Article: Prudence Goredema from True Love

By 4500 BC, people had long settled along the River Nile's banks. Over the next millennia, a highly advanced livelihood was enjoyed by one of the world's greatest civilisations. The country is still steeped in culture and its history continues to fascinate people from every corner of the earth.

Stepping into Cairo while still warmly armoured against the Johannesburg winter makes for a bit of a shock. It's 6.30am in land where it rains perhaps twice a year and static, dry heat greets us, along with a welcoming face from Peace Tourism. Dorah Sitole, True love's food editor, and I are on a mission to explore the culinary and holiday delights Egypt has to offer. Cairo is one of Africa's largest cities with a bustling population reputed to be 17-million. Driving its streets isn't for the faint-hearted.

It seems the carriageway markings and lanes are there to straddle and although the avenues are wide and the billboards covered in Arabic scrawl, one thing is clear: we're still in Africa. The familiar, inventive driving of the minibus drivers makes us feel instantly at home! Every car from every era you can think of still cruises Cairo's roads and we're later told the country has more BMWs than Germany.

We meet Aladdin, known as "Alaa", our trained Egyptologist and guide. He explains many things to us: for example, why all the buildings look so dusty and derelict, yet still have laundry – suggestive of occupation – flapping about the windows. Cairo is subjected to endless desert storms, particularly before the summer, which apparently make adding a coat of paint a futile exercise. This hardly accounts for the broken windows, but the shabby-chic feel of this North African city mesmerises us all the same.

Egypt enjoys a flourishing tourism industry and Abdel Aziz, the Minister of Tourism, later tells me it's a land of diverse cultures and recreations. It's also a land of extreme beauty, and glaring economic division. The divide between the wealthy efendi) and the peasantry ( falach) is clearly visible: one has only to drive from the wealthier suburbs of the suburb, with its luxurious homes, to the homeless people living in cemeteries in Cairo's poorer areas.

Picture-perfect memories lurk at every corner, so much so that photographer Vanessa keeps shouting "Stop!" so we can capture yet another image. In tea shops so busy that the tables spill onto the pavement French-style, men smoke water pipes ( shisha ), black and white taxis pick up and drop passengers, and street vendors parade their wares – plump red dates, limes, chillies and an assortment of exotic spices. If you're prepared to wade through the legions of flash-happy tourists at the Egyptian Museum, you can marvel at the mummies, statues, Tutenkhamen's treasures, golden trinkets and countless other objets d'art.Sadly, numerous artefacts are in European and North American museums, a long way from home.

It would be sacrilege not to cross the Nile to visit Giza, that most revered of sites, home to the pyramids (or ahram , as they're known in Arabic). The Sphinx, embodying the wisdom of man and the power of a lion, guards its ancient wisdom. The Great Pyramid was built for Cheops, Pharaoh in the fourth Pharaonic Dynasty ( circa 2 650 BC), as his haven in the hereafter. His insolent son, Chephren, unable to build a pyramid higher than his father's, deceived him and had his own built on higher ground. For an extra 10 Egyptian pounds, you can give lazy limbs a work-out by entering the underground burial chambers of these awesome structures.

The little suburb of Nezleth-el-Samman (meaning "Village of the Quail") is a stone's throw from Giza. It's both sad and intriguing that many more priceless archaeological treasure troves may be buried beneath its foundations. Cairo's streets have just as much to offer as its antiquities. We stop at the Oriental Carpets and Tapestry School, where nimble-fingered boys – who're apparently done with school for the day – work the looms. The finest Egyptian silk is woven into wall hangings and rugs of Bedouin, Moroccan and Eastern designs, so intricate, imaginative and unusual that the eye doesn't know where to rest.

Nearby is Siwa Perfume Palace, which – as its owner, Ahmed Abo Talib stresses – is actually an essence refractory. Because of the sweltering heat, regular perfume with its volatile alcohol content soon wears away, but Egypt's women douse themselves with pure, undiluted essence, distilled from an assortment of flower petals. After splashing ourselves liberally with Lotus Flower, Gardenia and Thousand and One Nights, we depart for our next port of call.

Most of the people we meet are extremely friendly and demonstrative. Despite the devout Muslim lifestyle followed by most of the city's inhabitants, Cairo's night-life is alive and well. The parties only really begin at 11pm. From a 19 th -floor window, we watch a spirited group play soccer under the night's neon lights. The hotel becomes flooded with a salsa-like sound – music to belly-dance to.

A city of God
Egypt had its place of prominence in Biblical times and it's said that Mark, the disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity there in its earliest days. The streets of Christian Old Cairo are a lot like those of Montmartre in Paris, but with curio pedlars, not painters, jostling for your business. Sites sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians alike abound here. One fascinating example is the Hanging Church, a Coptic establishment virtually suspended on a couple of pillars. Then there's St Sergius, one of the world's oldest churches. Legend has it that the crypt beneath this church sacristy is the place where the Holy Family hid away from Herod, when he sought to murder the eldest son of each Jewish family. It's a humbling place to visit.

The monuments are countless. After inching our way across the city's crowded streets and watching trams, cars and the speeding Metro occasionally emerging from underground, we visit the Citadel, a 12 th century fortress built by Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, and housing a mosque from Ottoman Viceroy Mohammad Ali's time (1769-1849). It looks rather like a Gothic cathedral since at the time, Egyptian architecture was heavily infl uenced by European designs.

While in Cairo, another suburb worth visiting is Nasr City in Heliopolis. Dorah and Mrs Selma, an art critic and ardent cook, are engrossed in conversation about the best way to cook "albino" aubergines, okra, marrow and giant pumpkins. Egyptian cuisine is essentially a mélange of the best of Middle Eastern and North African, delicately seasoned to produce a unique taste. At El Bahrain Fish Market you can buy fresh crabs, mussels, sea bass and other species. If you like, the fi shmonger will cook it for you, while you wait.

Like us, the Egyptians love their bread! Pan-fried or baked, baledi bread stuffed with falafel (fried chickpea balls), beans and watercress leave no room for the main course! For dessert, we head to Khan El Khalili Bazaar. Said Abed El Gamy and Mahmoud, two shopkeepers there, persuade us to sample folyah, a nougat-like sweetmeat, as well as meshapk and melban, walnut-studdied delicacies. Later, we enjoy a memorable dinner at the Cairo Marriott Hotel and the food is sumptuous.

Luxor
About 676km south of Cairo, and nine hours by road (or one drink and half a nap by air), Luxor was known as Thebes in ancient times. Crammed between the modern buildings is the magnificent Luxor Temple, dedicated to the god Amon and built by Ramses II. The splendour of the construction is staggering, but there's more to see on the west bank of the city. Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, the Colossi of Memnon and an ancient, well-preserved village where artisans lived will fill you with wonder.

In the Valley of the Kings, 64 known Pharaohs – including Tutankhamen, Ramses III, Amenhotep II and Thutmoses III – had their tombs tunnelled into the mountainside. It boggles the mind that ancient engineers had the skills to hew solid rock without disturbing the mountain. The mural artwork adorning the passages tells of Egypt's ancient religion and rites, and the still vivid shades of yellow, blue and orange depict the splendour of the Egyptian court.

The evening finds us driving past El Zanakta Camel Market and out to the desert, where sand dunes have been lit Survivor-style and an open-air Bedouin feast – complete with cushions for seating – awaits. The waiters are dressed like Ali Baba and, in between courses music and dance displays enchant the diners.

On Sunday mornings hot-air balloons hover over the placid Nile, ferries and barges drift on its waters and skippers assemble for another day's work. We accompany Dorah to the market, where she stocks up on ingredients for a cook-up with the hotel's chef. We're all in love with Luxor. We need our "Nile fi x", so we venture out to find a falluca (rowing boat) whose skipper, Mohammed Mahmoud, is happy to take us closer to the western shore.

Several little boys, their half- naked Nubian bodies splashing about in the water, call to us: "Baksheesh! Baksheesh!" ("Tip! Tip"), so we oblige. It's a cry we hear continually in Egypt, from taxi drivers, porters and guides to waiters, merchants or simply passers-by. Tourists are considered a lucrative source of freebies, and the locals aren't shy to exploit it.

Egypt can offer an exhilarating family holiday where both parents and children can look, learn and enjoy. It's reasonably safe and inexpensive, and its awe-inspiring beauty will leave you mystified and pensive.

Image: The Citadel in Cairo - Vanessa Grobler/ Fairlady magazine