Cairo, a city that never sleeps, is a sprawling metropolis with a population of more than 16 million, making it the largest city on the African continent and the seventh largest in the world. By contrast, Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, has a population of approximately 5 million.

Of the two cities, Cairo, on the Nile, is very cosmopolitan and Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, is more conservative.

While feluccas, barges and small fishing boats ply the Nile day and night, the river truly comes alive at night with boats decorated with coloured lights, many blaring music, offering dinner cruises or just rides until the wee hours of the morning.

Time seems to have little meaning in either city. You breakfast at lunch time, lunch at dinnertime and dine anywhere from 8 p.m. to midnight or later...

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 2: Cairo and Alexandria, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 05, 2007.

cf. Egypt photo gallery, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 04, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 1: Getting there, June 05, 2007.

Little did I realize I that over the next 20-plus hours I would be climbing into and out of planes, from the Aerospatiale/Alenia ATR72 to Atlanta, the Boeing 747-400 to Paris and the Airbus A330 to Cairo.

I hadn’t been to Charles De Gaul airport in Paris since May 2000, when it was a comfortable, civilized place. So I had no knowledge of the construction project underway that caused us to disembark on the tarmac and board shuttle buses that seemed to be giving us a tour of the whole facility before depositing me at the terminal from which to make the connection to Cairo. Interestingly, while I had not left the secure area, I had to go through security again. No shoes off this time, but the silly little plastic bag had to be put through X-ray, along with my carry-on and camera bag...

Egypt, a vibrant land of contrasts and contradictions. Part 1: Getting there, Bev Conover, Online Journal, June 04, 2007.

More royal pyramids stand in the deserts of northern Sudan than in all of Egypt.

For 3,000 years, a succession of African civilizations rose and fell along the Nile River in ancient Nubia, at one point expanding north to the Mediterranean Sea.

Relatively little is known about these peoples. While Egypt hosts up to 200 foreign archaeological teams a year, Sudan until recently has averaged 10 to 12.

Among the pioneers is , head of world cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum, and known to local villagers as simply "Chris."

For 25 years of annual field seasons, he has represented a friendly Canadian presence...

His work centres at Meroe (pronounced MARE-oh-way), capital of one of Africa's greatest ancient civilizations, the Kingdom of Kush. It is one of the country's key archaeological showcases and one of its most photographed sites...

Krzysztof Grzymski, Senior Curator, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada.

Where ancient gods and royalty walked, John Goddard, The Toronto Star, Ontario, Canada, May 31, 2007.

"And this," said the guide who was showing us around the tombs and pyramids at Saqqara, near Cairo, "is the earliest surviving curved stone wall ever built by man. It is over 4,500 years old." "But surely," I ventured, "it has been rebuilt since then?" "No, no, it is the original wall."

I didn't query Mohammed's assertion further. Earlier I had already unintentionally offended his faith by suggesting that the story of the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus was myth rather than history. But clearly, to my eye, nearly all the sandstone blocks that formed most of the 15ft-high structure he was referring to were cut by modern machines.

I doubted they were more than a decade old and I wasn't convinced that any of the wall above ground level even approached the age he was suggesting. I am sure the archaeological evidence for the shape of the wall was there, but not the wall itself.

I have no objection in principle to reconstruction at archaeological sites. Done well, such projects can be highly evocative...

I'm not entirely sure what monument the author is referring to in Saqqara but if he is talking about the enclosure wall around Djoser's Step Pyramid complex then he is correct – it has been extensively rebuilt.

It looks authentic but is it real?, The Telegraph, UK, June 02, 2007.

According to [Abir] Enany, many of the kitchen and food preparation habits [seen in the culinary scenes on the walls of tombs and temples] are still used in modern Egypt.

“For example,” explained Enany, “the type of bread known as ‘Eish Shamsi’ (sun bread) that is baked for a while in an oven then left to dry in the sun on pottery bread platters, is one of the major items that remain to date part of the Egyptian villagers’ diet.”

“Eating onions and fresh vegetables, placing the fresh bread loaves on a ‘matraha,’ (table bread); boiling and roasting meat and duck are all habits that have been handed over to modern Egyptians by their ancestors.”

But for Enany the most interesting of these habits is the production of “fesiekh” (rotten fish)...

The significance of kitchens for ancient Egyptians, Ahmed Maged, The Daily Star, Egypt, June 02, 2007.

, Hilary Wilson, Shire Publications Ltd, 1998, pp. 64.

, Michelle Berriedale-Johnson, British Museum Press, 1999, pp. 64.