Sunday, December 3, 2017

A very well guarded look at Cairo

Like Israel, all of the hotels are guarded by armed men in black suits, white shirts and a slight bulge on their hips. What I didn't expect was the uniformed helmeted troops outside our hotel and all of the other major brand hotels in Cairo, complete with automatic weapons. Also on our bus of only 26 tourists, there was another black suited well hipped guard (glock) who got off first, got on last and stayed outside our destinations keeping a close eye on everything. The photo above is a group of the bus guards at the Egyptian Museum having dropped off their charges to see the treasures inside. And treasures they were many and amazing. The museum is moving into a new home in a few years, financed by the Japanese Govt. with payback of all of the entrance and rental fees going to Japan for 20 years. I can't imagine a country that wealthy doing that unless corruption has siphoned off so much money. Back to the treasures. We were able to go into a mosque which is rare for non believers and especially with over 300 casualties a few weeks ago in another part of Egypt between sunni and suffi Muslim sects. Our bus was checked with dogs and mirrors and we were yet again scanned with metal detectors (7 times toatl today, including 3 at the museum and twice at the hotel) You get used to it after a while and it just becomes part of life here in the mideast. Here are some pics of the Mosque of Muhammed Ali (not the boxer)
Tomorrow on to Luxor by plane and then on the boat up the Nile Nate and Raphie

1 comment:

  1. How very exciting and a bit scary. Keep safe and keep us updated.
    Doreen

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