Touring the Delta - Bubastis, Tanis and Ismailia

At the end of March we joined some friends for a tour of ancient sites in the Nile Delta. The two sites - Bubastis and Tanis - are still working dig sites, and so are very different to most "tourist" sites that consist of rebuilt structures held together with concrete. These sites, rather, are piles of hieroglyphic rubble left where it was found.

It's taken us a while to edit and upload these videos due to a busy end of term, but hopefully you can watch and enjoy!

PART 1 - Bubastis

PART 2 - TANIS

PART 3 - Suez Canal at Ismailia

End of T2

I just wanted to write a little post to mark this moment.

Yesterday term 2 finished and today we are off for a week of diving in Dahab.
This term has been a long one - we've only had one long-weekend off since January and work-wise it has been very busy. It hasn't just been busy academically, but this week saw Scotty running the sound for We Will Rock You. We have also had some great visitors this term; first Jane and Graham came out in January, then Phil and Ed in Feburary and we've just said good-bye to Chris, Ali, Thom and Mandy.

We're both really excited about learning to dive. When we went to Dahab for New Year it was the first time I had been snorkling and Scott hadn't been snorkling since he was a kid - and we had such a great time. The other reason that we are so excited is because we are able to get our PADI becaue it was a wedding gift from some wonderful friends and family.

We'll blog more when we are back from Dahab, and from then on it will really be the "home straight" as we will only have another two months here before we fly home at the end of June.

Vinyl

Things we see on the way to work

Our drive to works starts with a quick escape from Maadi via the ring road, and then takes us through the desert road before we reach Katamaya which is literally a desert city.
It was about two months ago that I realised a real benefit of driving back into Cairo each day from the desert and that is the view across the city and the Nile. This view is great because on a clear day we can see the Pyramids! At first you get a really long view of them, but as you get closer to the city this turns into a glimpse between buildings - but still pretty cool!! One of the first things I noticed at the gym I go to is that you can see the Pyramids from there too (it's on the 8th floor), but it was only today as the weather was really clear that I realised it isn't the Giza pyramids I can see, but the Step-Pyramid at Saqarra!!

The other site on the way to and from work is rock in the middle of some desert, which is being turned into the centre piece of a new surburb they are building around it. It is quite surreal to see the one or two villas that are being constructed amongst the tonne of sand that is the essence of the site at the moment. What I really enjoy about the site is their slogan for the new development " Where Reality is a Dream"....

This reminds me of the slogan I saw for a school prom "Today is a Dream, Tomorrow is a Memory"

Is there a season between Winter and Summer in Egypt?

You can tell it's warming up for summer when the water coming out of the cold tap is warmer than bottled water in the kitchen! That's what happens when the cold water tank is on the roof!!

Pet names

We've decided on two names for future pets;
Bubastis (the site of the temple to the Cat Goddess in Ancient Egypt) and Snefru (the first King of the 4th Dynasty).

Interesting article from the BBC

Sad goodbye to 'cosmopolitan' Cairo