All posts tagged Egypt

FAYOUM – PROVISIONS OF THE TRAVELLER

By | January 4, 2012 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel, Travel Chronicles | No comments
Wadi Al Rayan Lake

 

By Mousha El-Haggar

Getting out of Cairo is always my favourite thing to do. I enjoy going to new places and experiencing new things that are outside of Cairo. This time around my trip was to Fayoum, a place I always wanted to go to but never had enough encouragement; people who live in the city are taken in by the city crowd and never want to leave their comfort zone. That; and many Egyptians don’t view travel within Egypt as a vacation, unless, of course, it’s to the beach! Recently, though, I had a friend who was planning a group trip to Fayoum and I decided it was time to go and experience it for myself. Read more…

TOURISM AND THE REVOLUTION

By | December 31, 2011 | Egypt, Politics, Travel | No comments
The White Desert, between Farafra and Bahariya oasis, western Egypt. By Michael Hoefner, Wikimedia Commons.

By Islam El Shazly

It has been a little over 11 months since the January 25, 2011, ignited to culminate into the ouster of one of the worst rulers in the Arab world in modern history, Mohamed Hosni Mubarak, right on the heels of his brother-in-arms Bin Ali from Tunisia.

A lot has changed since then, some to the better, and some to the worst. We’re not going to get into either of them; they both have long lists.

What we’re going to be talking about is something that has managed somehow to divide the people, mostly triggered by a media that still plays by the pre-Mubarak days of divide and conquer for the sake of the person who is in charge at the time, SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) at the moment. That something is “Tourism”. Read more…

AID TO ARTISANS – HANDMADE IN EGYPT

By | November 22, 2011 | Egypt, Retail and Shopping, Travel | No comments
IMG_2542_1024

By Shereen Shirazy
Country Director at AID TO ARTISANS – Egypt


Aid to Artisans (ATA), an international non-profit organization, based in Connecticut, USA, is a recognized leader in economic development for the craft sector. By linking artisans to new markets and buyers to culturally meaningful and innovative products, ATA provides needed economic opportunities to artisans to build profitable craft businesses. Read more…

SURVIVAL – BEDOUIN STYLE

By | October 3, 2011 | Egypt, Off the Beaten Path, Travel | No comments
A lone tree in the desert of Sinai.

By Islam El Shazly

Since the Napoleon’s ill-fated campaign against Egypt in the late 18th century and the world became enthralled with everything Pharaonic. Especially Europeans and Americans, they came by the boat load to see the tombs, temples, and palaces that were long forgotten or half-covered in sand, they came, saw, and recorded what they saw in vivid illustrations; the only record of what a lot of these ancient monuments looked like. Since then many of these monuments became lost again under the waters of Lake Nasser, or just simply collapsed for neglect. Read more…

THE LIONS OF LIBYA

By | April 23, 2011 | History, Politics | No comments

Libyan opposition flag with tags generated from (http://feb17.info/). By Mohammed Shamma.*

February 17, 2011. It was Libya’s turn to rise against the sociopath that has been ruling them for the past 42 years, Qaddafi’s time is almost over, and soon, insha’Allah, he will be joining his brothers Bin Ali and Mubarak in the trash bin of history.

The day of the Libyan uprising has arrived. Read more…

Alexandrian Graffiti

By | March 25, 2011 | Egypt, Politics, Travel | No comments

by M. Butcher

We have all seen it in our travels, on the sides of the road, on bridges, buses, and overpasses. Almost everywhere a spray can may reach. As with art, graffiti is subjective, what some consider to be art, others consider it to be trash. Our modern idea of Graffiti has changed and we are seeing more beauty in the designs on the street.

Graffiti is the name given for images or letters scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any method on public property. Graffiti and graffito come from the Italian word graffiato meaning scratched. It has existed for long time going all the way back to Ancient Greece and even the Roman Empire. Read more…

WALK PROUD. WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN.

By | February 20, 2011 | Egypt, Pax Islamica, Politics | 3 Comments

Opposition supporters wave flags amid the crowd in Tahrir Square in Cairo February 9, 2011. Egyptians counted the economic cost of more than two weeks of turmoil on Wednesday as re-invigorated protesters flocked again to Cairo's Tahrir Square to demand President Hosni Mubarak quit immediately. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

by Islam El Shazly

For the first time in history a revolution has been organized as a public event with an open invitation, more like a date between two lovers, the time and the place was known almost two weeks in advance. Without further confirmation, people from all over Greater Cairo started converging onto Midan Al-Tahrir – Tahrir Square – and it was not just left at that, people started gathering at major squares in every governorate in the country. A new day was dawning on Egypt. A new era that no one saw coming. The date was January 25, 2011. Read more…

MASR – THE PEOPLE

By | January 12, 2011 | Egypt, Politics, Travel, Video | 1 Comment

Egypt: Partly submerged palms above Nile dam, Upper Egypt. Lantern Slide Collection, Brooklyn Museum.

By Islam El Shazly

The people of Egypt are for the most part gentle emotional people, they have been deprived of their right to participate in the way this great country is being governed. From the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha, through the British occupation then the calamity that was the Coup d’état of 1952 and its disastrous after-effects, the people have not been able or allowed to voice their concerns about their country. Read more…

JOURNEY TO UPPER EGYPT

By | January 8, 2011 | Egypt, Travel, Travel Chronicles | 1 Comment

By Dean Chartier

This is my first effort in writing about my travels here in Egypt, I’m kind of starting in the middle of the trip, odd I know, why not start at the beginning? Well my journey to up the Nile was a pretty amazing trip for me, even though it was kind of touristy. I was able to peel most of the tourism away and have a good look at life in that part of Egypt. I will not speak much of visits to the temples and other historic sites, I’m sure you can find that information elsewhere, and for me it was kind of secondary anyways. This was my first trip to a Muslim country since I became Muslim and my trip up the Nile allowed me to get away from most of the western influence I have seen in Cairo and Alexandria. I will write more about those experiences a little later.

Fishermen in Alexandria.

Another reason this was a special experience for me is that being from Canada, I don’t get to hear the call to prayer from a Masjid, or have the luxury of having a Masjid within an easy walk of wherever I am. Read more…

TURKISH COFFEE: DELIGHT TO THE SENSES

By | October 22, 2010 | Food and Bevereges, Travel | No comments

Turkish Coffee. By ağEl, Flickr.

by M. Butcher

Coffee has long history in the world, from humble beginnings in a story about a goat herder who noticed his goats got excited after eating the coffee berries to the widespread cafés and coffee shops all over the world. Coffee is believed to have been brought to Istanbul in 1555 by two Syrian traders, although others claim that it arrived much earlier than that, around 1517.  Coffee has come a long way since then, we find different types and ways to brew it different parts of the world. The Turkish have a particular way to make coffee and it has been adopted and modified into many cultures in the Arab world and aboard. Read more…

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