sabil-Kuttab of Sultan Qait-bey (c. 1479), Cairo

Madrasa of Sultan Al-Nassir Mohammed Ibn Qalawun

Formed in the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt was one of the world’s first nation states. It was an important center of Christianity beginning in the first century and the Coptic Christian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Christian churches.

Egypt was already an ancient civilization in biblical times and is mentioned over 700 times in the Bible. Today Egypt is predominantly Sunni Muslim and Islam is the state religion.

Egypt was part of our fourth trip to Africa and our 10th African country visited. Egypt’s population and flow of history has been based around the Nile River, so it seemed appropriate to organize our trip along the Nile.

Working with Audley Travel's country specialist Brigitte, we developed an outstanding itinerary that covered the length of the Nile from Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea to Abu Simbel near the southern border with Sudan. We traveled by car, plane, horse carriage, and on the Nile by ferry, motor boat, felucca sail boat, and steam ship.

View of Giza Pyramids from our room at Mena House Hotel

Photography is a hobby and Egypt is a photographer’s playground. The architecture, ancient artifacts, churches, mosques, people and everyday culture are all lively and colorful subjects.