Villa Ambron 19 Sharia Maamoun In 1941, Lawrence Durrell was living in Greece with his wife and daughter. When Greece fell to the invading Nazis, they, along with other British nationals, were evacuated to Egypt. At first, he was dissatisfied with his new situation. He had been forced to leave his beloved Corfu and his […]
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FIRST A VISIT TO THE FISH MARKET We toured in Alexandria for two full days, time enough to cover all the important sites and to contemplate what was no longer there. Before we began the official tour, I wanted another slice of daily life and suggested a visit to their wholesale fish market. Since the
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Several days after returning from the White Desert, we left Cairo, destination Alexandria, where we were scheduled to spend three nights at the Cecil, hotel of choice during the Colonial period. The distance between the two cities is 140 miles. In 1856, the British linked Cairo and Alexandria with a rail line and in 1925,
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THE ANCIENT WORLD WAS CALLING My interest in history and art history brought me to Alexandria. The city, established in 331B.C., by Alexander the Great, is one of the oldest extant cities in the world. Alexander personally picked out the site and together with his “urban planner”, they laid out the grid plan, much of
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We had not yet found Mahfouz’s house but we were very willing to keep following Ahmed. Turning down a narrow lane, Ahmed suggested a visit to his friend who owned a box “factory”. When we arrived, his friend was standing on the street in front of an ancient wooden double door secured by a lock
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LET’S GET GOING By the time we started walking, the hustle bustle of the day had retreated, replaced by people settling into their evening rituals, lived out on the street as well as behind closed doors. In the dim light we noticed mounds of black fabric piled up in front of doorways that only under
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Returning to Cairo from the White Desert, a Nile dinner cruise complete with the obligatory belly dancing show was next on the schedule. Without much deliberation, we decided not to attend, once again avoiding tour bus hordes and set tourist meals. However, noticing our cultural quotient was running on empty, we decided to attend a
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The White Desert, called Sahara al-Beida in Arabic, is a plain of large calcite deposits covered in white sand. With the development of desert safaris, it has become a popular destination and even though it has been turned into a 300 sq. km Protectorate, many fear this is not enough to preserve its pristine condition.
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When traveling in Egypt, one of the best ways to get away from the hordes of tourists is to book a desert safari. Having reached Bawati, the largest village and administrative center in the Bahariya Oasis, our program consisted of one night in the White Desert and then one night in a hotel in Bawati,
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SMALL EVENTS HAVE THEIR OWN SPLENDOR AND THE MEMORY OF THEM LASTS LONGER WHAT WAS WRONG IN CAIRO? We spent six full days touring Cairo, covered five thousand years of history from the Pharaonic days to the present, but never developed an affinity for the city or its people and never became captive to that
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