Update: 15.11.2005
Place: Bawiti-Baharain (Western Desert)/Egypt
Day: 31
Distance traveled: 5,727km

My dear brother-in-law Ahmet quickly corrected a mistake I made in my previous update. It gives me a great sense of pride to know that my updates are being followed so closely. As for my mistake: It was regarding that granite tablet, known as the Rosetta Stone (named after the place it was found) discovered in Rashid (Rosetta) on which a treaty text was scribbled in 3 different languages / inscriptions by Ptolemaios V. Based on the information at hand, I have written that this tablet was handed over to the English by the Egyptians, and that was the mistake. Ahmet corrected this by saying that it was actually a prize of war for the Brits from the French. That would be right, because in 1801 a Napoleon's fleet was burned during a navy battle in Abu Kir by the British navy under Admiral Nelson's command. Following this battle Napoleon admitted defeat and ended his campaign to Egypt. Thanks Ahmet!

As I have stated in a previous update, the information I present here is obtained from either written sources that I already have or I get my hands on during my travels, as well as from the locals who I talk to. At least for now I don't really have means to verify the accuracy of such information except for quoting these sources. At the end of the day this trip is not a scientific field study and I am not that much interested in history and archaeology. Therefore, unfortunately the information I present is as accurate as its source. In other words, "I only repeat the lies I am told". If you warn me using a proper approach in format and style within the limits of common courtesy, I will try to make the necessary corrections. Why wouldn't I, at the end I will be content to feel that I am followed closely and that the information I present is accurate.

In the meantime I have to say: Be careful when you are selecting the guide book to use during your travels. Do a search on the net if you can to find reviews on reliability of these books by those who previously used them. The guide book I used for Egypt is unfortunately one of the Dorling Kindersley series. It is not only pretty much useless but also presents seriously incomplete or inaccurate information. Even I can spot some; I wonder what other mistakes the experts find in the book. This book may be useful to read as an orientation prior to a guided tour to Egypt, and that's it. It is not a good source at all for a trip like mine. It is no comparison to a Lonely Planet (despite the mistakes everyone points at) or especially a Bradt series. I actually used Portugal and Italy guide book of Dorling Kindersley but haven't come across so many obvious mistakes there. Other sources I have did not include any information regarding the topic above. Egyptian museum was seriously lacking written information (in English). Maybe they have something on it in Arabic but I haven't seen an explanation in the English text.

While we are on this subject, I want to say a few things about hieroglyphs since it is a topic of interest to me. The word hieroglyph means "sacred carvings". It was developed and used in 3250 B.C. and it is the first known script to have been used in the world. As you know it is a kind of picture-script which includes various figures of people, animals, plants and objects as well as symbols and motifs. Hieroglyphs could be written vertically or horizontally and from left to right or right to left. It was easy to see what direction had been used for the writing, since the human figure found in the beginning of the writing would face the same direction as the writing.

I haven't been able to decipher it during such short time; I needed a few more days but it was taking the clerks many years to learn hieroglyph writing and when they did, it improved their social status significantly. What I don't understand is why they thought of using a "script" as a method of communication when it was so difficult to learn and was deciphered by so few people. Anyways, because not everyone could read or write hieroglyph script, it was "watered down" and another script was introduced: the demotic style, or in other words, a simplified style which everyone could use. That is the third version of the text on Rosetta Stone.

Ok, back to my trip. After a comfortable drive I arrived in Alexandria. It is 20km on coast line with its port and industrial facilities. Its inhabited area resembles Izmir at first sight. A street that stretches along the seaside (Corniche) and beautiful buildings lined up on it... The city was named after Alexander the Great, who built it after rescuing Egypt from the Persians in 332 B.C., and became the capital city thereafter. The city prospered to become par with Rome but began to lose favor from 4th century A.D. and it remained a dull port city until the Ottoman conquest in 19th century by Kavalali Mehmet Ali Pasha and the subsequent construction of a canal which connected the city to Nile. Only then the port and hence the city came back to life and became a popular place of entertainment for the rich Europeans.

Once it was built by Alexander the Great and became the capital of Egypt, it maintained its position as the capital city during the Ptolemaios era which saw Cleopatra as a co-ruler for a period of time. In today's Alexandria, however, not much is left from Alexander the Great's Macedonian and the Ptolemaios era right after. 30 B.C. was the end of the "glorious" past of Egypt when Cleopatra VII took her own life with asp poison and like the rest of Egypt the city fell to the Romans.


Alexandria seaside strip (Corniche)

In the ancient history books we used to read about the 7 Wonders of the World. At the time I used to think that all these "wonders" were still standing, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Pyramids… And the Lighthouse of Alexandria - authentic name was Pharos of Alexandria) was also among the 7. This "wonderful" lighthouse, which I think is currently lighting the way for the fish, was located on the west point of the cove which was Alexandria Port then and is now surrounded by the city centre. It was built in 3rd century B.C., made of limestone and served as a lighthouse for about 1,000 years. Later, for some reason, it was neglected and the top section which was the actual lighthouse part (pharos) collapsed in 700 A.D. The remaining structure couldn't survive the earthquakes in 12th and 14th centuries. Later in 1480 a citadel was built by Mamluke sultan Qaitbay on the site where lighthouse remains were. Some of the remains were used in the construction of the citadel. Unfortunately a photo of the citadel disappeared for a reason unknown to me during the process of this update. In its stead I am including a photo of a wall mosaic completed by the young Egyptian artists on the exterior of a building facing the square where the citadel is.



Another significant historical feature of Alexandria is the famous Alexandria Library. It was constructed in 3rd Century B.C. and was the largest library of its time. Devastated by a fire, a new one with an unusually non-Egyptian architectural style was constructed in its place and just completed in 2002. A science and culture center was also built next to it at the same time. The library which is home to an impressive collection of 8 million volumes was closed for a reason I don't know, so I couldn't enter.

I had two reasons why I went up to the Mediterranean coast after Cairo. First was to "feel" on-site, the Battle of El-Alamein, one of the bloodiest battles which took place during the World War II, on soil that belonged to neither side who fought it, all because of petrol that is the sole reason why today the Middle East is intentionally kept "hot" in pursuit of a certain agenda. The second reason was to enter Western Desert of Egypt from a point generally not preferred: Marsa Matruh. The Western Desert has a desert style unique to Egypt and starts from where the Libyan Desert (end of Sahara) ends.

El-Alamein is approximately 90 km to the west of Alexandria, on the Mediterranean coast. To go to Marsa Matruh you need to go further west for another 105 km. From there when you turn south towards inland you cross a 450 km desert road which goes to Siwa Oasis.

It is not possible to arrive in El-Alamein and not feel the battle that took place. It is not too difficult to comprehend how the Europeans who fought here perished in climate and conditions completely unfamiliar to them. The casualties of war in the North and Northeast Africa were 20,000 soldiers (bodies of 11.945 of which were never recovered) for the Allied Forces, also 44,000 German and Italian soldiers. The battle between the Allies and the German-Italian Axis began with the attack initiated by General Montgomery's Eighth Army (most of which comprised of British units) on the German-Italian troops under the command of German Marshal Rommel (nicknamed the Desert Fox) on October 23, 1942; it lasted for 10 days and ended with a victory that put a stop on Germany's adventure in Africa.


"Captain P.L.Lynch, New Zealand, 23 October 1942, 30 years old"
Was his body found?

Now I need to get on with the second reason for my ascent to the north. In the beginning I picked El-Alamein as the starting point of my Western Desert adventure, but I admit it didn't take me long to realize it wasn't something I could handle. That route looks like a second grade secondary road, essentially a dirt road. But in the desert, dirt means sand, and the road would most likely be the camel caravan tracks of the Bedouins in the old days and today's "tire tracks" used by the Land Cruiser caravans with their crazy Bedouin drivers. Driving on these "tracks" require substantial experience. In Western Desert adventure, in order to follow such tracks it is necessary to have certain skills which I will explain later in detail. In the information book the road that enters the desert from Marsa Matruh is said to be in better condition (the map legend uses the term "asphalt" to describe this road) and it is classified as the best route to take to reach the Western Desert and people could travel on buses on this route. In order to get a little more information on this, I tried to talk to the police and the guy next to him at the British cemetery in El-Alamein. I noticed that they both frowned as soon as I pointed to the route on the map. Of course we couldn't communicate well since they didn't understand what I tried to say in Turkish-English and I didn't understand anything from their Arabic-English. Later, the guy who turned out to be the tour bus driver waiting for the group visiting the cemetery, called the guide for help. The guide told me that this (almost 500 km) road was asphalt only "at places" but in a very bad condition in general and full of holes, and most part of the road which wasn't asphalt paved was covered with sand which in return made it very difficult to follow, and that it was necessary to drive through this area with a very experienced driver or a guide who knew it well or there was going to be risk of getting lost which presented another problem, the danger of driving over one of the landmines planted during World War II. He added that if I still wanted to go then I needed to get permission from the military intelligence unit in Marsa Matruh. Without permit, especially being a foreigner, I would definitely be stopped at the Marsa Matruh exit. The guide didn't think I had much of a chance of getting permission either, and that under these circumstances the best thing to do was to return to Cairo and from there I could cross over to Bawiti (Baharain) -and if I wished- to Siwa (the city between Marsa Matruh and Bawiti). Another failure and serious disappointment… I had two options: go to Marsa Matruh and verify this piece of information from the military authorities or trust the guide and return to Cairo. I couldn't help but try to confirm it with the military people, not the ones in Marsa Matruh but in El-Alamein where I currently was. I went to the nearest police station and tried to explain my situation via bit of speaking and much gesturing to the one which seemed to be the officer in charge there. He said a few things in Arabic, sounding a little aggro. I didn't understand much but it looked like he was trying to say what my request was unacceptable. I tried to explain by drawing. Still we couldn't communicate and it was looking pretty hopeless. There is nothing I can do but return to Cairo!

As it was getting dark I decided to stay in El-Alamein for the night but unfortunately since it is not a tourist stopover (they would be going from Cairo to Alexandria or vice versa) they didn't feel the need to build a hotel. It seems the Egyptians don't really have anything to do there either. That night I slept in my car in front of the British cemetery.

I woke up with the first light and after a quick breakfast hit the road towards Cairo. During the planning stage of my trip I granted myself a "luxury hotel allowance" which would mean that I could stay at a nice hotel once a week. The verdict is to use the "luxury hotel allowance" for two nights before leaving the civilized world. This way I was going to be able to get some much needed "solid" sleep and put together my accumulated notes for the update. Destination Marriott! I entered the crazy chaos of Cairo and got to the Marriott hotel with some difficulty. First I had problems getting into the car park. It is a vehicle they are not familiar with at all. They didn't know which parts of the car to search then decided not to search at all and just let me in. I went to the reception to find out if there was an available room. He looked at me suspiciously and after looking me up and down and said "Sorry Sir. We are fully booked." Man, you could have at least pretended to look at the PC in front of you. You made it too obvious. I guess that the price you have to pay for being silly by showing up at the Marriott without a reservation is to leave the hotel looking neither right nor left. So I decided to stay at one of the few hotels which I spotted outside of town when I left for Alexandria after Giza. It also meant I was going to be away from the noise and the traffic of the city. Along the Alexandria Desert Highway as you exit the city you drive through a rich suburb with farms and houses in big gardens. I remember seeing a few hotel signs in that suburb. I stayed at one of those. Two days of silence was great. I didn't enjoy the pool like everyone else but I did enjoy my beer by the pool.

I left the civilization behind me and started off towards the Western Desert on Saturday, November 12. On the way I made sure to get extra fuel and filled 2 of the 4 jerry-cans I have. Well, I have 1,000 km capacity. I probably won't have any issues even in the desert.

After a 385 km, relatively smooth drive I arrived at the Baharia Oasis and started towards Bawiti, the largest village of the oasis. On the way to Bawiti (I didn't know its exact location), I think at village Zabu just before Bawiti I stopped to ask directions from a man who was hitchhiking. We communicated using body language and figured out it was 7 km to Bawiti. He was going there also so I picked him up. As we "chatted away", when he found out that I was Turkish he told me his father was also Turkish. He uttered a few words which I couldn't understand - I think it was the Arabic accent. J When I said I was looking for a hotel, he said "okay, we are going to Samir". Well since we nearly found out that we were related, I guess I can trust him.

Bawiti and Samir's hotel: Best Western Hotel. We entered this new and small hotel with Mohammed (my brief travel buddy). Met Samir and his assistant Mustafa. Mohammed introduced me as a Turkish and Muslim person, I received a warm welcome. And then the conversation started. Samir speaks a little English but Mustafa is fluent. First I said let's sort out Mohammed's story. It turned out that his father was one of the Circassian immigrants who ended up in Egypt in 1873. There was a sudden affinity, after all I am 1/4th Circassian myself. We could have ended up being distant relatives. Coffee and tea served in abundance. According to what they say, I am the first Turkish guest in their village. Not only Turkish but also Muslim. Samir offers me the best room in the hotel. It is facing the road so I refuse politely. It doesn't have to be the best room; it just needs to be quiet. He asks about my program. I say: "If you take good care of me I will stay as long as you tell me to." They change the bed sheets and towels in the room I picked. It gets a thorough cleaning. In the mean time we are deep in conversation and it is 1 in the morning before we realize. I excuse myself and retire. Disappointment. The pressure tank right below my room switches on and off and that keeps me awake. Why can't I just sleep like everyone else does?

Baharia is an oasis, like other areas of the desert where cities are built. Oases are formed when the water carried by the porous sandstone under the desert sand accumulates in a relatively hollow area as impermeable soil layer underneath prevents leakage to lower layers. They can be amazingly productive areas. So much that you feel like you are in a rain forest as you enter the thick -generally- date palm forest. And the soil surrounding the oasis makes up rich agricultural land.


A spot in the Baharia Oasis

The next day they let me get some of my stuff done and then take me on a "test drive" for the "Desert Safari" which will start the following day. I intend to go on the 2-day safari in the desert with my own car and another Land Cruiser driven by an experienced driver. Doing it alone is out of the question due to the weight of my car as well as my tires which are not suitable for the terrain. The total distance is approximately 350 km and even though part of it (about 1/3rd) is asphalt paved, it includes dunes as well. And they are not the kind of dune you'd get on for fun; they are the kind you have to drive through since they are on the route you have to complete…


It takes a long time to find the end of and drive through dunes like this one

Test drive showed that if I go with my own car the 2-day trip may very well become a 12-day one instead. In the test drive part of which I drove the car myself, I saw that wide tires and an empty vehicle were essential, and I had to push the car seriously. Samir's car will be used in the safari. Vahid is the designated driver.

There are tricks to driving a car in the desert. First you need to know the desert really well. There is no such thing as a road and every driver follows a route of their own. These routes intersect at some key points but other than that they are completely unique. Each driver determines certain bearings and -in my opinion- mostly uses his instincts to establish a route. All of a sudden you find yourself driving in the middle of the desert. No mountains, no hills, no signs, nothing. You say, probably we are lost and the guy is acting as if we aren't. Then, poof, you come across a point where few tire tracks intersect.

Driving on the sand dunes require a different kind of skill. Especially among the dunes there are soft sediments where a lot of sand is accumulated. Everyone tries to avoid them. I assume it would be very difficult to get out of. On dunes they drive the car in 2H position with maximum engine rotation, I think, so that it would increase rotation further and avoid skidding. The car goes up to 70-80 km speed at 2nd gear. Changing gears must be done quickly. Any delay in changing gears will lead to the car losing its momentum and sinking in the sand. In order to do this, the transmission gear is pushed to its design limits. At every gear change the gearbox gets pounded and feels like it's just about to snap away. I wouldn't do this to my car. Even if I did, because of the tire and weight problem I wouldn't have a chance.

We left at 9:00 in the morning. In these safari trips you don't need to take anything with you except personal belongings. Normally there is an English speaking guide besides the driver but since they told me the driver speaks some English I didn't request a guide. They bring everything: Food, drinks, camping equipment (tent, mat, sleeping bag, spare blankets, cleaning materials, marquee, etc.). The itinerary includes White Desert (-s because there are two of them) and Black Desert, Crystal Mountain, Magic Spring and the Mummies.

White Desert is where people usually spend the night, and I think it is the best choice.


It is hard to believe that one can see such color contrast in nature

The entire trip is very interesting. There is no place in this safari program that makes you say "it would have been ok to skip this one". Magic Spring is a legend I think. Even though Mustafa swears it, I am not convinced: Apparently this spring normally has no water but when someone approaches the spring, water in the little pool by the springhead begins to rise and then flow from the trough! They took me to two springs of this kind and both of them were flowing because there were people near them. Naturally I could not observe them when they weren't flowing. There is an area called the Flower Stones, where you can easily spend hours.

Western Desert is an entirely tectonic area. In the "flower stones" area there are millions of tiny black stones like a rain of bullets stuck on the white stone sand mix over the limestone base, after I think a volcanic eruption. The bits of stones popped like popcorn, not lumpy but rather pointy, I think until they cooled down and solidified. There are incredible shapes from small cones of a conifer to think long strips...


Sunset in the White Desert

We set up our camp after watching the sun set behind the limestone rock formations of the White Desert which resembled our Fairy Chimneys. While we ate a delicious meal and grilled chicken prepared by Vahid under the bright moonlight even though it was still 2 days until full moon, the scenery was truely breathtaking.


Our camp under the moonlight and Vahid by the barbecue fire.

I slept in my sleeping bag outside, instead of in the tent. I am glad I did. As the fat sleep angels began sitting on my eyelids I did not really want to fall asleep.

I want to share with you another interesting event from that night. Vahid was preparing our dinner and I called Buket from my satellite phone. I noticed an animal approach while we were on the phone. It was a little bigger than a cat, had oversized erect ears, with a tail that was large and not very furry. It approached me till there were 5 -6 meters between us, it was a desert fox. Sniffed the ground for a while as it watched me. In the meantime I was reporting live to Buket. I tried to approach without scaring it. Didn't bolt but preferred to move away some. But shortly it returned. For some reason I thought it would come back to the smell of food, so I didn't reach my camera immediately. Unfortunately I didn't see it again that night. When I woke up in the morning I saw from the pawprints that it went all the way to our little dinner table.

We completed the tour the next day and returned to the hotel in the afternoon. For the last leg of the tour, Vahid asked casually if I wanted to see the mummies as well. I am not sure why he was so casual about it, but I accepted. We drove for about 4-5km and reached a hillside where we saw 3 human mummies in a grave underneath a natural reef. The grave looked like it was carved and smoothed out by human effort. I was quite surprised to see that even though the skin and flesh (especially on the face) were already gone, some mummified parts of the body, arms, hands and certain parts of the legs were still intact, no one touched them. Or maybe they touched the parts they had to (as you know the face masks of the mummies are usually made of gold and are priceless) and they left the rest untouched out of respect (!) for their "historical value".


Mummies in the outdoor museum

It is written in the book I have that more than 100 Greek-Roman mummies were excavated near Baharia in 1996 and that the scientists considered this region to be the largest necropolis and predicted that there could be another 10,000 mummies buried in the area. However, if they leave these mummies around unprotected in a not so distant future there won't be anything but empty graves left.

Back from the safari, I was checking my e-mail on Samir's PC with Mustafa when a young man appeared at the door and asked "Ali?" I didn't understand first if he was a local or foreigner. He repeated, "Mr. Ali?" What the? I didn't think I was so well known around here that they would start calling me with my first name but who knows... "That's me". He said "I heard you are going to Sudan and looking for a travel buddy". Hmm? It is true that I will cross over to Sudan but although I thought about it I never said that I was looking for a travel buddy. I told him this as well. He apologized "Sorry, there must be a misunderstanding then" and was walking out when I said "but" followed by a "why not". "No" he replied, "I don't wish to disturb you. If you thought..." We invited him for tea to comfort him some. As a matter of fact, traveling from Aswan to Wadi Halfa (port of Sudan on Lake Nasir or Lake Aswan) on a ferry is not something I look forward to. It takes about 18 hours and if you can't find someone to talk to, for someone like me who hates boat trips, it is highly likely to turn into a nightmare. Chris and I decided that we would meet the next day before departure and travel together until Khartoum (capital of Sudan). This way, I wasn't going to have to share the 1st class cabin with a complete stranger.

I have to stop here. There is increased pressure for me to write less but more frequently. Maybe you think that these updates are done by scribbling down a few lines at a time each day but that's not the case. Anyhow, if there is something I missed out I will add later.

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