Throwback: Vintage Egypt

Ok, so maybe not really vintage. But I reminisce about past travels a lot, and it fascinates me how through time places change, are kept intact, or adapt.

I think I’m extremely lucky to have had the holidays growing up that I did. This was 2001, on the first ever cruise I ever went on (big up P&O Aurora!). I loved seeing a new place every day and yet still having the same bed to go back to each night – cruises are quite unique that way.

On this day in Cairo, it was swelteringly hot – above 40 degrees Celcius (think what that does to a British person?!). The worst thing I remember was seeing security men standing there with guns. As we all know, Egypt has been particularly unstable as of late, but looking back, it was never the safest place.

I could go into the political side of this and how interesting I find it that there were men with guns even then, but what I wanted to do in this post was show the constant beauty of the Egyptian Pyramids from 13 years ago. And if I/you think THAT’S old, let’s remember how long these Pyramids have actually been there, huh? (Answer: the oldest Pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Giza, started being constructed 2584 BC and is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.)

My favourite memory (even beating riding a camel) was going inside one of the Pyramids. It was incredibly cramped making our way to the tomb, but fascinating. I was in awe of the Sphinx – it’s up there on my list of most impressive constructions. Ancient Egypt was one of the most interesting time periods to me: very old, a culture more different to anything I imagined, captivating myths… and they loved cats. What more would I need to love it?

Plus, I love the old(ish) quality of a scanned photo from a film camera…