Alexandria & Cairo, Egypt

You had better get on with your neighbour if you live in Cairo. One of the world's greatest cities, it has a population of 17 million (and counting) and one of the highest population densities. It's not a genteel place, nor is it clean or organised, but Cairenes are unfailingly polite and their city is always an intense, fascinating experience.

Today, Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is the logical place to begin the journey back in time. It is a city with two faces. One very noticeable face is of a modern, sophisticated city with a cluster of easily identified luxury hotels and shops with logos of well-known designers. On the sands of the Giza Plateau, the majestic Sphinx gazes across the road into the eyes of KFC’s Colonel Sanders, and car traffic would strike fear into the heart of the fearless. In the evening, the heat of the day disappears with the cooling breezes from the desert and Cairenes take to the streets to enjoy their city. Families stroll together while pop music, eastern and western, ring out from a distance. Restaurant boats outlined with neon lights ply the Nile and smaller Feluccas, the traditional sailboat of the Nile, are filled with revelers singing and dancing to the loudest decibel possible until the wee hours. Discos normally open around 2:00 a.m., and it might be fair to say that some people never sleep.

The other Cairo continues to function as it has for centuries. The Khan El Khalili is the oldest marketplace or souk in the Middle East with its narrow, twisting alleyways, cloth-draped ceilings to filter the sun, and the aroma of incense floating in the air. Shops are filled with a myriad of goods from utilitarian metal cooking pots, colorful Galabiya gowns, good copies of archaeological finds, beaded jewelry, Egyptian perfume flasks, incense sticks, local candies and trinkets of all kinds. Bargaining for purchases is an old, well-practiced and required game to be played here.

And, plenty of camels to ride....

Weather Conidions in March

Adverage High: 73.0*F

Adverage Low: 54.0*F

Adverage Precipatation: 0.10"