In the Footsteps of Pharoahs
On March 7th, thirty-two STI members and I embarked upon a cruise of a lifetime. This cruise was spectacular not just for its ports, which I’ll discuss in a minute, but also for the fact that we would touch upon three continents during our one-week sailing: Europe, Asia and Africa!
As we departed from beautiful Athens, Greece, we sailed overnight to our first port: Alexandria, Egypt. It was from there that each and every one of us would get to see the last remaining of the original Seven Wonders of the World: the Great Pyramid of Giza.
After a two-and-a-half-hour ride from Alexandria, during which our private guide gave us lots of interesting information, we arrived in the nation’s capital of Cairo. The Giza Plateau, on the west bank of the Nile River, is an amazing spectacle to behold! It comprises a total of nine pyramids plus the infamous Sphinx. We were able to go inside of one of the pyramids to see the burial chamber as well as take a short ride on a camel, if one so desired. To see and experience these ancient archaeological wonders with one’s own eyes was…. Nothing less than spectacular!
We were also fortunate enough to be able to visit the Egyptian National Museum with our guide. Inside were a multitude of treasures dating back thousands of years. Perhaps the most famous, however, is the burial mask of King Tutankhamun. The mask is made of solid gold and inlaid with semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli, obsidian and quartz. Another interesting area was the animal mummy room, filled with mummies of everything from cats to alligators to hawks.
After a brilliant day in Cairo and then in Alexandria, our ship continued on to Rhodes, Greece; Limassol, Cyprus; and Kusadasi, Turkey. All wonderful ports with interesting excursions varying from wine tasting to visiting the house of the Virgin Mary and ancient Ephesus. Definitely something for everyone!
To top it off, we had gorgeous weather every day, ranging from low- to high-70s and sunny. For most in our group, the overwhelming sentiment was that this cruise was by far the most interesting in terms of ports visited! So if Egypt, Turkey or Israel (*because of Covid-19, we weren’t able to enter Israel this year) are on your “must see” list of places to visit, consider our Eastern Mediterranean Three Continents cruise in November 2021. You definitely won’t regret it!