Just Back: Egypt Eternal: Ancient Treasures & New Wonders

Indagare founder Melissa Biggs Bradley reports on her recent visit to Egypt while hosting an Insider Journey.

Egypt has never disappointed travelers, past or present. It's one of those rare places where visitors today are as speechless as visitors were 100 years ago. The country offers a slam-dunk, life-altering experience that I liken to going on safari—and it always has. The beauty and awe are hard to convey in advance, yet they leave a truly indelible memory. As Mark Twain wrote when he was faced with the majestic and immortal Sphinx, you cannot but help be dwarfed and humbled by the history these monuments have weathered. “Of the nations whose birth it had witnessed, whose progress it had watched, whose annihilation it had noted; of the joy and sorrow, the life and death, the grandeur and decay, of five thousand slow revolving years,” Twain wrote in Innocents Abroad. More than a century and a half later, that is still true, and yet things continue to change and evolve in Egypt, too.

During a weeklong visit in March, while hosting a group of guests in partnership with Barron's Penta magazine, I toured Cairo and the Nile Valley between Luxor and Aswan. As has been the case during my last several visits, The Grand Egyptian Museum (known as the GEM) is still not officially open, though as of last year you can enter its main gallery to see the “Great Staircase of Kings,” which focuses on the pharaohs and gods of Ancient Egypt, as well as its sleek arcade of museum shops. More than a decade behind schedule, the museum’s opening has been delayed numerous times, and the rumors as to why range from unpaid bills to project mismanagement. On the other hand, despite the country’s economic hardship (the currency was devalued almost 40 percent in early March), I discovered a slew of charming new boutiques in Cairo (see our Egypt guide) and signs of major tourism investment. The Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria has finally reopened after an almost 20-year renovation. A new Waldorf Astoria debuted last year in Cairo's Heliopolis neighborhood, just minutes from the Cairo airport. The Four Seasons’ long-awaited resort in Luxor, with its Nile River view rooms, will open next year. This summer Oberoi is doing a full refresh of its wonderful Nile cruise ship, the Zahra, which we are taking over for a December Insider Journey. Oberoi is also launching smaller traditional river boats, dahabiyas, to join the swell of smaller luxury boats that are perfect for family take-overs. And the country’s only Relais & Chateaux boutique hotel, Al Moudira has added four beautiful villas to its tropical compound on the West Bank of the Nile, in Luxor.

It was a timing treat for our group, but adding to the economic distress, I found many of the sites comparatively empty on my most recent trip. Our guides said there were 85 percent fewer visitors than the same time last year. At some of my favorite temples like Edfu and Abu Simbel, we were almost alone in the grand halls. Since the trip was one of Indagare's Insider Journeys, we were able to arrange special visits such as an audience with Dr. Zahi Hawass at the feet of the Sphinx to hear about his latest discoveries; an after-hours visit to the Egyptian National Museum, so we could be alone with many of King Tut’s treasures; a private visit to the Valley of the Kings and Tut’s tomb as well as a tour of an active excavation site. Because despite all of the treasures that there are to see, two-thirds of all of the world’s known antiquities, many discoveries are still being made and with technology like DNA testing, MRI scans and AI, new findings and theories are emerging daily.

On the last night of the trip, our group went to the Old Cataract Hotel for drinks at its outdoor bar. I’d done it before, but looking out from our perch high on the rocks to a sunset river scene not much changed from the 1920s—like a lot of Egypt’s vistas, it never loses its magic. But it was the words from a few minutes’ prior that were echoing in my head. Before going to the hotel, I’d joined some of our guests in visiting a small village on the West Bank of the Nile. Most of its residents are of Nubian ancestry (Aswan was once part of Nubian territory), including the older man who hosted us at his house. Over tea he told us—in English and French—that he had taught himself five languages, using cassette tapes and books, and that he had also visited Mecca two times. Referring to his trips—once by boat, when he was “poor,” and once, later, by plane, when he was “…not poor”—and with both a boat and a plane painted onto the walls of his house, to remind him of his Hajj undertaken in different parts of his life, he told us, “Us Nubians are not rich, because we work a little and we enjoy a lot.” He continued, “Why stress? You have one life, so you should enjoy it.” It made me smile, in gratitude, to be reminded once again of the verities of life, by a man I’d just met but in a place I’d visited before. It was travel past and present, coming together, as it often does. Especially in a place like Egypt.