I went on a trip to Cairo to (ostentatiously :P ) take training for people in Egypt centre of Oracle. The trip was eventful and I had quite a few memorable moments.
My friend Hemachandran was already working in Cairo and we had wonderful time together with his friends.
I have uploaded the Cairo pics at http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/vv340/muthu_raja/cairo/
We visited Pyramids in Cairo. So at last I have visited a world wonder. It looks amazing from the outside. Just check out the pics where I have climbed on the pyramid. Each stone is as tall as me and it weighs in tonnes. I really wondered how they managed to take it up for that height with just bare hands.
We went inside the pyramids too. It looks like caves. It's suffocating on the inside because there's very less oxygen. We weren't allowed to take photos inside though. Also nothing noteworthy was there inside.
We also visited a mall called city stars. It was a mammoth mall with lots and lots of shops. It was so uncrowded and pleasing to be.
We also visited a market for gift articles in a place called Khan El Khalili. There were lots of beautiful paintings made in ancient paper called Papyrus, which is made out of papyrus tree and banana tree. I bought few articles like glass pyramids, alabaster stone (it was translucent) and a wall hanging.
From our apartment we had a beautiful view of the Nile River. The Cairo tower (tallest in Cairo) and Cairo Opera House were monuments that we went past daily.
Alexandria pics are at http://s697.photobucket.com/albums/vv340/muthu_raja/alexandria/
We went to a beach city called Alexandria another weekend. Alexandria is a beautiful city and the second largest city. It got its name because Alexander the great captured it. It's 250 kms from Cairo in the northern part of Egypt along the Mediterranean Sea. It used to be the capital of ancient Egypt. It has many ancient architecture like Fort, Palace, Library, etc. One of my trainees and resident of Alexandria, Nabil accompanied us. He had studied at Collège Saint Marc, an important educational institution in Alexandria.
I have uploaded photos taken in the fort (morning photos), library (big, modern building) and palace (evening photos).
The view of the ocean from fort and palace was breath taking. It was so blue and pure. Fisherman fishing along the shore side and the waves trying to engulf them was a pretty sight. The fort looked majestic and had an Egyptian flag atop it. It closely resembles Indian flag except that it has an eagle pic in the middle instead of chakra.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library of Alexandria) was built from 1995 to 2001. It looked massive. Its outer side has a slant with lots of windows on the rooftops. It is designed such that the windows resemble eyes and the window shields resemble eyebrows. Inside there were quite a few old printing presses and stuffs used in ancient times. They had 2 museums inside the library itself containing photos of old Egypt and artwork. The library had inscriptions in all languages on the outer wall. Even Tamil characters were there. Look out for them. Some of the floors of that library were under the sea level.
We visited the palace in the evening. It was chill and the breeze was awesome. The evening sun played out vivid colours on the ocean front. There were lot more places in Alex but we had less time. So we left with our hearts wanting for more.
Here are some exotic photos : http://flickr.com/photos/muthuraja/